Lazarus politics

POLITICS is supposed to be about the future. But these days it’s about the past.

Any indication of what policies, projects or changes are envisioned by the political parties contesting the local government elections has been eclipsed by the cult of personality. The new trend? Old faces.

The UNC political platform has, in recent weeks, featured the likes of Gary Griffith, Garvin Nicholas and, after Monday, Jack Warner. All once held senior roles within the UNC-led People’s Partnership coalition. All went on to part ways and form their own parties.

“Don’t tote, vote!” Mr Warner declared. In the same breath, taking aim at his political opponents, he ironically urged listeners not to ignore the past. “We tend to forget too quickly.”

Also keen to forget quickly is the PNM. The current administration recently brought Darryl Smith, a former minister of sport, back into the fray. There have been recent reports, too, that Clarence Rambharat, a former minister of agriculture, is lingering.

It used to be axiomatic that coming to politics with “baggage” was bad. Great was the desire for new faces. Now, with standards in public life having deteriorated dramatically, there is a race to resurrect the dead. We are officially in the era of Lazarus politics.

Make no mistake. We do not believe there is room for ageism in politics. And bringing back experienced officials can potentially tap into the wisdom of individuals who have accrued a wealth of experience over time. That wisdom is something younger candidates will simply never have.

But Mr Warner’s hyperbolic speech on Monday confirmed his new incarnation not likely to depart from the past. His brief address fell short of anything promising or novel. Indeed, it was a repeat of the same formula aimed at simply unseating a political rival without much else behind it.

It is hard not to interpret all this as little more than a cynical exercise: a calculated political gamble in which the potential fallout raised by Mr Warner’s chequered past has been set off against any possible additional votes he may help the UNC accrue.

On that note, while many regard Mr Warner as a spent force due to the FIFA corruption scandal that was his undoing, the voters are who, ultimately, dismissed him. Though initially holding on to his Chaguanas West seat in the 2013 byelection, he lost it in 2015. He contested a seat in the 2020 general election and again lost.

Politics is supposed to reflect the advancement of the times. While Mr Warner’s return has energised the local government race, the re-emergence of figures like him suggests we are going back, not forward. This is a bad omen for TT.