Archives for January 2013

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Elections were held on Monday 21st January, 2013, and the People’s National Movement (PNM) won all twelve seats, eliminating the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) as a political force in the island state of the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Back in the May 2010 general elections, the Tobago people voted for TOP and voted out the PNM. Now 2 ½ years later, the people have gone back to the PNM.

Why did they do that? What changed so much that they went back to the PNM, and not just went back, but went back in droves, winning every seat?

My opinion is that nothing changed.

The Peoples Partnership (PP), was a coalition party made up of the five political parties – the United National Congress (UNC), the Congress of the People (COP), the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and the TOP; the MSJ later left the coalition due to irreconcilable differences. The majority member is the UNC.

When the PP won the elections, they did so on a mantra of change, along with “we will rise”. However, after the PP took office, many soon realised that change meant a change in government, but not a change in operation. The corruption and the mal governance continued, as “misstep” after “misstep” was made.

In short, the only thing changed was the Government, nothing else did.

So nothing changed.

Tobago people saw this. The PP had two years to prove that they would change the way the country was governed, and they didn’t. So how could you lead the THA election campaign on change when you have proven that you cannot do it?

While people would insist that PNM won this election based on race and racial fears, I would strongly disagree. While I admit that there does exist a level of racial prejudice in the country, the majority of us have never let that get in our way and we’ve embraced our racial diversity. I’ve certainly never felt anything like that in Tobago, and I’ve driven all over there. Instead, we should be looking at the PP as they seem to be driving further divisiveness in the country, especially when Jack Warner opens his mouth with racial and religious statements.

Many are saying that this is a wake up call for the PP; it is, but I hardly expect a change in the way they do business. The corrupt culture is so engrained within their psyche that it will be impossible to remove. The only thing we can do is to vote them out in the 2015 elections. But vote for who? Is there really a better alternative.

Back in 2010 the people were ready for change, we accepted that it must happen. Tobago people wanted that too, that’s why they voted for the TOP. This time around they are back to the PNM. To them, it was best to stay with the Devil you know rather than the Devil you don’t.

And this, I believe, is the saddest part of it all – we do not have a feasible alternative for good governance – and it’s a poor reflection on us as a country.