Fix political system first

Just back from Miami, I find our country noisier and more divisive than before I left.

But while the political heat is rising, the bottom-line question that must be asked is whether this country will be led to a safer, better place after the elections.

Who will likely do it, and how?

So the electorate waits to assess the various parties’ history, plans, policies and their final list of candidates.

In fact, as I quietly sat in my regular “refuge of peace” – Miami’s Barnes & Noble bookstore – this “who we should put” question disturbed my quiet reading. I was reading a book on “the damage to democracy” and then Thomas Sowell’s Fallacies of Social Justice.

Reading books should never be a lost art, a lost hobby or an educational tool. The symptoms are already beginning to show.

Anyhow, whichever political party wins the next elections, it will be very difficult to make this country “a safer, better place” if the parliamentary structure and related state institutions are not effectively reformed for improved political accountability and improved people-driven representation and governance.

Let’s take the indomitable UNC senator Wade Mark's (former Speaker) passionate appeals for “parliamentary autonomy.” Parliament's being in full administrative charge of its staff and resources is just halfway there. Having the executive separate from the legislature (Parliament) is the full way to go.

In fact, having the executive (eg ministers) separate but accountable to the legislature will be a strong justification, for a more coherent system for “parliamentary autonomy.” I repeat, there will be little or no improvement in political accountability or governance as long as the executive not only sits with but effectively controls the legislature – a Westminster-type backdoor dictatorship.

The father of the separation of powers, Baron de Montesquieu, wisely warned: “When the legislature and executive powers are unified in the same person or same body, there can be no liberty.”

We have a fake democracy. The evidence is clear. The ministers’ (executive) oath of office to serve “impartially, without fear or favour” is merely a disguise – a route to political hypocrisy.

And you know, neither the PNM nor UNC has yet formally uttered a word on this travesty of democracy. Are they both really “the same thing”? At least the UNC should say they “don’t like it so.”

Of course, there is more needed for a fuller democracy, for example, electoral reform.

So we can change the coat of arms, change street names or even pull down colonial statues as celebrated measures of decolonisation.

But it seems we lack the vision and self-confidence to push for the essential reforms required for decolonising our political system, for emancipating our minds. Symbols are important, but substance is much more. Maybe Frantz Fanon was right. The weakening colonised wounds remain deep.

We will hear many campaign promises as the mysterious election date creeps up. But in between, there are some spots of amusement, even humour. I enjoy the names of the various political parties, even the ones UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar calls “pop-up parties.” We have, in part, “patriotic, “progressive,” transformation,” “united,” and “national.”

But you can’t beat Timothy Hamel-Smith’s Hope – “Honesty, Opportunity, Performance and Empowerment” party. My favourite party name, though, goes to that never-give-up Laventille crusader, Lennox Smith. His party is Love – Laventille Out-Reach for Virtual Enrichment.

Now, as we guess who will win, there is room to ask why so many people want to go up for this election – over 200. Is it for revenge? To avenge injustice? To honestly serve the community and nation? For fame and popularity? To get rich? Those screening candidates should watch out for motive.

You see, politics is not an ordinary business. It is loaded with as much virtue as vice. Politics can make good men bad. Even an abundance of anti-corruption laws and integrity regulations seems insufficient. It is, therefore, necessary for political parties and their leaders to search and sift for candidates with the required character and integrity.

In a published letter in the press headed Choose our leaders wisely, citizen Vishnu Koon Koon said: “Politics profoundly influences not just the legal framework but the societal norms and values. Therefore, let us choose wisely, prioritising leaders who embody integrity and vision for a prosperous TT.”

Indeed, there is now a need for trust in our politicians, for confidence and faith in our political system. In addition to constitution reform, that too will be a giant step towards fixing the political system for a safer, better society.