ANI­KA GUMBS-SAN­DI­FORD

Don't take the elec­torate for grant­ed!

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist, Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath is warn­ing that the sen­ti­ment of dis­ap­point­ment is grip­ping sec­tors of the coun­try and that po­lit­i­cal lead­ers must de­liv­er on peo­ple's ex­pec­ta­tions.While the two main po­lit­i­cal par­ties which make up the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship-The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and the Con­gress of The Peo­ple (COP) are faced with in­ter­nal wran­glings and chal­lenges to lead­er­ship, the elec­torate is look­ing on in dis­may. And, as Ra­goonath puts it, they are pre­pared to rebel.

While in­fight­ing shows that pol­i­tics is alive, Ra­goonath said, "The feel­ing of dis­ap­point­ment is all around re­gard­ing all po­lit­i­cal par­ties. Frankly, the po­lit­i­cal par­ties are in dis­ar­ray; they can­not de­liv­er what the peo­ple ex­pect­ed. "It is im­por­tant that po­lit­i­cal par­ties are forced to take in­to con­sid­er­a­tion the views of the cit­i­zen­ry. Peo­ple are no longer re­main­ing docile and al­low­ing the po­lit­i­cal par­ties to do as they feel. The rank and file are sit­ting and wait­ing for the lead­er­ship to act. If not, the elec­torate is pre­pared to rebel."

In­di­cat­ing ac­tion needs to be forth­com­ing to quell the lev­el of un­cer­tain­ty plagu­ing T&T, Ra­goonath said bro­ken promis­es nev­er send a good mes­sage."The lead­er­ship of po­lit­i­cal par­ties can­not take peo­ple for grant­ed. If a promise is made, you have to try and keep that promise. We are evolv­ing in a realm where democ­ra­cy is be­com­ing more ev­i­dent. Po­lit­i­cal lead­ers who are of the view that they can still op­er­ate in the old par­a­digm may be very well in for a rude awak­en­ing. "This is ev­i­dent in the Con­gress of The Peo­ple where a mem­ber of par­ty has open­ly de­clared his in­ten­tion to chal­lenge the lead­er­ship."

PNM's bad im­age

Mean­while, Ra­goonath said the can­cel­la­tion of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's (PNM) an­nu­al con­ven­tion did not send a good mes­sage for the par­ty's im­age."Why was the con­ven­tion pushed back un­til March? Is it that the leader has failed to get who he want­ed?" he asked."The prob­lem fac­ing Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley is that he is faced with a sit­u­a­tion where he has to seek out who he can trust and this can be chal­leng­ing," Ra­goonath said.On the is­sue of lead­er­ship strug­gles, Ra­goonath said no leader was pre­pared to sit back and be de­throned with­out a fight.

Ryan: In­fight­ing­will con­tin­ue

Not minc­ing words, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst, Dr Sel­wyn Ryan said in­fight­ing among po­lit­i­cal par­ties will con­tin­ue."If you are re­al­is­tic, one had to an­tic­i­pate what is un­fold­ing. Peo­ple were hope­ful for change but the re­al­i­ty of pol­i­tics is quite dif­fer­ent. In a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety with a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tem you can­not have a gov­ern­ment with­out pol­i­tics."While peo­ple as­sumed that all would be tran­quil and peace­ful and love would pre­vail, the re­al­i­ty in the po­lit­i­cal world is that does not hap­pen."

Ryan said the un­fold­ing events were sim­i­lar to the post Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion pe­ri­od be­tween 1986/1987. "There are chal­lenges and there are re­spons­es to chal­lenges; we should ex­pect more of the same, hope­ful­ly, con­duct­ed with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty."

Ram­per­sad:Noth­ing wrong with in­ter­nal ten­sions

Ex­press­ing a bit of a dif­fer­ent view, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist, Dr In­di­ra Ram­per­sad said in­ter­nal ten­sions should not be viewed in a neg­a­tive light or un­der­es­ti­mat­ed."There are al­ways in­ter­nal ten­sions with­in po­lit­i­cal par­ties. I do not know if it is true or not if there is rift with­in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship. Any mem­ber could chal­lenge the lead­er­ship of a par­ty. It has been done in the PNM, COP and UNC. It does not mean dis­sent. It sim­ply means there are oth­er as­pi­rants to the throne."

Ad­mit­ting that it is ev­i­dent there are some is­sues that need to be ad­dressed, Ram­per­sad said such cir­cum­stances were ex­pect­ed."The for­mu­la changed with the PP. The COP tast­ed pow­er which they did not ex­pect to do. It is a mi­nor­i­ty par­ty com­ing in­to its own and get­ting in­to gov­ern­ment; It was very un­ex­pect­ed. "That pow­er dri­ve is al­ways there, not just for the COP but all po­lit­i­cal par­ties. They are all find­ing their space and ob­vi­ous­ly there is go­ing to be prob­lems, but the fact is the mi­nor­i­ty par­ty has nowhere to go."