Neither fish nor fowl, Mr Mottley's alliance

March 20, 2002
By Bukka Rennie

Two new political parties have surfaced. Not surprisingly, given the climate of uncertainty that has arisen in the present arrangement of things.

There is a certain level of anxiety as the populace awaits the next move from either side of the two major contending forces. A battle royale is expected by some come April 9 when Parliament constitutionally has to be convened.

Given the recalcitrance one senses in the political positions advanced by the present Opposition, electing of a Speaker of the House will bring nothing short of thunder and brimstone. How the Government will react to this is, at this point, mere conjecture.

The Opposition will not compromise on its demand for a new election, of this one can be sure, and neither will the Government bend on it's decision that there will be no new election until the electoral list is cleaned up and the enquiry into the affairs of the Elections and Boundaries Commission is completed.

An approximate deadline for this has been announced as April 2003, but even that is not fast enough for the Opposition, hence its prattle about "illegitimacy". Nevertheless, what everyone knows for sure is there will be an election soon enough.

And immediately new parties surface.

But how serious can these new parties and their leaderships be?

Is a party, by nature, a mere declaration? Can people just simply call friends and acquaintances together, select a name, and declare themselves to be "National this, that or the other" or "Democratic that?"

There was an Enoch John on the last occasion who swore his organisation will be contesting all the seats and victory was guaranteed. When the bell rang the result was zilch, and John faded into thin air like a bubble, just as all delusions are destined to end.

Today, it is a Mr Alvarez of the Democratic Party of T&T. This time at least besides the magic word "Democratic" in the title, there are pictures of a few people standing behind him.

One of the persons standing behind appears to be someone we know as "The Rabbi". If indeed it is "The Rabbi", then may God help Mr Alvarez.

A party represents, stands for and defends the legitimate "specific interests" of a particular social group or groupings. The legitimacy of interests emanates from the process that is history.

There are two major parties in T&T ­ the PNM and the UNC. Check the history of these two parties and the point becomes abundantly clear. The PNM represented a merging of the interests of the working-class movements of the '30s and the '40s with that of the middle-class professionals and civil servants.

Not surprisingly, the merging of these interests were first best expressed ideologically and organisationally by "teachers", who formed the core of the body that spearheaded the emergence of the PNM in 1956.

They were informed most of all by the regional (ie Caribbean-wide) anti-colonialist consciousness of the advanced sections of the working-class movement, and the Third World Pan-African/Asian solidarity of the intellectuals of the non-aligned nations that coalesced at Bandung in 1955.

The UNC, which is a furtherance of the efforts of the DLP, always has had as its core the economic, political and religious interests of the rural sections of the working-class movement, which later were to merge with the interests of the professional and commercial classes that grew out of the same social milieu.

Its historic demand continues even today to be the task of internationalising its local communal vision and requirement. This country stands awaiting its view of the world.

Sometimes you hear people say there is no "room" on the political landscape for any other entity. If that is true, it can only be so because the political landscape is yet to change. It is the objective interests of people where they live and where they work that first changes, and then are reflected in new political positions and formations.

So where does Mr Mottley and his alliance stand according to the historic configuration of this landscape?

Simply put, they are neither fish nor fowl.