The dampness of this Saturday morning reflects my somber mood as I pen this column. Why? Because, as you read, we await the tolling of the 6pm bell, that marks the start of the count to declare an election result which sadly, will serve only the party better able to appeal to its respective tribe to exercise franchise in the interest of party while lulled into a delusion that it’s in personal and country best interest.
It has been a Covid marred election campaign, with the imperatives of virus containment guiding a campaign unlike what we are accustomed too. Even traditional Pollsters have downed tools, too many “unpollable” variables. Many armchair pollsters and party faithfuls are convinced of a PNM victory and as many of a UNC victory. One party will be declared winner, unless Watson Duke upsets the apple cart, and even then, I lament, we the people, will again be the losers.
With age comes wisdom, but wisdom brings weariness. Weariness of hearing the same promises over and over followed by no accountability for non-delivery. When will we get tired enough to completely reject this? When will the people collectively say, no constitutional reform, no vote, no government? The maxim “the more things change the more they stay the same” is an apt description of Trini politics and electioneering, change in form but alas not in substance.
If you have been cursed with critical thinking, you know, the choice isn’t as simple as “better he/she that look like me than he/she that looks like him/her”. Note, I said critical thinker, not educated or professional, because there are many of the last two as blindly loyal to red or yellow as are the colour worshipping foot soldiers.
Critical thinkers find it unacceptable that in 2020, 57 years after independence, white masters have merely been exchanged for “same coloured” masters. Critical thinkers reject the following: candidates being hand-picked based on loyalty to leader with scant regard to constitution or the will of constituents, calls for candidate or leadership debates of issues met with self- righteous indignation and downright refusal; manifestos filled with unmet past promises while in office, once again offered as novel solutions; the gutter adds on which millions have been spent to appeal to fear and race. I am ashamed that this is my generation’s bequeath to our children.
I hold the media complicit. Not only does politics trump good economics in T&T, but profit trumps objective media responsibility. Media houses were locked down by paid political mind- washing rather than investigative analyses to better educate voters to objective informed decision making. Even the nightly news compromised for the dollar. No one asking, who financing the costly media brainwash? Party finance reform? Good campaigning lyrics to appeal to the intellectual undecided, but once in office, silence. Flagrant flouting of EBC’s campaign budget ceiling by the very law makers of the land, soon to spill onto many things governance, evidenced by years of questionable appropriation of taxpayers money, for which again, no one is held to account save for the election face-off on who thief less.
This is not a moment of excited expectation for me. I am jaded by the hopelessness of tribal politics which has translated into an impoverished nation state, despite the billions of oil and gas dollars that flowed. Too many examples of transformation agendas ignored in office. I have been “belling the economic diversification cat” (attempting an impossibly difficult task that if achieved, will benefit the entire community) for over 20 years, yet, campaign 2020 offering diversification as a solution yet to be implemented.
My heart bleeds for the youth of this nation, for the absence of sustainable opportunities for their future. Medical and sport tourism, creative industries, technology based agriculture, should be booming industries by now, instead only continuous budget and election rhetoric. What about 2020 and the next government that will be different? For public consumption, leaders say, “we welcome those with the competence to contribute to nation building,” but when the dust settles, it’s the loyalist, friends and family “square pegs in round holes” placed in positions of power, not to build a sustainable nation but to pluck the plum reward for loyalty.
The weather must be the cause of my gloominess at the time of writing. Maybe, by the end of today, I too will feel the optimism of the victor’s speech. I am sure it will be inspiring of better times to come, of people empowerment and opportunity for all, regardless of the symbol under stained fingers. And so, I end on a note of optimism, willing a new better dawn into existence.