By Stephen Kangal
December 14, 2007
In a crafty surgical strike designed to stem the upward political mobility of Winston Dookeran and political emergence of Anand Ramlogan, the master puppeteer has resurrected Ramesh from the proverbial political cemetery in which he interned him after the 18-18 tie, 2001 general elections. The predictably blind and politically naive of his declining UNC base supports this resuscitation even though he was stigmatised as the great betrayer.
Continue reading Unleashing Ramesh from The Panday Box
The people of Trinidad and Tobago are witnessing a decline of our civilization which no amount of money can reverse if we do not recognize the sovereignty of our people and that the goal of democracy consists in the sanctity of life, the preservation of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To be sure, the pursuit of happiness cannot be reduced to a mere license to do whatever one wants to do at any time one chooses to do it. It consists in conscious and thoughtful acts that enhance our human personality and advance our humanity. It goes without saying that the affirmation of life and the pursuit of happiness cannot be achieved in a climate of lawlessness and the inability of citizens to feel a sense of safety in their homes and in their communities.
After undertaking one year of extensive mobilisation against the ingrained forces of political tribalism and maximum leadership styles both of which are deeply embedded in and have determined the contours of T&T politics for the past 52 years, the COP has now achieved 50% of its stated mission on the road to introducing caring, enlightened, issues-based and people-centred and driven politics in T&T under a style of new politics.
In the rest of the civilised world politics is the art of the possible and of compromise. In T&T it degenerated in 2007 into a fine art of naked UNC deception that caused some 190,000 unsuspecting people to be so manipulated that they bought into it with their rustic innocence and hero worship of a badly scarred leader.
Now that Patrick Manning and the PNM have convincingly won the 2007 general elections, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues need to lace their work boots, adjust their coveralls, and get back to work without even a pause for refreshment or celebration. There is no honeymoon after a third marriage. Manning must have sensed a PNM victory well before elections day-as sober observers did-those who were not carried away by highly inflated crowd numbers, especially the paid-for versions. So now, as George Chambers said after his 1981 victory: fete done, it’s back to work.