I invite the leadership and "on-the-ground" activists of the People's Partnership (PP) party to read the recently published booklet, Politics in the Indo-Trinidadian Constituencies, written by Lennox Sankersingh.
It will assist them to prevent the PP from disintegrating.?It tells us of the downfall of the charismatic stalwart and all-consuming politician Basdeo Panday. Sankersingh dares to go where wise men of East Indian origin will fear to thread. He tells us that Basdeo Panday and the UNC have been major instruments of underdevelopment in their representation of the Indo-Trinidadian population and Panday concentrated all his political efforts into maintaining autocratic control over the UNC and thus convince himself and his followers to see the enemy as only the PNM.
The enemy, argues Sanker-singh, is never seen as poverty or crime, or lack of meaningful participation in the UNC. The enemy is always the PNM and the PNM alone. He points out that Panday was never interested in building the UNC into a viable political party. All he was interested in was to use the UNC as a political vehicle to propel himself into the Prime Minister seat. He wanted at all times to be a maximum leader and thus did not make himself and the UNC accountable to the people who supported them. Panday erroneously believed that he alone founded the UNC and thus he was the sole owner of the UNC. He did this on the backs of the Indo-community which he rode for decades.
He instilled fear into their hearts–the PNM is their only enemy. Sankersingh writes:"To keep the UNC intact as a single cohesive political unit while at the same time devoid of almost all aspects of sustained and meaningful organisational and political development does require some keen political skills. "There are several clear and identifiable strategies that have been used by the leadership of the UNC in this regard. The first is the need to identify a common enemy and to continuously keep that common enemy as the principal focus of your membership and the electorate that you represent. In the case of the UNC, the common enemy is seen only as the PNM.?
"This shared apparent hate is one of the bonds that would keep your supporters together. In this regard, therefore, attacks are not directed only at the Executive arm of the State, but at all the institutions of the state apparatus which would tend to lower the esteem of the Government. "For example, it can be argued that the proliferation of crime in our society is seen by the UNC as an opportunity of their leadership to attack the Government. As such, very little is done by the UNC representatives to assist their people to ward off criminal activity in their constituencies. "The use of the mechanism of a common enemy or to encase your politics within a framework of?"we" versus "them" is perhaps the principal strategy of the UNC leadership. In this regard, the enemy is never seen as poverty, lack of meaningful participation, or an absence of an appropriate development framework with which your people can identify.
The enemy is always the PNM and nothing else. "As such, whenever any member seeks to question or raise any issue in the UNC which can be controversial, the immediate and sole response of the leadership is that you are supporting the PNM while no effort is made to deal with the issue raised. This has proved to be an effective mechanism to deal with dissent within the party. And of course, it is anathema to do anything which would appear to assist your enemy." This is a serious indictment against Basdeo Panday and the old UNC: that in order to demonstrate and maintain that the PNM is their enemy and thus not protecting the Indo-constituencies they (the UNC) did nothing to ward of criminal activity in their constituencies. They were willing to allow crime to run rampant so that the PNM would look bad.
I was one of the speakers at his book launch and I was constrained to point out that the UNC was in government for six years and it too failed to alleviate the activity of crime in the "Indo-constituencies," just as the PNM failed in the Afro-communities. I wanted to know why the Police Service, army and coast guard are lopsided in their memberships in favour of Africans: there are less than ten per cent East Indian membership in the armed forces in this country. It is my considered opinion that the Indo-community will always be in a precarious position until the armed forces are ethnically balanced in its membership.
Thus I took the opportunity to reveal that I had recently written the Police Service Commission on the issue of ethnic imbalance in the Police Service. I think that in this day and age every effort should be made to include citizens of East Indian origin in the Police Service in order to reflect that in this country every creed and race find an equal place. After all, the preamble to our Constitution states that all persons may, to the extent of their capacity, play some part in the institutions of national life and thus develop and maintain due respect for lawfully constituted authority. It also states that in this country there should be opportunity for advancement on the basis of recognition of merit, ability and integrity.
Sankersingh makes the point that people of East Indian descent whose ancestors came here 164 years ago, brought with them 5,000 years of civilisation with deep cultural norms and traditions of hard work, thrift and sacrifice. He argues that with these foundations, the citizens of East Indian origin, if given the opportunity, can contribute meaningfully in terms of national growth. What I would like to know is why after 165 years of our arrival in this country there is less than 10 per cent citizens of East Indian origin in the armed forces.
Israel B Khan SC
