Losing the way - the Peter O'connor column

File: Kamla's first poster used for the UNC internal election

When the Peoples’ Partnership won the May 2010 election by default, I admit that I was pleased. I had been writing about the failures, incompetence and corruption of the PNM government for years. And for years before that I was critical of the charade of the Panday UNC government. And I was entirely justified in those criticisms.

Yes, I was pleased at the result two years ago, but I was not carried away with any delusions that T&T was going to be saved - saved from corrupt practices, from nepotism, cronyism, favouritism or from the gross “incompetencies” we have endured since Independence.

Let us be real: A political party had been changed, our culture had not.

And the culture of which I speak is not about Kaiso or Chutney. I am referring to our culture as expressed so eloquently in the past by the UNC government “We Turn Now”, and by the PNM as “Fix Me First”. 

We need to understand that notwithstanding how sincere any local political party may wish to be about transparency in government, the reality is, and clearly it is “enforceable”, that they must grant me - as a supporter - position, contracts and favours. And not for me alone, but for my family, friends, and any businesses in which I have an interest.

I honestly believe that Kamla would have liked to set her government on a course of transparency and efficiency. 

Maybe I am just a naïve romantic, but I think I would much rather leave, upon my passing, a genuine legacy of goodness and decency than of wealth. But Kamla could not set her government on that course. And this is not primarily a criticism of her, but of the conditions surrounding elected office in this land, in our culture, so we must be careful how we criticize ourselves. The “cop-out” (no pun intended!) expression is that it is “the system” which is at fault.

But, and the truth must be faced—we are the system, and therefore we cannot continue to take refuge under the leaking cloak of “system”, and confine our desire for real change (if indeed we even truly have that desire?) to hapless bleating and semi-comedic ranting on facebook. 

Indeed, as a public critic, who has paid dearly for criticism in the past, I am losing patience with the critics, as much as I have lost faith with the state of governance under the Peoples’ Partnership.

I believed that Kamla was sincere when she donned tall boots and went to start relief work on the drains left clogged by years of neglect. I believed that she was sincere when she gave her cabinet the Mantra: “Serve the People, Serve the People, Serve the People”. 

But, if this sincerity was there, it was doomed from the start. Well, before the “start” really. The very necessity of forming a “partnership” to contest the elections had set the participants in conflict with each other, even if the conflicts were temporarily smothered in the euphoria of victory. 

But the hurried—and that was not their fault—pulling together of the partnership naturally caused strains. We all know that had COP been given the three Diego Martin seats to fight, there would be no Rowley, no Imbert and no Amery in Parliament today.

I do know that after the election, Kamla was sincere in seeking the best people for the hundreds (thousands?) of “appointments” which had to be made. And in the aftermath of the Calder Hart-Michael Annisette hegemony of control of major financial and procurement institutions, she decided that any one person could only serve on one state board. 

I do know that many who were called declined to serve, for a plethora of reasons. In the face of these refusals, and when there were empty board rooms for months, water was poured into the brandy of competence, and jobs were shared among some who may not have been called had the best in the land stood up to serve. 

But “the best in the land” do not “serve” this country. They serve themselves just like the politicians do, and they serve themselves without appearing in the public glare of State Enterprises.

The major errors of Kamla’s administration are centered upon the choices she has made (has had foisted upon her?) in terms of cronyism. Deny these if you can: Reshmi, George III, Wattie, and Marlene.

The Partnership stands to fall apart, being torn mostly now by COP who, although rightly grieved in the Marlene issue, now need to either to get on with the job of governance, or get out. And the UNC needs to start behaving like the major party in a coalition, and stop jockeying for position for 2015.

If they cannot accept this, all will be in Opposition come 2015.