PNM is the problem

THE EDITOR: If we logically analyse national outcomes in whichever sphere of social activity we may choose, we would inevitably conclude that since 1956 and continuing from that time, the dysfunctional politics/governance of the PNM provides a priceless object lesson in catastrophic governance.

Political scientists must, and will, use the PNM political model as a global teaching tool if they wish to educate themselves regarding that which every well-intentioned aspiring political group must studiously avoid if the earnest intention is to advance an embryonic society.

The group dysfunctionalities that must be avoided include but are not limited to the following: the demand for total secrecy, ethnic exclusivity, absolute totalitarian leadership, uncompromising political patronage, and a cultist devotion to the policy that “the end justifies the means.”

Before the advent of the PNM and its idea of party politics cunningly crafted as a national movement – a paradox that borders on oxymoronic – there were multiple disparate elements that comprised the political landscape in TT. The idea of a racially aligned organisational culture formally began with the incorporation of the teachers education movement that was conceived in Tobago.

Eric Williams opportunistically latched onto a preexisting, and well-structured, organisational model comprising almost only black teachers who felt that too little was being done for their ethnic group as professionals. And their cause may well have been justified at that time.

He, unfortunately, was allowed to commandeer that organisation, overturn the participatory norms for which it stood, and convert it into the dysfunctional totalitarian dystopia that is the PNM today. And this sentiment has been well documented over the years by several estranged black PNM authors.

Humans being what they are – especially when they arrogantly, consciously and deliberately refuse to accept a place subordinate to the God who made them, and to whom they belong – begin to puff themselves with pride, believing that they are little gods themselves and require like devotion. That is when the entropy begins. It may take one, two, or three generations, but the inevitable rot will prevail.

And so it is today. Not one sphere of societal life in this benighted nation has been spared the rotten contagion initiated by a small group of completely misguided people. Their demand for unflinching group loyalty, reinforced by a veneer of “education” having its blind root in the belief that co-ethnics can do no wrong, has caused us to stagnate as a nation that has failed in just about every sphere of national social life – from family to sport and everything in-between.

Sadly, many of us still too proud to see the error of their ways harbour the moronic conviction that those who caused our ills are the ones who will fix them.

STEVE SMITH

via e-mail