When opponents meet

THE PICTURE was worth a thousand words.

Assembled around the table were Saddam Hosein, the San Juan/Barataria MP (UNC), and two defeated candidates for the seat – Jason Williams (PNM) and Albertha Purdeen (PEP).

A statement issued by Hosein’s constituency office said the three met on Thursday. A photograph was later posted on social media.

“There is strength in unity,” Mr Hosein told Newsday. “There is no greater time than now to heal our country.”

We agree. The gesture of this trio of relatively young politicians, as simple as it was, gives us cause for hope.

It was only last week President Paula-Mae Weekes had cause to admonish MPs.

“The general complaint is that after an election, constituents only see their MPs in the lead-up to the next election,” she lamented.

If the winner sometimes disappears, worse yet the defeated candidates, who tend to evaporate into thin air.

So it is notable Hosein, Williams and Purdeen have bucked this tendency from the get-go.

And it is even more significant that they have straddled the divides at a time when the country is reckoning with the intersection of politics and race.

Coming on the heels of the unity shown in last week’s vote on public health measures, it suggests the possibility that the 12th Parliament may not be a case of the same ole, same ole.

Admittedly, things have already got off to a somewhat rocky start, given the disagreement over the choice of a presiding officer and the issue of covid19 speaking times.

But there are perhaps other indications of politicians working in ways that depart from the past.

Though we await answers in relation to the circumstances surrounding the postponement of the national awards ceremony, it is a lucky fact that some degree of delay has occurred.

Too often one administration simply foists its wishes on another and it may well be the case that the Prime Minister – who transmits his final list to the President in a process that also involves the Chief Justice and a committee, though only at earlier stages – decided to show deference, given a close election race with opponents.

In the past, though the awards are bestowed by President’s House, the fact that it is the Cabinet that has the final veto over the list has led some to ponder whether the exercise is more political than bureaucratic.

This delay could be used as a fortuitous opportunity for the government of the day to ensure more transparency than normal in coming up with a list that reflects the widest cross-section of society.

Maybe, if and when the awards do eventually happen, the photographs taken then will match the spirit of the one taken in San Juan/Barataria on Thursday.

Comments

"When opponents meet"

More in this section