It was amusing in the aftermath of the Brexit vote that more than a few people who immediately began to draw comparisons to the West Indies Federation, completely missed the point of both situations. While the Federation was thrust upon the Caribbean countries by a monarchy struggling to keep its remaining empire intact, the European Union was a by-product of an allied victory in World War II, and was a consolidated effort to rebuild both the economy and public confidence, as part of their continued resistance of both Nazi and communist forces.
While there are similarities between the Jamaican pullout from the Federation that led to its almost immediate dissolution, and the more recent Brexit vote in the UK, that is not the most significant comparison to be drawn from a local perspective, despite what certain "experts" may have you believe.
Quite surprisingly, it was the Americans who actually first started piecing it together, something that is hardly ever said with confidence, when they discovered the correlation between the campaigns of both the Brexit camp and their Republican front-runner, Donald Trump.
It wasn't that difficult mind you, since both the British media, and even Trump himself, started declaring that the Brexit vote will help "Make Britain great again," but in a nutshell, that was the hope of those who voted for it.
While we can all joke about how the referendum was simply an illustration of the UK flipping Europe the bird, the fact remains that despite all of the forewarning of economic crisis and disaster, there were far fewer people determined to make the responsible choice in this matter, and the reason for that should be obvious. But it apparently isn't, especially here in T&T, where we did the exact same thing only nine months ago.
How does Brexit and Donald Trump relate to our general election result you ask? Well, all of them are the result of pent-up emotions that cause erratic behaviour that goes against better judgment. But T&T was the first to do it, so yay?
Just like the Americans are fed up of overly complicated bureaucracy and two-tongued politicians; and the pride of the British was being subdued by the nagging and regulations of the EU; so too were Trinbagonians tired of the perceived arrogance and overbearance of the People's Partnership government.
And I tacked on "perceived" on the last point only because my own interactions with the PP administration was different to those of other people, so I would not have had the same experience that I have heard many complain about.
For the second time in this missive I am going to dispute the findings of "experts," as despite the more popular explanation for their fall from grace centres around the numerous allegations of misbehaviour while in office, in only nine months, the current PNM administration appear to be more corrupt than their predecessor. But, while the pundits suggest that their impunity is derived from a combination of their novelty as well as their popularity and support, I suggest that you instead focus on the issues that served to blemish their image, and momentarily turned their support against them, you will find that these are born out of the same high-handed contemptuousness that people once blamed the PP for demonstrating.
Less pressing issues such as the lack of representation being demonstrated by their MPs to the remarks of their former Mayor of Port-of-Spain, their resistance to address matters such as abortions and their general attitude towards the media have all been highlighted and resonates negatively with their supporters, but the allegations of ineptitude, mismanagement, nepotism, favouritism and corruption have been allowed to slide. While many people have already determined that the PNM is allowed to get away with such incidents as a result of party loyalty therefore, I posit these findings for further consideration.
While the UNC was courting democratic image consultants to brand Kamla similar to Obama (see they even rhyme), the PNM apparently stole from their playbook and turned Dr Keith Rowley into Donald Trump. Both of them are considered plain-talkers who appeal to the masses and neither of them propose any real solutions to the problems facing their respective countries.
Dr Rowley even ripped off "Make USA great again." As a result, if anyone wanted to know how Donald would act as President of the USA, they need only look to Dr Rowley's shenanigans at public events post-election. What does it mean for our nation that objective predictions for both Brexit and Donald Trump's election indicate turmoil and tragedy for both those respective countries however, will soon be seen. Unlike Donald Trump and the Brexit camp however, Dr Rowley never promised to "Make T&T great again," so maybe that is an indication.
Ravi Maharaj