Senator Maharaj: People losing hope for change

FORMER journalist and Independent Senator Sunity Maharaj says constitutional reform is the beginning of a means to begin to anchor a culture of participation in government in Trinidad and Tobago.

She said constitution reform was necessary because, in Parliament, governments passed laws by simple majority and, if they needed a special majority, they worked around it. She said laws and policies should not be enacted for the sake of doing so, but only when the society believed culture was working against aspirations towards democracy.

“Then, you start to put some policies... that you hope would gentle culture in the direction that is supportive of democracy. You do not do it by passing laws in spite of what people think just because you have the power.”

She said if a government were to knit a society together and carry everyone forward, it had to listen to everyone, even the minorities.

Maharaj made the comments during Politics and the People, part of the Big Ideas series of conversations and discussions hosted by Bocas Lit Fest at The Writers Centre, St Clair, on August 24. It also featured Emerita Professor Bridget Brereton and was facilitated by journalist Franka Philip.

Brereton listed several historical events that contributed to the shaping of TT society and politics such as the rise of the labour movement and labour-based political parties in the 1950s and the “explosion” of the PNM, a nationalist, anti-colonial party that brought people of all kinds into politics.

She said the Black Power Movement had a huge cultural and social impact on society and feminism less so in the 1980s and 1990s.

Maharaj described people’s engagement with the political system as an underlying unending revolution because the will of the people was always suppressed.

She paraphrased the saying “the power of the people is much stronger than the people in power,” but said power was centralised in the prime minister. She recalled in colonial times, all power was vested in the governor as the representative of the crown and it was the same culture of politics TT had now. It needed to change.

She said everyone needs to learn the responsibility of citizenship, that people had the right to a say and insist on that right. Politics would not change until everyone changed.

She said until people felt their voices mattered, that they were not being ruled by prime ministerial edict, they would keep trying to subvert the system. She said subversion may be irrational. It may involve violence, compliance and cynicism.

But now, she sensed a loss of hope for change and a sense of depression because there was no improvement.

She said the will of the people would find a way, so it was necessary to have that will expressed through established institutions, to keep society on an even keel.

Brereton jokingly added that she did not think dictatorship could work in TT, as the people were too difficult to govern and could not agree on anything.

But the author of the biography of the late prime minister Patrick Manning, Manning: Faith and Vision, believed politics could make a difference at the party and constituency levels. She said Manning proved the point as he was a locally-rooted politician who nurtured his constituency of San Fernando East, which he held for 44 years.

He was also a good party leader who, after the PNM wipe-out in the 1986 general election when only three candidates won their seats, rebuilt the party in the face of apathy, contempt and cynicism. He was also a mentor to young PNM activists and built a loyal following.

Coat of arms confusion

Maharaj said any discussion on what should be changed on the coat of arms was preemptive because there was a cabinet-appointed committee to review the use of historical statues, signs and monuments. In her opinion, the only value of the discuss was it made people aware of what was on the coat of arms.

She recalled she filed a motion in Parliament to make the steelpan the national instrument because she did not want one party or another to be able to say they did it. She said she wanted the entire Parliament to agree so, outside of Parliament, there would be no division.

Similarly, the changing of the coat of arms should be approached in a democratic way.

“It is a national symbol. It should not be one by prime ministerial edict. It’s not the government’s place to say, ‘We have decided.’ Why don’t we have the patience to grow a culture of discussion?...

“Let us have the patience to do some things that involve the entire citizenry so that when we make a decision on things that are important, we can feel, ‘This is what people wanted.’”

She said that lack of patience showed the country had not yet made the transition to generating independent thought and critical appraisals of the things that represent us.

Brereton agreed.

She said despite PM Rowley’s announcement that the steelpan would replace Columbus’ ships on the coat of arms at a special PNM party convention on August 18, the government initially went about it the right way by first appointing a committee, with some “reasonable and sensible people,” which arranged public consultations and for submissions.

“So it was particularly strange that something flew into our Prime Minister’s head that he should make this announcement at a PNM convention, when the committee he himself had appointed was coming to the end of its work.”

Education and media necessary

Maharaj said the country’s biggest failure was not making the transition from colony to independent country and public.

She said one of the systems of the past that the country retained was a culture of a contact system in which people “got through” because of who they knew. Instead of people advancing on the basis of capability or meritocracy, it continued the privilege system, so it was failing.

She said education was a critical system to help free the mind. As an extremely diverse country, its people had to learn what they had in common and how to respect and appreciate differences. She said government had the opportunity to instil that and unify the country by teaching students about the history, practices and culture of the various peoples in TT.

Brereton added that the country needed to document all its history, including its political history, and suggested people write memoirs and autobiographies, even if it would most certainly be highly sanitised and shaped.

Maharaj said in addition to education, the media had a role to play as an institution of democracy.

She said it was in trouble as it had been undermined and called the opposition when it was a watchdog. She said it was also subjected to technological change and the people who had access to it, and politics sometimes invaded newsrooms. And the industry part of the media was killing the institution as it was not making the money to train and keep staff.

“But just imagine no media, and you all are getting your information everyday from social media. That is the danger we face and for that reason, instead of us just crying down the media, we need to insist the media rise to the challenge of being the watchdog of society.”

Also in attendance at the event was former Port of Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing and Manning's widow, former education minister Hazel Manning.