Is Trinidad and Tobago Beyond Race Based Politics?

October 26, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

Yesterday, Selwyn Ryan wrote, 'The UDeCOTT election: round 1' - and within it he wrote something that should be apparent to anyone who isn't in Parliament:

...Mr Imbert brags that the central issue in the Inquiry will not be UDeCOTT, but the cartelisation of the local construction industry, the nature of the Opposition, and much else. He boasted that "the election will be about who is fit to run the country, which is the best party to run the country, who has the moral authority to run the country, and who is best equipped to serve the people of the country". The problem, however, is that none of the parties, including the PNM, is seen as having any abundance of these qualities...

Exactly. But the next sentence is disturbing:

...Mr Panday is also correct when he notes that corruption, on its own, does not decide elections in Trinidad: Race does...

I don't know that Basdeo Panday actually said that race wins elections, and it's a little disturbing to consider that it could be true... and that it could be considered true enough for a politician to say. Was it true? Of course it was. Lets just say that when it comes to race in politics, Trinidad and Tobago has a colourful past. We all know it. There are people who will talk bad about a political party, but when it comes to election day people are likely to vote with their raw prejudice.

There seems to be a hope that the lesser of two evils looks like the individual voting. But is it still true? As I have mentioned in conversation with a few people, Panday's political base has been dieing - and I'm sure if you give him a chance, he'll find a way to blame COP for it just as he blamed COP for splitting the vote in the last election. He, of course, never publicly acknowledged that the UNC-A lost those votes because they didn't earn them.

In fact, all of the aging political nightmares that Trinidad and Tobago has conjured are losing the political base that they had when they were younger - people die. People change their minds. People get better options, or look for them. People vote for self-interest. But what of the younger generations? Do they follow the lead of their parents, voting on race alone?

If COP support is an indicator, they don't follow their parents. Sure, they didn't win a seat - but they did cast a wide net on Election Day because something about COP was appealing. It wasn't Winston Dookeran's charismatic speeches. What was it? 

It was an attempt to change things. One could hope that part of that change would be moving beyond the previously unquestioned prejudices within politics and addressing what the younger generations perceive as important. It doesn't happen all at once - it happens slowly, gradually and inevitably. The generations that have learned to walk under the these banners seem to see through the contrived politics and stick to the issues. The core.

In my hopes for Trinidad and Tobago, I see a future where the PNM and UNC-A become less than relevant because they represent that past where race based politics was continued to assure power. Whether intentional or not, the PNM and UNC-A are smeared with race-based politics. Whether deserved or not, whether debated or not, we all know that it's true. The next generation of these political strains are blinded by the same entitlement their parents worked so hard to give them. False entitlement, more than likely.

When it comes to the polls, a democracy is only as good as its options - and if these options are decided by race, it demonstrates how poor politics in Trinidad and Tobago has remained. I, for one, think it is time to change that... and would like to see more political parties that marginalize race based politics while using the common bond of issues that connect people in society... rather than disconnect them.

It's a hope.

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