Express - November 26, 2000
By Raffique Shah
IF at the end of the day — and it seems almost inevitable now — Winston “Gypsy” Peters and Bill Chaitan are disqualified as bona fide candidates for the December 11 election, then blame for this unprecedented election debacle would lie squarely at the feet of two men: UNC political leader Basdeo Panday and the party's self-imposed millstone, Jack Warner. Because it will be revealed at some time, more than likely after the party loses the election and it is torn apart by internal dogfights, that the UNC's screening committee had nothing to do with the selection of these two, except to endorse the will of the leader. In other words, Gypsy and Chaitan were imposed on the party through machinations at the highest level, with party groups and members having no say in the selection process.
In this land of limited memories, one needs to remind people of things that happened only yesterday. Not long before the UNC named its candidates, the party had screened three persons for the Ortoire-Mayaro constituency, one of whom was Occah Seapaul. Seapaul, speaking on a radio programme, said that while she had heard Gypsy's name mentioned as a candidate, she knew of only three prospective candidates who had been screened, and that Gypsy was not among them.
In Pointe-a-Pierre, it was not until about two months ago that it dawned on the population that the controversial Dhanraj “The Sheriff” Singh was about to be ditched by the Prime Minister. At the time, UNC members there were gearing to campaign for Singh, and when word filtered that he might not be the man favoured by the PM, a petition that was said to have been signed by 10,000 electors calling for Dhanraj, was submitted to the party. Panday put paid to Singh's ambition (and the will of the constituents) by announcing that he had reported certain matters to the police and he had relieved Singh of his ministerial portfolio.
By the time the UNC got around to naming candidates—and it must be noted that this was done in piecemeal fashion—Gypsy was assigned to Ortoire-Mayaro almost like the proverbial “thief in the night”. The others who had been screened made no objections, prostrating themselves before The Maximum Leader, reciting the unwritten mantra,”The will of the leader is the will of people, hence the will of God.” I should point out that I am not remotely suggesting that Gypsy was a bad choice: au contraire, besides what I know about the man personally, I respect him as one of the finest calypsonians in the country, a gentleman, and clearly he's committed to his country, his dual citizenship notwithstanding.
But what were the first words he uttered when he was presented as the candidate: “Ah bet plenty of allyuh ‘ent know that Jack Warner and I have been friends for more than 15 years!” (or words to that effect). If it can be said that a picture tells a thousand words, in this instance it was a case of a few words telling a thousand stories. The translation was simple: Jack Warner asked me to run for the UNC, and I agreed. Fast forward now: Roy Augustus is named to replace Reynold Baldeosingh in Arouca, and his first response is: “I told Jack (about replacing Baldeosingh) to give me 15 hours and if they didn't find a more suitable candidate, I would run” (or something like that).
In Chaitan's case, when his name first surfaced, even UNC people were asking: “Who he?” And that because most other people in the area did not know him. They couldn't, since the man had lived much of his life in Canada, so much so that it turned out that he was a Canadian citizen. People had to be informed that he was born in Phoenix Park (I guess only the fifty-plus age group there will remember him) where he was schooled and what were his achievements. In a flash “The Sheriff” was replaced by this foreigner and not a damn UNC dog in Pointe-a-Pierre or anywhere else dared to bark.
I have been warning party activists about this blind loyalty for some time now. Panday is the ultimate Maximum Leader. Fortunately for the country, he is the last of that lot and hopefully his exit from politics, which is sure to come when the party is booted from office, will open the way for new leaders who will learn the hard way that the day of the party dictator has forever gone. But I digress. I am on to the fiasco involving Gypsy and Chaitan. It is certain now that they won't take up their seats in Parliament, whatever the outcome of the election. However, things are likely to move faster than that, and the UNC could find itself two seats down long before the polls open.
That would be the biggest self-inflicted wound any political party in the world has had to face in an election. And who were the persons responsible for it? Panday and Warner. Warner, who knows nothing about politics and even less about the laws of the country, has been given the task of securing candidates for the UNC. Well, he has done a fine job in ensuring that the party loses the election. Because besides his gross ignorance of our laws in the Gypsy and Chaitan case (his statements regarding their eligibility to run for office) he is an even bigger liability on the platform than the tasteless and humourless “Daphne and Keith” advertisement.
The UNC has found itself in a right mess at the 11th hour in the election campaign. I cannot see the party recovering to win what, up until a few weeks ago, was seen as a close race. Now, it's a case of just how badly it will lose. And why. At today's convention, if the UNC faithful are looking for scapegoats for this dramatic turnaround in fortunes, they should look no further than the head table. There they will see the culprits who have cheated them of two seats and who have brought the curtain down on a one-act play that had immense potential, but which fell flat because of the ineptitude of its directors and principal actors.
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Copyright © Raffique Shah
