AFTER NON-STOP partying practically from the start of the year, Trinidad and Tobago’s famous two-day Carnival, dubbed ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’, will culminate midnight Tuesday, signalling that ‘Mas’ has come to an end for yet another year, and ushering in the holy 40-day period of the Christian Lenten Season.
Tomorrow, when the early morning street celebrations of J’Ouvert begin, revellers in tattered clothes will parade through the streets of the cities, boroughs and towns, painted in a kaleidoscope of body paint or bathed in mud and grease.
This celebration is also called ‘Ole Mas’, and it gives ordinary folks a chance to express themselves through placards and banners on how they view life in the country in humorous form.
Again, we expect the politicians to be the brunt of ridicule by ‘Ole Mas’ revellers.
After the Carnival is over, revellers will revert to their normal lifestyles, but for the politicians in the twin-island state, the ‘Mas’ (short for masquerading) will continue for a longer time as a lot seems to be at stake on the battle for support from the masses.
In fact, all during the build-up to Carnival, politicians seem to have been giving stiff competition to calypsonians and soca artistes in delivering some of the most saucy lyrics during this bacchanal season.
Admittedly, the politics have gotten more interesting over the past two months or so, particularly from the camp of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), that formidable institution that has survived for more than five decades, and its opposition rivals, the United National Congress (UNC), which has metamorphosed from several dissolved political entities.
The third political force in the country, the Congress Of the People (COP), has been forced into a back-seat position as the spotlight holds firm on the two major parties in the country.
The biggest news on the political front was the earth-shattering removal of veteran politician, Basdeo Panday as leader of the UNC by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who trounced him by a 10-to-1when the results of the party’s internal elections were released.
Mr. Panday, who first entered Parliament in the mid-seventies, has however not gracefully accepted defeat, and one can certainly understand his consternation and disbelief, since, whether win, lose or draw at the general elections, he has managed to retain the solid love of his supporters, mainly drawn from the sugar-field workers, whom he also represented at a trade union level.
Shell-shocked over what he might deem the betrayal of his party, Mr. Panday has also not volunteered to hand over the position of Opposition Leader to Ms. Persad-Bissessar, but in sulking fashion, has challenged her to get the required majority signatures from elected UNC parliamentarians and take it to the President for a change at the parliamentary opposition office.
Some elected parliamentarians, including Mr. Panday’s daughter, Mikela, and his brother, Subhas, have also not thrown their support behind the new UNC leader, displaying an adolescent attitude and not the maturity and level-headed behaviour of graciously accepting the will of the party supporters who overwhelmingly voted for change.
Up to the time of writing, Ms. Persad-Bissessar only needed one more signature on a letter already drafted for President Max Richards to appoint her as Opposition Leader.
In a move that could only be interpreted as malicious and vindictive, Mr. Panday on Friday revoked the senatorial appointment of Lyndira Oudit, who was on Ms. Persad-Bissessar’s slate and won one of the three posts of deputy political leader. He also fired two workers — again public supporters of the new UNC leader — from the parliamentary opposition office.
Mr. Panday’s defeat has not come as a surprise to the country.
The writing was on the wall and was made more obvious in the 2007 general elections when the newly-formed COP, led by former Central Bank Governor, Winston Dookeran — estranged from the UNC — picked up over 148,000 votes although not winning a single seat as deemed under a Westminster system.
The COP’s vote, according to political analysts, comprised disenchanted supporters of the UNC and floating voters who are not aligned to any political parties. The UNC’s vote was 194,000, winning 15 seats. The PNM won 300,000 votes to win the majority 26 seats.
Mr. Panday was accused of being too comfortable in the opposition’s seat and devoid of passion and verve to get back into the reins of power, while all around him, jaded supporters were eager for their party to form the government. Mr. Panday also failed to attract or impress the new generation of voters — bright young professionals who took their support to the COP or remained non-aligned.
Loyal UNC members, however, knew that the only way the party stood a chance of getting into Government and winning back traditional and non-traditional support was changing the leadership from the banal and apathetic to someone fresh, original and exciting who can draw on mass appeal.
The fact that Ms. Persad-Bissessar is the first female to lead a political party in Trinidad and Tobago has added an air of appeal about and around her. She also created another first when she was appointed the country’s first female Attorney General under the prime ministership of Mr. Panday, during the UNC’s administration from 1995-2000.
Mr. Persad-Bissessar’s first big test, however, is moving the UNC from being seen as an Indo-Trinidadian party into a broader entity that is supported by all ethnic groups across the board, including Tobago, where it commands very little support.
Another acid test for the new UNC political leader will be the Local Government elections, expected to be called by September, and winning back regional corporations in UNC strongholds that surprisingly went to the PNM in the last local polls.
Meanwhile, the ruling party — sensing deep discontent among its own supporters over their extravagant spending and capricious behaviour by government ministers, and with imminent Local government polls, already postponed four times — has started constituency tours, meeting people and hearing their complaints.
If the government was not convinced that a particularly malevolent wind was blowing against them, the fact that calypsonians, long-time allies of the ruling party, are singing anti-PNM songs (some directed at Prime Minister Manning) should dispel any uncertainty of how the supporters were feeling about them.
Sports Minister Gary Hunt, who was the main target in at least two calypsos which the singers wickedly poked fun at his surname, daring listeners to mispronounce his name into an expletive, ended up, short of apologising but describing as a misstep the spending of TT$2 million (US$317,000) for the erection of a national flag — just to say it was the largest in the Caribbean.
It doesn’t seem, too, that the population is easily forgiving of the government for spending US$120 million to host the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year with nothing so far to show for it in tangible returns for the country. Or the US$40 million it cost to construct and furnish a palatial prime minister’s residence and diplomatic centre. Or the wild-west spending on buildings, and the award of multi-million dollar contracts to Chinese contractors.
After the licentious spending, the government, unashamedly, could only muster US$1 million towards help for Haiti, a figure matched by Guyana, a considerably poor country compared to the twin-island state, which l
ikes to boast about its oil and gas wealth.
It’s two years before the next general elections, but between now and whenever Mr. Manning decides that the nation should go to the polls, the twin-island state is going to be treated to sustained political fervor, and yes — ‘Ole Mas’ behaviour.