Change or Perish

Cry The Beloved country by T G. Mendes

Where else in the civilised world has a minority of descendants of the African slave trade, with the passive connivance of their Colonial masters, sought for personal profit and interest to oppress fellow descendants of slavery, Indian indenture ship and those of the other races persuaded by those same ex-Colonial masters to migrate to T&T?

Without Colonial connivance how else has the PNM retained political office for 40+ years since Eric Williams persuaded a majority of the descendants of slavery into supporting the PNM and himself since 1956? As Colonial master, if Britain was not Williams’ accomplice from inception in ‘56 to Independence in ‘62, why did it turn a blind eye while, for political expedience, Williams resorted to blatant and public racism via demonization of the white entrepreneurial minority as descendants of an “exploitative French Creole Plantocracy” and dismissal of the Indian majority as a “recalcitrant and hostile minority”? When, via rowdy ghetto supporters, he silenced all but the PNM message in public meetings prior to the General Election of ‘56, where were the colonial police? Was Williams’ blatant discrimination against all but Negros in T&T any less offensive and oppressive, if less bloody to its victims, than Hitler’s Nazi attitude against those he dismissed, conquered and persecuted as Germany’s inferiors? Why did Britain challenge Hitler’s dictatorship in Europe only to ignore a dictator in his or her own Colonial “back yard”?

The politics of race

Was British complicity not obvious when in pre-independence discussions Britain supported Williams against opposition demands that the British “First Past the Post” electoral system be replaced by a system of “Proportional Representation” as more equitable in an unsophisticated and multi-racial, independent T&T? Has that example of active British complicity not been responsible for the PNM’s retention of power until the General Election of ‘86 and its subsequent return under the inherited and encouraged two-party political system, based upon the politics of race? Given the catalogue of political corruption, deliberate social and discriminatory geographic neglect, forgotten promises and the convenient blanket of secrecy under which the taxpayer has and continues to be corruptly de-frauded or similarly “shortchanged” by the PNM since 1956, along complacent and suffering T&T is either to be congratulated - or condemned - according to individual perspective. What T&T has so far peacefully endured is a direct consequence of the political system foisted upon it by Williams’ retention, with British complicity, of that very unsuitable system of “First Past the Post”. As social and political events continue to unfold worldwide, is it perhaps not the time for its electorate to reassess that process of peaceful acceptance of political corruption, lack of accountability and oppression - all from inception, hallmarks of PNM political dictatorship? e.g. “When I talk, not a dam dog bark”! When a vibrant oil economy permitted significant crumbs to fall from political tables, a less than discerning electorate was in the majority, too concerned with “gimme gimme” and the trappings of wealth to protest either corruption or the secrecy under which it was perpetrated at their expense by the political directorate. Which member of the electorate was then ever concerned enough to question how and why Eric Williams’ favorite daughter was reputed to have been the “wealthiest woman of color in the world”?

Destruction of the national work ethic

No one then rejected Williams’ destruction of the national work ethic via his bombastic declaration that “Massa day done” or damage to the national value system by his equally bombastic delusion “Money is no problem.” Both those deceptions have, however, returned with a vengeance to punish a once too complacent, gullible and, as a result, a now impoverished T&T! With the significant reduction in world oil prices, the quality of life has significantly deteriorated. Today, crumbs off the political table have become smaller and scarcer even for a better-educated and more concerned electorate. This is the moreso for descendants of PNM supporters to whose parents much was promised but little delivered! That element is now cynical over yet unfulfilled promises of social and economic upliftment for which their forefathers voted PNM. They are today more aware than most of the hollow promises with which Williams deluded their forebears. Trapped by Williams’ politics of race, however, they still resolutely refuse to publicly acknowledge those PNM political deceptions. While the above still profess themselves “PNM till them dead” and still vote race, their seething anger is misdirected at more affluent and successful elements of their own and the wider society. Unfortunately, for all concerned, the successful in society has, as a result, become almost helpless targets for their misdirected anger at past political deceptions. T&T as a result of that misdirected anger and resentment has become a gang-ridden, violently inclined murder capital with 1.3m potential victims - the sterling efforts of CoP Griffith notwithstanding!

A one-way trip to national disaster

Unless and until, therefore, the two party system and tribal politics are both urgently replaced, my beloved homeland is on a one-way trip to national disaster. It is only a matter of time before seething social discontent is joined by deluded and discontented youth in refocussing their seething discontent against the political establishment, which has so blatantly deceived and failed them! Only national patriots and influential stakeholders, however, may yet evade disaster. Only they are still capable of demanding and ensuring now vitally necessary Constitutional change. Improvement can begin only with the replacement of the inherited and inadequate First Past the Post electoral system with one of effective Proportional Representation. Only thus may genuine patriots be once more attracted into the political gayelle with any realistic prospect of success. Only thus may T&T survive intact its overlong scourge of the politics of race and the two-party system under which it has been punished and exploited by the PNM since 1956!