The People's Partnership (PP) celebrated its first anniversary in government in grand style on the night of May 24. It was a significant milestone that deserved to be celebrated as it showed the naysayers that the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led coalition of the willing had the staying power and resolve to hold on to government. Many had predicted that the parties of disparate interests and factions that made up the coalition lacked the ideological cohesiveness to hold on to power for more than six months. They were proven wrong. The anniversary celebration was advertised in the mass media but not to the extent that it could be interpreted as political triumphalism of the coalition over the defeated People's National Move- ment (PNM). It is understandable as the PP strategists view the cleavages within the Opposition PNM as an opportunity to make inroads into the party's dwindling support base.
The PP strategists no doubt are aware that the May 2010 general election did not see a significant enough movement or erosion of the PNM political support. Instead, the PP won office by attracting new voters and consoli- dating its own disenchanted support base. After the shine of newness of governance wears off and the unreasonable expectation of over-night change, it is unclear if these voters will be willing to return to the polls to once again vote for the PP. For these voters it was important that the PP reaffirms its adherence to the principles on which the separate parties mobilised their respective supporters. Word among the PP faithful on the anniversary date was that you had to be there early as there was anticipation that the crowd would be overwhelming and traffic would create an impassable bottle neck. This proved to be exactly what unfolded that celebratory night.
People began arriving at the Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas, venue in their hundreds from as early as 5 pm. Walking among the crowd later as the afternoon progressed, it was obvious that not all in attendance were supporters of the PP Government. A supporter sharing self-financed flyers promoting the various achievements of the PP Government was met with mixed reaction. The faithful responded positively, wanting more of the flyers, while there were those who were asking if this was all they were getting as they expected jobs and not paper. The "party in power" draws its membership from all socio-economic groups and they came out to identify and be seen by the leadership to ensure that their attempts to secure a job or contract in future would be enhanced.
While the crowd was building, some Members of Parliament were in a nearby Chinese restaurant which served as a meeting place. The MPs took this as an opportunity to reflect on the past year, the successes and failures. At about the scheduled start time, the MPs slowly made their way across to the main stage where they remain seated for the rest of the evening. The celebrations began with the usual entertainment to get the crowd in the mood. One observer noted that with the exception of Nigel Rojas of Orange Sky, the performers of the electoral campaign were absent from the entertainment stage. Nowhere to be found were Crazy or M'Ba, among others. Percy Villafana, however, was most present. The man who inspired the "Do So" campaign slogan was to be found initially in the VIP tent and then later on the main stage itself.
The PP recognised that this east-west corridor pensioner, when he refused then Prime Minister Patrick Manning entry to his premises, had inspired a nation and contributed significantly to the electoral victory in a symbolic way with which thousands identified. When the main event began following the entertainment, the crowd was estimated at some 25,000 strong. The crowd grew larger as people eventually escaped from the traffic into Cha-guanas and to the Mid Centre Mall venue. The speakers represented the leadership of the PP coalition. They celebrated despite a year of growing pains as they each found their respective political space in this new arrangement. The coalition held tough. Each leader from the component political partner used the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to the Persad-Bissessar-led coalition.
They had shown by example the advantages of a coalition government: that the Government was more consensus-based; resulting policies broadly approved of; that the Government had a better representation of the electorate's wishes, and a better policy of scrutiny of policy detail. The Kamla PP Government is further strengthened by the split now highlighted in the PNM opposition. The Patrick Manning walk from Port-of-Spain to San Fernando demonstrates to the population the "tabanca" that loss of power can cause. It could even leave a well established par-ty like the PNM in a state of division.
Louis Lee Sing, mayor of Port-of-Spain, expressed the view that Manning is leading his few followers to the sanatorium while Manning's son hit back by saying Lee Sing should resign as mayor, that Lee Sing was virtually created by Manning, who lost the radio licence case to the Maha Sabha after giving Lee Sing a licence ahead of us. Our application was ahead of Lee Sing's.
Satnarayan Maharaj is the
secretary general of the
Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha