Someone noted recently that this space has apparently chosen to “studiously” avoid the pre-elections goings-on that have so strongly captured public attention over recent weeks.
Believe me, this was deliberated but never intended to
diminish the significance of what is before us at this time. It is just that I
think we need to acknowledge the high cost of bacchanal.
Anyway, there has been a notice of resignation by the Prime
Minister, the awkwardly transacted (however statutorily correct) assigning of a
successor, muted convulsions, and a cognitive dissonance not routinely
witnessed outside the hushed corridors and chambers of the ruling party.
The latter observation is not at all unprecedented. There
were notable episodes over the years including late PM Dr Eric Williams’ 1973
threat to resign; the presidential appointment of PM George Chambers in 1981
when Dr Williams passed; more than one episode involving Prime Minister Dr
Keith Rowley and late PM Patrick Manning, and Dr Rowley’s dramatic election as
political leader of the PNM in 2010. There are more instances that could have
been mentioned here.
Suffice it to say there have been equally, if not more,
tantalising developments within the Opposition UNC from the very start in 1989
and characterised since then by defections and re-absorptions, alignments and
re-alignments; brittle institutional arrangements, splintering (cue the launch
of Hulsie Bhaggan’s MUP in 1995); Ramesh Lawrence-Maharaj’s Team Unity of 2001;
the defections of Gillian Lucky and Fuad Khan in 2005; the launch of the COP in
2006; the emergence of political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar following
internal elections in 2010, and numerous other episodes.
Satisfied? Much of this has been reflected upon right here
over the years. Additionally, there are very few current developments
disassociated from the political habits of these two organisations spanning
many years – the PNM being the more durable, stable, and set in its ways (the
transformative one-person-one-vote reform notwithstanding).
However, what I believe is truly important at this time is
the unfolding of political behaviour by an electorate that is ageing, besieged
by a multiplicity of challenges that have accompanied a modern era dominated by
new technologies and social media, people undergoing the pangs of changing
belief systems, and many captivated by a perception that the distribution of
real power and influence has shifted in new and different directions.
There are regularly quoted academics better known for
expression of personal preference and guesstimates who ought to be otherwise
busying themselves dissecting such matters and determining empirical bases for
some of their steadfast assertions. My media colleagues need to undertake far
more pointed interrogations of the numerous claims.
Fact-checkers often need to themselves be fact-checked. My
perennial gripe has been concerned with the degree to which elections related
shenanigans have displaced actual development concerns.
As a consequence, things such as the process to select
candidates appears to supersede, by a wide margin, questions regarding a clear
commitment to and agenda for securing the country’s future.
This is much more than shibboleths focused on “crime” and
“the economy” – as indispensable as they as flags for immediate concern.
Policing (cue a State of Emergency to strengthen this approach) is consequently
offered as a solution to the problem of “crime”, and views on “the economy”
conveniently aggregate overly loose and underdeveloped notions of
“diversification”.
Yes, there is a need to reduce incompetence and corruption
in the police service, and to consider future directions for the economy but
what, specifically and incisively explained, is on offer in 2025?
Can Elections 2025 offer pathways for decision-making by the
electorate that can take us away from what appears to be a terminally sorry
pass? What specifically is on offer to suggest this may or may not be the case?
Yeah. Yeah. Whosoever wins will deal with these things when
they return/get there. In the meantime, there remain concerns about
modernisation of both the private and public sectors (read digitalisation of
processes etc.); deeper integration of human rights as pillars of development
(note migrant rights, LGBT+ rights, reproductive rights; the rights of the
child); nutrition security; climate crisis measures; and enlightened human
resource development exploitative of the vast potential of our youth.
Some of this is already there in available literature. This
includes the far too easily trashed (and widely unread) Vision 2020 document,
published in 2005, and numerous other clinical examinations by others. But
mention this in the throes of political tumult and koochoor nuh and prepare
yourself for the bin with a party brand or some other label implanted on your
backside.
