By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 26, 2025
When we achieved national independence on August 31, 1962, Dr Eric Williams became the FATHER OF OUR NATION. When Kamla Persad-Bissessar is elected tomorrow she will become the MOTHER OF OUR NATION. It will be a necessary corrective act: after all, we cannot have a father of a nation without having a MOTHER OF OUR NATION.
In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx observed: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please. They do so under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” In other words, all political actors are the products of their historical and political past.
T&T’s political evolution in the 20th century supports this proposition. Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani, one of our earliest political leaders, was of Corsican origin. The “Champion of the Barefoot Man”, he fought for an eight-hour work day, a minimum wage, and an old-age pension. The Old-Age Pension Act was passed on July 1, 1939. It was his greatest achievement.
It’s sacrilegious to contemplate that the former Leader or Our Grief and his protege should try to eliminate one of the most important pieces of legislation of the 20th century.
Cipriani was followed by Grenada-born Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler, who together with Adrian Cola Rienzi fought to better the conditions of working people. In 1937 both African and Indian people rioted to improve their working conditions. The oilfield workers were supported by sugar cane field workers from Tacarigua, Dinsley, Cane Farm, El Dorado and Five Rivers (just to name the workers from my community) who struck in solidarity with them.
Dr Williams entered the political arena in 1956, continuing the work that Cipriani, Butler and Rienzi had done. He strove mightily to assist his people to reclaim a sense of dignity and pride, deepen our democracy, educate the population, and improve ethnic relations. He proclaimed: “Massa Day Done; Sahib Day Done,” to signal the end of colonialism.
Dr Williams was correct in his assessment. Many in the present government did not embrace his declaration, which is why the nation will say tomorrow: “PNM DAY DONE: THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN IS THE NEW ORDER OF THE DAY.”
Kamla Persad-Bissessar has the responsibility to create a more just and moral society where interracial harmony reigns; the poor and working people are lifted up; and justice and harmony prevail. She has an opportunity to reduce the space between the rich and the poor; the privileged and the underclass; and to persuade the rich (we can call them “the one percenters”) to take their social responsibility to the rest of the society more seriously.
The leaders of the PNM chant Williams’ mantra glibly: “We are not an ordinary party in a narrow sense of the word. We are rather a rally, convention or all and for all a mobilisation of all those forces in the communities, cutting across race, religion, class and colour with emphasis on united action by all the people in a common sense.”
Williams articulated this formulation as the groundwork upon which to build our society. It was the necessary precondition to take us forward to this day when another leader of sophistication and poise would arise to institute the following message: “Our fate is to become one, and yet many—This is not prophecy, but description.” (Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man.)
Persad-Bissessar is uniquely qualified to take us to this next stage of development. She is an Indo-Trinbagonian and a woman. She understands that her supreme task is to fulfil the words of our national anthem: “Here every creed and race find an equal place.”
As a woman she displays an empathy, love and nurturing that most men do not possess. She says: “You have had other leaders before me; you will have other leaders after me; but you will never have a leader that loves you more than I do.” I hope this message guides her during her term in office.
The Squatter PM may be a decent young man. However, Prof Ramesh Deosaran described him best when he said: “He carries a heavy burden, too many ghosts from the past, the main one being the repeated failures in crime and national security.” (Newsday, April 20.)
Given these limitations our Squatter PM cannot take us into a new sphere of social existence. Neither his academic nor political education has prepared him for such a role. The country needs someone who has the political, and social experience to do so.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is ideally suited for this moment in our history. Her experience matters. A vote for the UNC is the necessary precondition for this new phase of our development. It may be Kamla’s God-given destiny.