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The election results raise a lot of questions. Is the UNC now becoming a socialist, labour-based political party?
Basdeo Panday’s dream of a ruling working-class party, brewed from the oil and sugar industry, faltered. Our two major parties have been pragmatists, resting on anything that seems to work rather than be guided by a fixed, coherent, political philosophy.
So we have had an unruly mixture of raw capitalism and runaway social welfare transfers and subsidies – even squeezing the concept of a mixed economy. Will this pragmatism continue? Or with time, what would the political effects of the two labour representatives be in the UNC government, supported by two powerful labour interests – the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union and Public Services Association – and transforming the ethnic core?
Interests are changing. There is a lot more to talk about as our political landscape twists and turns. A party’s political philosophy does affect its policies on crime, education, the economy, industrial relations, external relations, etc.
Given the April 28 election results, the country seems fixed with a two-party system. UNC (334,874 votes) and PNM (220,160) together got 90 per cent of the 617,712 votes cast. The 15 small parties got the rest, with Mickela Panday’s Patriotic Front amassing 21,010, Farley Augustine’s Tobago People's Party (TPP) 13,857, Phillip Alexander’s Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) 9,379, Prakash Ramadhar’s Congress of the People (COP) 6,481 and Gary Griffith’s National Transformation Alliance (NTA) 5,932.
With the PNM losing nine seats and over 100,00 votes, could Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles and her team really build back the 69-year-old PNM in time for 2030?
As PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s UNC lavishly celebrates, there is much grief, tears and blaming within the PNM now.
One day before the April 28 general election, and having witnessed numerous elections here and abroad, I sympathetically wrote in this column: “After this information-loaded election campaign ends and the results declared, there will be joyous celebration for some, tears and grief for others with lots of complaining and blaming.” The UNC, led by flag-waving Persad-Bissessar, went into giddying “joyous celebrations” – a 26 -13 victory over the PNM. “When UNC wins, everybody wins,” became the UNC’s mobilising road march.
The PNM had beaten the UNC 22-19 in 2020. The (TPP), putting a nail in the coffin, now snatches both Tobago seats from the PNM. This came after the PNM had lost 14-1 in the 2021 THA elections. As one dejected anti-Rowley MP confided: “The party looks like it began to die while nobody was noticing.” One front-page headline blared: ”PNM meltdown.”
Bruising complaints arose that it was its political leader and former PM, Dr Rowley, who, with Stuart Young and Rohan Sinanan, led the 69-year-old PNM party into an embarrassing defeat. Former PNM minister Robert Le Hunte angrily told Rowley and Young, “pack up your bags and go.” All three officials humbly resigned.
Among a crowd of pro-Beckles supporters in front of Balisier House last week was a man with a placard saying “Enough is enough, no more bullying, Penny or nothing.” Celebrating Ms Beckles as Opposition Leader, Le Hunte said: “This is a resolute declaration, rejecting a model of leadership that has become increasingly self-serving, disconnected and dismissive of the party’s base.” Hopefully, removing arrogance, pettiness, and spiteful decision-making too.
There is a widespread feeling both inside and outside that it was Dr Rowley who hurt both party and country, especially with Petrotrin's closure and the “high PM salaries against four per cent for unions.”
The party’s general secretary, Foster Cummings, loudly complained about being “left out of the party’s campaign strategy.” A blaring newspaper headline: “Post-election turmoil in the PNM – Foster strikes back and blames Rowley.” An inside group, calling themselves the “changemakers,” keeps pushing for constitutional rectitude.
As the grieving and blaming subsided, the PNM General Council approved Arima MP Pennelope Beckles as Opposition Leader. Seeking to calm stormy waters, mild-mannered Beckles quickly declared: “We understand that when you lose an election, there are going to be challenges. You know, there will be concerns. You may have a bit of conflict as well. But we have always been a resilient party.” That is similar to what Ms Persad-Bissessar said in 2015 and 2020.
The party is obviously experiencing a period of “creative disruption” with Ms Beckles, Nyan Gadsby-Dolly and Paula Gopee Scoon, pledging to stop the shaky ship from sinking. Their loyalty points to the PNM's recovery after several electoral defeats, most notably, the 33-3 defeat in 1986. We shall see.
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