New wave of politics:

A wave of political change has been taking place across the western hemisphere. Fragmented it may look but when one joins up the treads, it shows a particular pattern emerging.

The picture shows a revival of revolutionist leaders in the hemisphere, as though the ordinary voters are thumbing their nose at the establishment, getting rid of conservative ruling powers representing big business and at the same time, sending a strong message that they were electing people who relate to their situations.

Right next door to us, we have Venezuelan leftist President Hugo Chavez who continues to be supported by the grass roots although his promised revolutionary policies have had little real impact and they still suffer from chronic poverty and widespread unemployment despite the country’s vast oil wealth.

However, they still see a champion in Chavez as he fearlessly trades insults with the mighty powers in Washington while in Venezuela, he has been shaking up the system, annoying the middle and upper classes and butting heads with multinational oil executives whom he once described as living in “luxury chalets where they perform orgies, drinking whisky.”

An avid admirer of Fidel Castro’s Cuba and an avowed anti-globalist, Chavez has also taken on the church leaders in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, declaring at one point, “They do not walk in… the path of Christ.”

Further up in Brazil, left-wing politician Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – known simply as Lula, a former trade unionist who came from a poor family was voted into office in a landslide victory, promising improvements in the lives of poor Brazilians. Given his continued popularity with the country’s majority poor and dispossessed, Lula is expected to be re-elected when Brazilians go to the polls this year.

Although he has not been intentionally provoking the United States like Chavez, Brazil has emerged as a political force in the western hemisphere when his country took a leadership position in the WTO ministerial in Cancun in 2003 and has refused to roll over on the FTAA negotiations over their sharp and wide differences on trade with the US.

I’ve also been fascinated with the recent presidential election victory of Bolivian Evo Morales,an Aymara Indian who never went to high school and was ridiculed by U.S.-educated former president Jorge Quiroga, his closest opponent in the election race, as lacking the experience and education befitting a presidential candidate.

The majority poor Bolivians who voted for him and put him in the seat of government however did not see it as that.

In another radical move, Morales, good buddies with Chavez and Castro, swore in 16 ministers, the majority who are indigenous and who come from outside traditional power circles.

President Morales stated that his country’s natural gas reserves had been ‘looted’ by multinationals, and he would follow Chavez’ example in re-negotiating current exploration contracts to ensure that more money remains in the country.

I’m also keeping an eye on Peru’s left-leaning nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala who is surging in popularity, said to be based largely on voters’ disgust with Peru’s political parties,widely viewed as corrupt.

Humala burst into the spotlight when he and his brother, Antauro, a former army major, led some 70 followers in a short-lived military rebellion in October 2000, a month before President Alberto Fujimori’s autocratic 10-year regime collapsed in a corruption scandal. Humala who has taken on the mantle of the being anti-establishment, was later pardoned by Congress.

Many Peruvians are said to be disenchanted with the weak leadership of current president, Alejandro Toledo, a close U.S. ally who become the country’s first elected leader of Indian descent in 2001.

Humala is however, being given a run for his money by 46-year old Lourdes Flores, also gaining much popularity and could emerge as Peru’s first female president in the forthcoming elections.

Lores hopes Peru will follow in the footsteps of neighbouring Chile which elected its first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist, generally considered a center-leftist.

While three other women have won presidential elections in the Americas – Janet Jagan of Guyana, Mireya Moscoso of Panama, and Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua -  Bachelet was the first to win a seat without first becoming known through a husband’s prominence. Isabel Peron was her husband’s vice-president in Argentina and became president after his death.

Bachelet’s father,Alberto Bachelet,an air force brigadier general died after being tortured for his opposition to Augusto Pinoche’s regime while her mother was imprisoned in a torture center with Michelle in 1975, and went into exile with her in Australia and Germany.

With the political winds of change taking place in our hemisphere -from radical and revolutionists leaders and emerging female leadership – I’m curious as to the fate of us in the Caribbean.

Are we brave enough in the English-speaking Caribbean to follow suit?

The change could start in Jamaica. Portia Simpson-Miller is campaigning to take over the presidency and political leadership of the ruling People’s National Party. However she is facing competition from Dr. Peter Phillips in the race to succeed Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.

As to the fate in Trinidad and Tobago and I suspect, Guyana as well, my belief is that we will continue to see the dominance of the two major parties for a long while yet because a vast majority of our populations have allowed our ‘leaders’ to shackle their minds to slavery and indentureship, always using veiled reference so they never forget.

Like so many people, I would like to see fresh dynamic leaders, male and female emerging in our countries who could look past the colour of our skins and the texture of our hairs and who could see the diverse races in our population as just one people.

I do believe after over-coming this major hurdle, a country can get down to dealing with its other challenges.