Trinidadians in New York The Political Saga At Home
As General Election Campaign Switches To Ttop Gear, Outcome In Doubt?

By Tony Best

With about three week to go before the May 24th general election in their Caribbean homeland, Trinidadians in New York are burning the mid-night oil trying to figure out who will lead their country.

Will it be Patrick Manning, the current Prime Minister who heads the People’s National Movement that has directed the twin-island republic’s affairs for more than 35 of the past 47-plus years of independence or are the voters about to put Kamla Persad- Bissessar, head of the United National Congress and the coalition of partners contesting the election at the helm of the government? If it’s the latter, it will be the first time a woman takes over the leadership of Caricom’s richest country.

“It is difficult to predict the outcome,” said Frank Wharton, a Brooklyn attorney who hasn’t hidden his aspirations to lead the PNM. “The Coalition of the UNC and its partners present a formidable opposition to my party but there is still time to go before the voters are called upon to make a choice at the polls. I have already declared my candidacy to be the PNM’s political leader, whenever the position becomes vacant and it is put to the next party convention.”

A coalition of the UNC, the Congress of the People and other political and special interest groups has linked arms with a single goal: to oust the PNM and Manning. And not for the first time Trinidad and Tobago is seeing a united front by the opposition to remove the seemingly entrenched PNM from the levers of national power.

“We have been here before,” Wharton told the Carib News. “Don’t forget that several years ago, A.N.R. Robinson of the NAR (the National Alliance for Reconstruction) joined with the UNC to oust the PNM. But once they won the election, the arrangement didn’t last.

While I am not predicting how the election may go one way or another, it’s going to be interesting to see if the coalition will be able to work together if in government or the opposition. This is an interesting saga facing our country.”

But if Wharton wouldn’t forecast the outcome, Hazra Ali, a community activist, didn’t hesitate.

“There is a united front and we are seeing the last days of the PNM in office as government of Trinidad and Tobago,” she told the Carib News. “I am predicting a mammoth victory for Kamla and the coalition because the people of the country are fed up with Manning and the government he leads. The issues of corruption and the squandering of resources are clear and for the first time in many years we are seeing the opposition fighting hard as a unit to get rid of the inept and corrupt PNM.”

Ali, who has never hidden her antagonistic feelings towards the PNM, said that in “Kamla” the opposition to the ruling party has a credible voice capable of lifting Trinidad and Tobago from the depth of despair into which it has sunk.

“We are witnessing the end of the current government and on May 24 the people will speak and the rule of Manning will be no more,” was the way she put it.

Desmond Chase, Chairman of the Board of Hawks International, a major Trinidad end Tobago social services organization in New York City, couldn’t agree more.

“With Basdeo Panday the former Prime Minister who led the UNC out of the party and with Manning facing the defeat we are about to see a well-deserved ouster of both leaders who have dragged down our country,” Chase charged. “It’s about time that we see them removed by the voters from the political scene.

There has been too much corruption and squandering of public resources involving people in the PNM and the Administration for there to be a return to office by the party. It’s really a disgrace. We may be on our way to electing our first woman as Prime Minister.”

Manning is under fire for what his critics call lavish spending on “prestige” projects such as the cultural center in Port of Spain while neglecting such basic services as water, roads, schools, housing and education. At the same time, charges of corruption swirl around the administration.

He is also being criticized for calling an early election, two years ahead of schedule.

But Wharton wouldn’t join in the chorus of criticisms because, as he put it, “it was a judgment call by the government and I have no desire to second guess the party leadership on this.”

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