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Trinidad Express
Irreducible minimum
January 02, 2002
By Denis Solomon
As the new year is supposed to be a time of hope, let's see what we have to hope for in politics.
The minimal optimistic position is that Trinbagonians are not racial voters at heart, but merely fall back on their traditional "parties" because there are no real ones to tempt them away from their old habits. In this view all that is needed is dialogue (not that anyone claims it will be achieved easily) and that once this dialogue results in power-sharing at the executive level, all else will follow in the fullness of time: effective parliamentary representation, efficient local government, rational policy formation, the death of maximum leadership, emergence of talented leaders at all levels.
Personally, I take leave to doubt this. Not that it is possible, but that we are on the brink of it. Where are the signs of emerging rationality in the population, much less in the political class, to back this view? It seems illogical to attribute an underlying will to reason in the mobs one sees on television drinking in the rabble-rousing, ignorance-exploiting tirades of Basdeo Panday, especially since they are there only because the UNC has in their minds no existence apart from Basdeo Panday.
The supposed PNM ethnic constituency is less easily defined. Nevertheless, as far as the leadership is concerned, the prospect of fruitful dialogue seems slim. The composition of Mr. Manning's government is in itself a rejection of compromise. His emphasis on the need for blessing everything in sight is no more hopeful, as evidence of his grasp of reality, than Colm Imbert's removal of the "dragon" from the Red House. It is also as much of a provocation to the UNC as the President's gratuitous reference to moral and spiritual values. It can easily be seen as an attempt to remove the malign influences left behind by a government that was not only non-Christian but whose leader, by his own account, slept with the Devil. And Glenda Morean's legal "reasons" for the PNM's right to govern are no more useful as solutions to a political problem than Kamla Persad-Bissessar's strident legalisms in favour of the UNC.
As for Tobago, I see the PNM's victory there not as the result of Manning's work in that island, as Maxie Cuffie would have it, but as the result of President Robinson, still the maximum leader of Tobago, having become, in Tobago's eyes, the spiritual leader of the PNM. A reluctance to leave Tobago in the cold was perhaps a more potent factor in Robinson's decision than "spiritual values", and if so the UNC has another reason to resent that choice.
Against this scepticism we must set the fact of the "three musketeers'" revolt against dictatorship and corruption in the UNC, despite the dubious qualifications of Ramesh Maharaj to protest against anything dictatorial or corrupt. The wipeout of Team Unity at the polls, however, was to my mind a deliberate rejection by the UNC constituency of a golden opportunity to demonstrate any underlying disenchantment with doctor politics they may have felt.
For want of a better suggestion, however, and in the New Year spirit of optimism, let us assume that constructive dialogue between the parties takes place. What must it produce? Obviously, appointment of a Speaker and convocation of Parliament, power-sharing at the executive level, EBC cleanup, and agreement on elections.
But is that enough? Let us examine the situation on the ground. The most important factor is the 18-18 tie. This has been waiting to happen since Independence. We have now reached the point where demographic reality has broken free of the constituency system. It has had the effect of heightening the other Constitutional shortcomings we had managed to ignore until this point. One was the appointment of Speakers from outside to disguise the impotence of Parliament. This was a disgrace in itself, and only worked because there had always been a government to impose its will in the matter. There is absolutely no reason why a proper Parliament, even with 50-50 balance of parties, should not be able to elect a Speaker to run its business.
Another shortcoming was the theoretical power-sharing between President and Prime Minister, which began to cause trouble once theory became reality. Robinson tried to rein in the (fully Constitutional) dictatorial tendencies of Panday over the Commission of Inquiry into the Judiciary, the dismissal of the Tobago Senators, and the appointment of general election losers to the Cabinet. The 18-18 tie has now brought this two-man-rat situation to its logical conclusion. In a fake compromise, one half of the executive is being asked to use powers it does not have to decide who the other half shall be.
However much we may fool ourselves with the "absolute discretion" section of the Constitution, conferring government as a prize for good behaviour was never part of the President's job. So any compromise between the parties must not only involve the sacrifice of advantage on both sides. It must also include commitment to minimum reforms which demonstrate that we have learned enough from history to avoid repeating it.
Of course the electoral lists must be cleaned up before elections are held. But a commitment to elections is not enough. It is obvious that Mr Panday's call for elections now, a mere two weeks after he opposed them, is based on the hope of winning office on the traditional ethnic basis. Mr. Manning's acceptance of elections is entirely consistent with his desire to remain in office as long as possible. He sees the EBC cleanup as a long-term operation, and is talking in terms of staying in office for three years.
So with the best will in the world one does not see a dialogue between these two including reforms that will rule out another 18-18 tie, or mitigate its effect if it happens. Nor does the population seem to have learned that anything other than an 18-18 tie will be the result of pure chance, and will take the country no further forward in terms of transcending doctor politics.
The population's willingness to transcend ethnic voting (and however sceptical we may be about its existence, I agree that we have no choice but to assume it) needs to be given a little jog. Whatever dialogue takes place must result in decisions that eliminate the possibility of future impasses, by decreeing a single executive. This executive could be separate from the legislature, but disciplined by it. Or else the first-past-the-post constituency system could be abolished. The first would mean that a 50-50 split in Parliament would not prevent a government from being formed. The executive would merely have to work harder to get its legislation passed. The second would mean election of country-wide party slates to one House of Parliament, the party with more of the popular vote to get more seats.
These are the essentials on which the population must exact agreement from the politicians. Everything else – size of Parliament, composition of the Senate, structure of local government, powers of Parliament in appointment of public officials–would follow.
Copyright © Denis Solomon