By-election plagued with conflict
Published:
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Tony Fraser
http://www.guardian.co.tt/columnist/201 ... d-conflictThe campaign in the Chaguanas West by-election has been one of the most revealing in recent history, because it is about internal conflict in the ruling United National Congress; more so contention between disparate elements of the election coalition of 2010.
In the circumstances of the in-fighting between Warner and the UNC leadership (the cabal), so desperate are the two sides and so pulsating the bruised blood between them that they are driven to self-destruction. The UNC, with far more to lose than Warner, sounds and looks desperate, revealing impulses which previously remained hidden. In Monday’s newspapers, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is shown in the temple seeking darshan at the feet of Sat Maharaj and the Maha Sabha.
In that day’s newspaper, Minister Roodal Moonilal is quoted using not-too-difficult-to-decipher codes seeking to convert the by-election into an issue of preserving historical and ancestral traditions; of ensuring the right of the predominant people of Chaguanas West, ie, Indo-Trinis, to continue becoming “doctors and engineers,” and to avoid succumbing to the temptation of being a “people who want to sell out that legacy for a box drain.”
For those not caught up in the emotional and tribal conflict, or on the side of Warner, wanting to exact revenge on those who once supped at his table, to clinically follow the campaign is to get deep glimpses into the double-dealing and corrupt practices which pass for governance.
“I protected him for three years” must surely be an admission of incompetence and more by a prime minister who is now contending that Warner has to answer serious questions and clear his name from multiple allegations, many of which have been made against him for 20 years, inclusive of the period when she selected him to be a minister and appointed him on a number of occasions to act for her as prime minister.
Her confession that her Minister of National Security ignored her instructions to attend legitimate overseas assignments in relation to his portfolio, and to have done so without negative consequences, demonstrated her apparent impotence in the face of Warner’s intransigence. It surely must add credibility to the allegations that her debt of gratitude, or whatever, to Warner far outweighed her responsibility to the nation as Prime Minister.
The allegations of several instances of financial impropriety made against Warner by those he identifies as the cabal and his own counters are revealing. As has been contended, among the allegations are those that he improperly solicited funds from contractors. The campaign has also thrown up Minister Bhoe Tewarie saying: “We (his cabinet colleagues) gave him the benefit of the doubt,” and this notwithstanding the contentions of local, regional and international institutions, including a court.
His response, to the effect that such soliciting is a widespread practice, inclusive of the annual toy give-away by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, is an insight from an insider on how the government operates. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar expressed the suspicion of many that Jack Warner possesses a “bottomless pit” of money which he uses to finance his way and that of whichever party he is associated with at the time into office.
Warner’s response is instructive on the issue of campaign finance. His counter-claim is that $25 million was spent on the attempt by the People’s Partnership to give its coalition partner, the Tobago Organisation of the People, the keys to the doors of the Tobago House of Assembly. Warner went as far as calling the name of a major contractor who it is said contributed millions; is it coincidental that the named contractor was recently favoured for an $800-million government contract?
Of course Warner said nothing of his own contribution to the development and growth of the culture of political investment. Warner’s alleged neglect of his constituents for HDC homes gives an indication of the basis upon which such homes are distributed, notwithstanding whatever the HDC says are the main criteria for distribution. The discerning mind would ask if such a way of proceeding disenfranchises peoples in constituencies which did not vote for the PP coalition in 2010.
One of Warner’s jabs against the prime minister was to the effect that she wanted him to engage in a form of voter-padding by relocating families from Chaguanas (traditional UNC supporters) to marginal seats along the East-West Corridor. Incidentally, it is an allegation that the UNC for decades has levelled against the PNM in government.
According to his Prime Minister, Jack Warner failed to make adequate use over $230 million that was allocated to the constituency and constituents of Chaguanas West: “Where the money gone?” Is it so easy for government ministers to under-utilise, perhaps even misappropriate, funding allocated for the benefit of their constituents, and do so over a three-year period without detection?
Warner has also made allegations about those amongst his then colleagues who bought million-dollar homes in Canada and those given to driving around with millions in cash in car trunks. These are Revelations on the isle of Trinidad; not Patmos from where John the Apostle delivered his apocalyptic Book of Revelations.
