Political parties perishing in stagnation
Copy article link
Save
Now that the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) defectors have recovered from the shock that the original attempt at the $325-per-head launch of their new political party buss, they boast of a name and are preparing for the second attempt at a launch imminently.
They will now become T&Ts 99th political party, setting the stage for their former deputy political leader, Kezel Jackson, to claim the prestigious 100th spot, depending upon public feedback regarding establishment of her own party. By pathetically failing in their first try, the defectors have once again exhibited their penchant for incompetence.
I hazard a guess that tiny T&Ts 1.4 million people, approximately 0.017 per cent of the worlds eight-billion population, can lay claim to the largest number of political parties on the planet, a total of 99, a mere two of which are consequential, 22 hanging around, and a whopping 75 having unceremoniously bitten the dust.
Inaugurated 67 years ago, the Peoples National Movement (PNM) has been the only political party to have stood the test of time. No other has ever contested all seats in every general, local government and Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election, has given the nation a chief minister, premier and prime minister, all embodied in one individual (an unbreakable record), two women speakers and presidents, nor possesses its own permanent headquarters, whose modern reconstruction is being childishly envied and maliciously criticised.
Traditionally, the PNMs main contenders have been the parties embraced predominantly by Indo-Trinidadians, previously acknowledged as the DLP, WFP, PDP, ULF and the UNC, or coalitioned in the ACDC/DLP, NAR and the Peoples Partnership.
The one unshakeable interest-in-common among the entire lot has consistently been to defeat the PNM. On the four occasions that this had happened, the victors had little or no clue what to do with their new-found status other than to have destabilised the country as the NAR did, raided the treasury as was the legacy of the Peoples Partnership, or to have shamelessly adopted the fundamentals of the PNMs 1956 Peoples Charter as remains the unflagging trajectory of the UNC.
Not to be outdone, the PNM, once the bastion of intellectualism, political enlightenment and the indefatigable protagonist of the movement toward Nationhood, is now bereft of any discernible philosophical underpinning. It has been allowed to descend into a rut from which it appears powerless to extricate itself, hammered into becoming a party dictated to by the Government rather than the other way around: the Government held accountable to the party for the successful discharge of the partys mandate, the manifesto adopted as the Governments National Policy Framework.
Clearly the PNM has become laid back, lacking the energy, innovativeness, dynamism and drive once the hallmarks of its might and power. Instead, it seems uncharacteristically beholden to a Government that relies almost exclusively on materialism for acceptability and relevance, repeatedly glorifying the delivery of each affordable amenity or facility, learning nothing from the THA 14/1 experience, nationhood be damned.
Side by side, the UNC wallows in disgrace as jesters, troublemakers and obstructionists rehearsing relentlessly to be perpetually in opposition, while the rest of the pack persist in mamaguying themselves and gallerying hopelessly in no mans land.
Disenchantment permeates the air; lamentations echo throughout the land. No longer is the question who is better?but, who is worse than whom?
It is not surprising, therefore, that the crescendo is building for a fresh intervention: the two having lost touch with the ground, squandered their legitimacy and succumbed to irrelevance. No wonder none can prescribe a genuine solution to the nations appalling spate of criminal activity.
As T&T burns, we eagerly await implementation of the Caricom Regional Crime Plan, inadequately informed as it is, devoid of the benefit of the most critical inputs: the collective wealth of wisdom, knowledge and experiences of the regions best poised mortals, the communities on the ground, mysteriously disregarded as they desperately search for a miracle, a glimmer of hope.
In aggressively campaigning for leadership positions in their hotly contested internal elections, candidates in both parties resolutely held out optimism for major paradigm shifts: fresh and vastly advanced dimensions of enlightened leadership. It has not happened.
The generational and socio-economic gaps have, accordingly, caught up with them, each having failed to specifically attract the intellectual prowess and optimise the outstanding intelligence of our young citizens: to engage them in imaginative nation-building, the visionary journey toward Nationhood, suffering them, instead, to perish at the hands of those whose only mission is to exploit them for nefarious ends.
Regrettably, stagnation seems to have befallen both the PNM and UNC leadership, leaving the nation suffocating, pleading for a breath of fresh air, an awe-inspiring intervention, innovative and disruptive changing of the guards. It behoves us to be committed to our revival, lest we all perish.
Author Roy Mitchell is a former special adviser and co-ordinator, National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC).
Facebook
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 2:00 am