HAROLD Lasswell defined politics as ‘Who gets what when and how’. Max Weber once remarked, ‘Politics is a strong and slow boring of boards’. Idealists balk at this zero-sum approach to politics, but there is no denying the aforementioned sentiments reflect what obtains in reality. Realpolitik has it he who controls the state apparatus enjoys an advantage that compels those outside of the corridors of power to be more willing to compromise.

In 2001, Justice Claudette Singh vitiated the 1997 elections; President Bharrat Jagdeo declared it was business as usual; the PPP did not budge from power. The political opposition was forced to engage in protest action which was hijacked by rogue elements and political saboteurs who were sent by government agents. After much upheaval, this sordid episode in our nation’s history ended with the signing of the Saint Lucia Statement which was brokered by Caricom. This agreement formed the basis for the Herdmanston Accord. This agreement which brought peace came into being due to much political risk and sacrifice by the leader of the opposition, Desmond Hoyte. Evidence suggests that he faced serious backlash from his party and was even called a ‘sellout’ by his comrades who claimed that they had no clue he was even going to St. Lucia. Mr. Hoyte was well read, an ardent bibliophile, I am sure he considered that it would be folly to hold to steadfast positions to uproot the firmament of those who held the reigns over the state apparatus.
In 1992, using the Carter-Price formula, Cheddi Jagan submitted to then President, Desmond Hoyte, six names: David Yankana, Jules DeCambra, Brynmor (Bryn) Pollard, Rudy Collins, Joey King and Ronald Luckhoo. This list was definitely within the orbit of consensualism; it reflected the mindset of a thinking opposition leader who recognized the necessity of proposing names that can find favour with him and the President; it was an acceptance of the political reality that you will not win in a game of grandstanding with the state. In 1997, then Opposition Leader, Desmond Hoyte, provided a list of six names for selection as Chairman of GECOM. The six names were: Doodnauth Singh, Edward Hopkinson, Justice James Patterson, Rudolph Harper, Charles Liburd and Randolph Kirton. From this list of six, the then President found Doodnauth Singh not unacceptable. It has to be noted, putting Doodnauth Singh on the list was fraught with much political risk and sacrifice; the party’s leadership and rank and file were dead set against this candidate but the opposition leader accepted the advantage enjoyed by the custodians of the state apparatus and maybe this guided his decision. In 2001, Opposition Leader Hugh Desmond Hoyte submitted another list which consisted of Major General Joseph Singh, Justice Rudolph Harper, Dennis Craig, David Granger, Gem Fletcher and Harold Davis. Major General Joseph Singh was selected. In all of the cases mentioned, it lays bare the fundamental point being made here: those outside of power are always forced to blink first, you are not going pry the incumbent out their chair operating outside of power, only if you are willing to wage revolution.

In Simon Sebag Montefiore’s ‘The Court of the Red Tsar’, he describes how Joseph Stalin presents the indomitable case of the power of the state apparatus, it is instructive:
‘You think Kamenev may not confess?” Stalin asked Mironov
‘I don’t know’ replied Mironov
Stalin asked:
“Do you know how much our state weighs with all the factories, machines, the army with all the armaments and the navy?”
“Nobody can know that Joseph Vissarionovich; it is the realm of astronomical figures’ Mironov replied.
“Well, and can one man withstand the pressure of that astronomical weight?”