Back to the election hustings

Over the last two weeks, Trinidad and Tobago experienced several unexpected surprises.
First, prime minister Patrick Manning put the country on alert that a snap general elections was imminent and gave his ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) little notice to begin the screening of candidates.
Three days ago, although not announcing the date for general elections, Mr. Manning advised the President to dissolve the Parliament, paving the way for fresh polls more than two years before they were constitutionally due.
No reason has been put forward by Mr. Manning on why he has chosen to take the ruling party to a snap general elections coming midway in the five-year term of his administration but surely it has to do with the apparent public pressure his government has been facing from all corners of the country.
It cannot be ignored too that calling for the dissolution of Parliament scuttled an anticipated no-confidence motion by the opposition United National Congress (UNC) against him.
Although the motion was bound to fail, given the PNM’s majority in the House of Representatives, UNC’s leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her team of speakers were well prepared to enumerate a long list of transgressions against Mr. Manning and the Government he leads.
They would have put into the Parliamentary Hansard records the scandalous findings of a commission of inquiry into the construction sector which found mass over-spending, suspicious contractual dealings, the omnipotent powers and the abuse of powers by the former head of a state agency, Calder Hart and the recommendation for a number of criminal probes.
Now, the UNC plans to take it to the political campaign which kicks off tomorrow.
Canada-born Mr.Hart, now a naturalized citizen of Trinidad and Tobago resigned from his high-powered job at the state-agency, UDECOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago) and from other State Boards he headed early last month after he was summoned to a meeting with Mr. Manning.
A day before his conversation with Mr. Hart, the Prime Minister met with his Attorney General John Jeremie who indicated that Mr. Hart may have a case to answer regarding an apparent family link between Hart’s family and a Malaysia based company which was awarded US$136 million to construct a government building.
Mr. Manning still does not find it inappropriate to meet with Mr. Hart who according to the AG seems to have a case to answer – nor has he disclosed the nature of the conversation with the controversial Mr. Hart.
A day after meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Hart whose combined salary and perks were an outrageous US$1 million plus annually up to 2006 left the country with his family but failed to keep his commitment to return home by the end of last month.
Mr. Manning has also been facing mounting protest and criticism over his spending of millions of dollars on the construction of high rise buildings in the capital, some which remain unoccupied, US$40 million to construct and furnish a palatial prime minister’s residence and diplomatic centre and over US$120 million to host the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year.
Added to this, the unanswered questions about who hired Shanghai Construction as the contractor for the construction of an imposing cathedral  on state lands given to the Lighthouse of the Lord Jesus Christ Church headed by Reverend Juliana Pena, whom the local media has described as Mr. Manning’s personal Prophetess.
Shanghai came to work in Trinidad based on a government-to-government agreement to construct a number of buildings.
There’s also a criminal probe into an alleged land deal between Mr. Manning and the former leader of the 1990 insurrection, Yasin Abu Bakr; a runaway crime situation and many other ills that the public has expressed their concerns over.
But this is not yet a perfect political storm which creates the conditions for the UNC and other opposition forces to start claiming automatic victory.
Mr. Manning, the shrewd politician that he is, may have decided to call a snap election in the hope of catching the UNC and other opposition parties unprepared to form a unified team in time for the polls.
The UNC itself has not fully settled its internal problems with senior members including the founder Basdeo Panday not fully embracing Mrs. Persad-Bissessar since her overwhelming 12-1 defeat of him for the leadership position in the party polls last January.
There’s also the question of how an accommodation of sorts will be formed between the UNC which won 16 seats in the 2007 general elections and the splinter party, the Congress Of the People (COP) which although not winning a single seat commanded over 140,000 votes.
COP supporters include disenchanted former UNC members and floating voters, who are particularly crucial to the outcome of the very important marginal seats in  the elections that are normally divided along racial lines.
The UNC and the COP would also have to convince the electorate that their unity team is not a marriage of convenience but can survive the test of time and whatever dispute that inevitably will arise.
The unified forces will also have to demonstrate to the electorate that they have workable ideas and proposals on governing the country fairly and along equitable lines.
Over the last year or so since Mr. Manning’s fortunes began its free-fall, the population’s concerns have evolved around what they see as wasteful spending on multi-story buildings; the lavish hosting of summits; the defence of public officials suspected of corrupt dealings; arrogance of public officials and questionable deals.
Prime Minister Manning and members of his party have been widely criticized by callers to radio talk programmes and from the public’s written feedback to articles on the online newspapers.
They have been booed and heckled and at least one person has physically restrained Mr. Manning from entering his yard.
What people want – and hope which ever party forms the next government would channel revenues from the energy sector into fixing their roads, having an adequate supply of water on a daily basis, proper schools for their children, improved beds and improved service at hospitals, increased in grants for the elderly and the differently-abled to name a few of their basic needs and expectations.
Ultimately, this is why people vote for political parties so their lives can be improved.
But watching billions pass through the country “like a dose of salts” – to paraphrase Jamaica’s now deceased Prime Minister Michael Manley about Trinidad’s wealth from the seventies oil boom – and not getting their just dues was the tipping point for them.

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