Panday’s party proposals

When Basdeo Panday was prime minister and UNC leader, he made two important proposals for making political parties more democratic, honourable and effective.

With the predictable UNC internal elections now over and the PNM party convention coming up, the role of our political parties deserves attention.

A government can only be as good as the political integrity, quality of structure and ideas within its party. After all, it is the political party which engineers the way up. A lot of our problems of corruption, lack of accountability, political incompetence and institutional collapse are due to corruptible party politics.

Mr Panday proposed: 1. That sitting MPs should not be members of the party’s executive at the same time.

2. That party members who intend to be candidates for general elections should first face a preliminary in-party contest for the particular constituency. Strengthen the voices within the party.

The 2010, 2015 and 2020 general elections were severely fought on the theme “public morality and state corruption,” reminding us of the critical reference to “moral and spiritual values” that once controversially determined which party became the government. The 2025 general election will again be based a lot on allegations of public immorality and corruption.

And no doubt, the PNM, either in its defence or attacks, will use these twin vices in 2025 as it did so effectively in 2015 and 2020. Allegations will likely be exchanged over the controversial Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) contracts, Estate Management and Development Company (EMBD) contracts for Caroni lands, Point Fortin Highway contracts, procurement legislation, Piarco Airport allegations on corruption – all this and more, not forgetting food prices, debt ratio to GDP, broken drains and roads, crime, education, etc.

So hold on to your seatbelts. The battle cries have already been sounded. Two weeks ago, walking out of Parliament, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, pointing to the role of the police, told reporters that Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar “has a lot of issues to answer.” When the Whistle Blower Protection Bill was debated, then Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi warned that Ms Persad-Bissessar should be “quite uneasy.”

The PM conveys similar allegations about “corruption by UNC members.” And of course, PNM MP Camille Robinson-Regis usually puts in her piece too.

Ms Persad-Bissessar, like MPs Dr Roodal Moonilal, Dinesh Rambally, Jearlean John, Wade Mark, David Nakhid, etc, often return the compliments with equal decibels. “This wicked, corrupt, incompetent PNM government, the worst we ever had, must go,” she repeatedly insists.

These allegations of political corruption must be considered in the context of party politics; for example, who is selected, and how, to be ministers, MPs, state board executives, etc. Mr Panday’s party-reform proposals would help keep the stables of both PNM and UNC clean. Firstly, the preliminary contests would help sanitise the character and reveal the political competence of potential election candidates. Competent “shadow ministers” from the Opposition might be discovered here. Flattery, back-door entry and favouritism would decrease.

Secondly, the political interests of the party should not be secondary to the overall interests of the country. Having party executives also as MPs may twist the priorities and encourage “geographical discrimination.” This latter point is a tough one, especially since MPs are expected to represent their respective constituencies. Being a minister may help. But the country’s politics have reached such a low while public disgust with state corruption and incompetence has reached such heights that some radical reforms will provide relief. Reforming political parties will make constitution reform worthwhile.

The late PM and PNM leader Dr Eric Williams preached “party education.” Since 1956, however, party education programmes on political ethics, integrity, knowledge of democracy, political management, the constitution, the public service, etc, appear sadly missing.

Could PNM education officer Overand Padmore or UNC’s Vandana Mohit provide the glaring need? Democracy itself, being fragile as it is, needs honourable, well-structured parties to fulfil its objectives of freedom, rights and accountability.

So far, we have failed, miserably. Build the moral capital inside the party so it can properly police its MPs.

Whatever changes the PNM or UNC undergoes towards 2025, it will serve the country well if Mr Panday’s proposals are inserted into our party politics. This should help heal the moral starvation languishing within the country’s politics