There is a wonderful lobby underway for a televised Election Debate in T&T involving the candidates applying to become our next Prime Minister. In my view, I don't think T&T is ready for it at this time, and realistically, I don't think there is enough time to organise a proper debate. However, I wish to propose a solution.
Election debates are meant to help voters learn more about the candidates and the policies they stand for, hopefully leading to an informed voting decision. It requires candidates to be practiced in defending their policies, track records and promises in a manner that none of them have been subjected to in T&T so far. Not even by the media. Parliamentary 'debate' is not good practice because members, lately, read out lengthy contributions from pre-written scripts (which is actually against the rules, but no-one seems to care). No MP knows how to give a proper response to very challenging questions in under three minutes - just read any of the Q&A articles published in the Sunday newspapers. If any of the candidates go into a proper election debate with only Parliament as practice, they would be woefully unprepared to respond quickly and cogently to statements made by their competitors. Result: the debate would collapse into a glorified platform for unhelpful rhetoric and voters would mistakenly conclude that all our candidates are incapable of running a country (when really they're only incapable of handling or communicating effectively during a debate).
None of the local politicians would willingly attend an election event that highlights their incompetence. Only a foolish candidate would think that their ability to spout rhetoric that wins applause from their most fanatic supporters is qualification enough for a proper debate on issues. So any expectation of T&T having an electoral debate before 24 May 2010 is unrealistic, in my opinion.
The T&T media isn't ready either, since apart from helping a voter to decide the debate must 'make good television'. An unskilled debate moderator won't help, nor will unflattering camera positions, cut-aways and sets. The media will need to develop skills in how to negotiate the terms for conducting such a debate with political parties, need help in designing a proper set, need IT help to build tools to track voting response and engage with the electorate. The current political programmes which only feature guests from a single party would not help a prospective moderator learn to manage the potential fire-pit of an open debate between competing politicians.
So, rather than jump immediately into the frying pan by hosting what may be a poor election debate this year, I think T&T's media should implement a solution that helps to build their personnel's and our politicians' skills in preparation for a debate at the next general election (in 2015, if the next government doesn't collapse beforehand).
The UK's BBC has been running such a programme for the last 30 years, called Question Time. This year, the UK has also had its first election debates - one involving prospective Chancellors of the Exchequer (Finance Ministers), and three involving the main Party Leaders vying to be Prime Minister. These debates have successfully grabbed the attention of the UK electorate, but it is the long practice of Question Time - and the weekly Prime Minister's Questions in the UK Parliament - which helped make it so.
After 2-3 years of running this programme weekly, T&T's TV stations would know how to setup and run a meaningful debate, and the political parties would have a pool of prospective candidates skilled in the art of debating. Most importantly, voters would be able to get more information on the issues than all of the post-Cabinet press conferences or campaign meetings have ever given. Bet your bottom dollar, that programme would become an important forum for any future Prime Minister to cut her/his teeth on. It may also lead to an improvement in how politicians act in Parliament.
In short, while election debates would be an admirable addition to our politics, and help change our culture from one of pure rhetoric to dealing with issues, T&T needs to walk before it can run. It is not as easy to host or participate in as the US Presidential Debates seem to be. The political parties and media houses involved took months to agree on the 76 (seventy-six!) rules for conducting the UK's election debates, and politicians need a lot of coaching to prepare for them. It is completely unrealistic to expect the T&T's political parties and media houses to negotiate and agree a reasonable contract for such an important event and build the resources to host it in two weeks.
However, we can use Question Time as a model for proper debates in the years to come.
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[...] Why T&T cannot host a proper election debate in 2010 | KnowTnT.com (Beta) www.knowtnt.com/node/150 – view page – cached There is a wonderful lobby underway for a televised Election Debate in T&T involving the candidates applying to become our next Prime Minister. In my view, I don't think T&T is ready for it at this time, and realistically, I don't think there is enough time to organise a proper debate. However, I wish to propose a solution. Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['knowtnt'] = {"location":"Trinidad and Tobago","photo":"http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/721436715/knowtntscreenie_normal.png","name":"KnowTnT","url":"http://twitter.com/knowtnt","nick":"knowtnt","description":"The continuous unauthorized biography of Trinidad and Tobago. Bloggers from T&T welcome. ","influence":""}; knowtnt: “Why T&T cannot host a proper election debate in 2010 http://tinyurl.com/2djkx37 by Edmund Gall ” 22 minutes ago view tweet retweet Filter tweets [...]
Solid idea.
Of course, the likelihood of it being implemented is directly proportional to a change in the way politics is viewed in T&T. In that, T&T really isn't too different from other democracies... however, I think we have two teabagging sections instead of just one. Or is it teabagger? :-)
Follow-up articles
Link to the documents underlying the proposal that's being made for PM Debates this year: http://www.woofiles.com/dls-48822-YDS99z0u.html
Facebook page for the lobby: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trinidad-and-Tobago-Prime-Ministerial-Deba...
Newsday (28 Apr 2010):http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,119789.html
Trinidad Guardian (28 Apr 2010):http://guardian.co.tt/news/politics/2010/04/28/i-have-nothing-gain
- Prime Minister declines invitation to Prime Ministerial Debate.
Mr Manning will never agree to a debate. Why?
He has a very low level of intelligence but know all too well how to mamaguy his supporters.
He has no vision, ideas or knowledge on how to solve the country problems and create unity.
He doesn’t mind being thought of as a fool instead of opening his mouth and erasing all doubt.
He don’t want to be the one to eat his words, I don’t think anyone can stomach that.
He is really a scared no teeth dog which is all bark and no bite.
He will be judge by a well educated audience, something which he is not accustomed speaking too.
He is so power hungry that he risk losing the leadership, for he will make a fool of himself on the podium.
There is a lot more but it hurts me to know he was our Prime Minister. What a disgrace.