By Raffique Shah
August 15, 2026
I sense there is a calm before a storm, an uneven time when the population sets out to look for someone who would lead them out of the marshland through which we have navigated the last 40 to 60 years.
Joseph de Maistre, conservative and philosopher, is quoted as saying: in democracy people get the leaders they deserve. If he got anything right in his lifetime, it would be that statement. I think back on the people we have had lead this country, those who would have made significant contributions towards our socio-economical outlook.
My daughter Leila stated emphatically: we have had no good leaders in this country. She is young, so I would forgive her for that. She and her brother came about post the struggles of the ’60s and ’70s, and like so many others from their time, they would have enjoyed a more fruitful and productive Trinidad and Tobago. The education was free and the number of schools and institutes would have quadrupled by the time they were ready to be educated. When they were ready for jobs, the discrimination we faced was all but completely gone and jobs were plenty because the oil and gas sectors were still doing pretty well. So, it is safe to say their lives were better than those of the generations before; and it is even safer to say this current generation enjoys an even better quality of life than my children did.
I responded to her by saying: making a statement like that would include men like Dr Williams and Arthur NR Robinson who many may argue were among the greatest leaders Trinidad ever had. Then she dropped the next line: yeah, but you also had the 1970 Mutiny and the 1990 attempted coup, both of which happened under their governance. Sounds to me, dad, like there were a whole lot of disgruntled people during their tenures.
How do you explain to these generations that 1970 occurred because while the British left us, finally, to oversee and manage our own resources, after they took as much as they could, their rule wasn’t quite over because you had governments strategically outfitted with stooges of the monarchy? Colonialism, at that time, was alive and well and being wielded by our very own against us. It was the preferred tool to keep us in “order” and “in check”. Back then the bullies were of our colour and hair textures, and many of them revelled in our sufferings.
Khafra Kambon, in an Express article by Kimberly Wallace in 2020, was quoted as saying: “People with my skin colour couldn’t get certain jobs. If you walked into the bank—which you had to do often—you wouldn’t see anyone who was dark-skinned working there, and if you did, it would be the doorman. There was another time when I had to go to McEnearney to see a salesman and when I went upstairs, I thought I was in another country—the staff was all white.”
So, you see, the British might have left, but the stain and stench of their rule remained long enough for the people of this country to say, “Enough is enough!” We deserved the high-paying jobs just as much as they did because we were educating ourselves to be placed in those positions. Dr Williams was undoubtedly a man of considerable intellect, but we must bear in mind he came seemingly out of nowhere when he emerged as leader of his newly formed People’s National Movement. That party had as its top-to-middle leadership people with sound secondary education, albeit colonial teaching. Although privately they wanted to see the white people leave, many of the nationals were so steeped in colonial mindset that they were saying one thing, but practising another—almost a case of business as usual.
In 1955 Dr Williams’ returned with his Oxford University education, a tradition that saw people of his stature as educators of the masses. When men like he, CLR James and others similarly intelligent spoke, you listened. You never challenged them. Dr Williams is known to have walked out of lectures when he disagreed with the lecturers and the intelligentsia present. CLR was even worse; he would talk for the stipulated time, look at his watch and in the middle of answering a question, pack his bag and walk out. Most might call those actions rude, but both men, in their own rights, would have actually earned that contempt.
Why have I gone back to the turn of the 20th century to talk about leadership in Trinidad in the 21st century? It is because I see a dearth of good leadership all around, not just in politics, but in every aspect of life. People seem more comfortable with being managed, not led. Do I think we’ve had good leaders? You’ll just have to wait for my next column to find out.