LGE: Sound, fury, futility

Paolo Kernahan

THE LOCALS were fought with all the fervour of a general election, even as we locals were being oppressed in real time by the prevailing conditions of societal decay – daily home invasions, deteriorating infrastructure, etc.

Politicians, both the aspiring and the entrenched, peddled platform promises, while security cameras captured the products of failed promises scaling the walls of homes to harvest the innocent.

For all the money, effort and lowbrow rhetoric hurled at the enterprise, there wasn't a lot to show for it. The PNM and UNC waged a blistering war of attrition with almost imperceptible movement at the front line.

The Opposition Leader was happy enough to have gained some small ground. It was not nearly what was expected given a government hobbled by its incompetence.

Questions will be raised again about the palatability of Kamla Persad-Bissessar as an alternative leader. The argument is that the current configuration of the UNC leadership is so abhorrent to the voting public that the party can't make the most of the worst the PNM can do. I can see the memes already – Kamla couldn't roast a chicken in a house fire, and so on.

Even though the turnout for the LGE is traditionally low – circling in the commode at around the 30 per cent mark – it was somehow felt that public enmity would be more fervently expressed this time around. Those who did vote appeared to do so on the same old grounds of race, tribe and generational brainwashing.

The "never again" mantra when it comes to the UNC leader will never not be ironic. Persad-Bissessar is perceived by many as too radioactive ever to be permitted near national leadership again.

Rowley, a demonstrably flawed leader at the helm of a government with an addiction to failure, is a – how did that old Orchard jingle go? – a perfectly natural choice! Go figure.

Still, even with Jack and Gary "back in the fold," that curious burying of the hatchet wasn't enough to bury the PNM; not in the way that it counts at the polls.

The PM, for his part, was happy to have come out with the same number of corporations he went in with. Perhaps there's victory in a stalemate if resounding defeat was expected.

In a post-polling interview, the PM made several strange remarks. Dr Rowley was quoted as having said he was glad the LGE was over because so much of the country's energies had been focused on the "call the election" mantra. This Freudian slip almost suggests Rowley resents having been legally badgered (by the Opposition) into calling the constitutionally due LGE.

Moreover, this remark seems to suggest the Government had better things to do.

Broadly speaking, however, with the general state of the country – insecurity, failing infrastructure, economic uncertainty – there's no evidence that over the past nearly eight years in office that this administration has had its nose to the grindstone.

When pressed about traction gained by the fledgling National Alliance for Transformation in Diego Martin, the PM quoted his grandmother thusly, "No matter how the situation is, it could easily have been worse" – bathetic and prophetic lock arms in one sentence. Such is the nature of irrevocable decline.

Dr Rowley did make one important observation. For all the votes garnered by the NTA in Diego he said, "It didn't matter how many votes they got. The PNM won all the seats in Diego Martin."

Ultimately, smaller parties couldn't make a note in this LGE, even though this government is about as popular as acne. Billboards, music trucks and social media blitzing – none of it was enough to get any of them a foot in the door.

Of course, some of them are looking to 2025, interpreting the results as a positive sign for future growth.

We can't predict what will happen in 2025. We can, however, predict what's coming in the time between. Given our trajectory, it's only reasonable to expect continued decline. Crime will worsen and economic opportunities will further shrink. There will be more of what obtains now. Hope for 2025 can't change that.

If citizens don't find their voices to challenge everyday failures and the defence of incompetence, no number of stained fingers will stop the staining of our streets and homes in blood.