And in my view, the fourth such event takes place Monday, which would mean that two of these events were the result of the governing party going to the polls before the end of their term.
That also happened in 2001, when Panday, after being exposed in corruption by Ramesh Maharaj, called an election within one year of being re-elected after his “significant” 1995 victory.
But Panday won the 2001 election, only to have it snatched away in the final ploy of a continuing betrayal and counter-betrayal game he had been playing with ANR Robinson.
A “significant election” must be one in which the government is changed due to the Will of the electorate, and I believe that this will happen tomorrow, even as my deadline for submitting this column was last Thursday.
And I believe that the only thing which might prevent a change of government tomorrow is if Manning invented some sort of National Security scare or event and postponed the poll.
But let us set Monday’s event in perspective with previous elections which I consider significant.
In 1956, Dr. Eric Williams and his newly formed People’s National Movement swept away the POPPG, the Butlerites, and the DLP, all loosely organized political groupings, rather than formal political parties.
I remember that September night, sitting with my father and my uncle, listening on the radio to the results coming in. When Ulric Lee beat Albert Gomes in Port of Spain (South, I think?), my Dad said he believed that Williams would sweep the polls “If an unknown like Lee can beat Gomes, The PNM will be the new government.”
And so it was, to the fear and chagrin of White Trinidad, the Catholic Church and the Guardian.
Under Williams, the PNM would never lose a national election (the “exception” was the Federal Election of 1958).
In 1986, with George Chambers as the selected Prime Minister following Williams’ death, and with the PNM racked with corruption and incompetence over mega-projects (does this sound familiar?), the people voted in the National Alliance for Reconstruction, sweeping the PNM 33 seats to 3.
However, the new NAR government was doomed by the crash in oil prices, the orgy of PNM squandermania and corruption (the likes of which had never been seen, but which were surpassed twice since then, by Panday 1995-2001 and Manning 2002-May 24th 2010) and the fact that Chambers had asked the World Bank to come in and rescue the country.
The NAR was conveniently blamed for the World Bank “conditionalities” which the PNM had requested. What finally sunk the NAR was the Muslimeen’s attempted, and failed coup, which had the sympathy, and probably the complicity of Manning, Panday and Ramesh Maharaj.
But this is another story, which will be fully exposed in the coming Commission of Inquiry into the events of July 1990.
Manning and the PNM returned to power in the 1991 election. But he went on to sabotage his first term in office when he placed his Speaker under House Arrest and then called a snap election, which he lost.
He would later (May 2010) claim that the loss was the result of someone “leaking” the election date to the UNC! We now know that he had already begun forsaking the advice of his psychiatrist for that of his Obeah Woman.
That brought us to the third Significant Election which ended with 17 seats each for PNM and UNC, and two for Robinson in Tobago. As we now know, Robinson swapped his two seats for the President’s office (Remember, that when the UNC nominated Robinson for President, the PNM nominated a sitting Judge for the office? Just keeping current events in perspective, folks).
That government, which was to see an astonishingly bitter relationship between Prime Minister and President, collapsed in another orgy of corruption, and Manning was eventually selected as prime minister in December 2001.
He continued the corruption, but added unbelievable incompetence and arrogance to the mix—poor T&T! Which all brings us to Monday, folks.
Why is this election being held? What is it about Patrick Manning that compels him to call elections when he is at his weakest?
The answers are at best elusive. His first reason; that he needed to “hide” from the vote of no confidence was reasonably plausible, even though cowardly. But then he superseded that with his preposterous story about sitting alone last October 9th and “circling dates” in his diary to call a surprise election.
Do you really believe that?
Those of you who do can go on Monday and vote for a man who chooses the date of his political demise in such a mysterious manner.
Peter's columns also appear in NEWSDAY
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