Don't vote along racial lines

ISRAEL B RAJAH-KHAN SC

AS AN “armchair politician” it is my considered opinion that the UNC is on its way to victory by obtaining a small majority of seats in the April 28 general election, thanks to the astute and clever endorsement/selection of candidates by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the de facto and de jure leader of the party.

It is of great interest to note that both the PNM and UNC have strong historical support of a racial base in 18 constituencies with majority voters. The base support of the PNM comes from the Afro-Trinidadians/Tobagonians while the UNC base support comes from the Indo-Trinidadians/Tobagonians.

The Afros' blind loyalty is embedded in the unreasonable and emotional notion of its “anthem” of “PNM until I dead,” and the Indos' blind and emotional loyalty is embedded in the unreasonable and emotional “mantra” of “apanjaatt” (support your race).

Both parties have made tremendous strides in moulding their respective membership and base support into a somewhat multiracial/ethnic party support base, and this is a good development for the politics and governance of TT.

Nevertheless, a great number of voters in our country still votes along racial lines: the Africans for PNM and the Indians for UNC.

But there now exists a paradigm shift in voting by the enlightened Africans, East Indians and other citizens of mixed heritage who do not vote along racial lines. They are the floating voters who cast their votes for the political party which they believe will govern wisely with integrity and fairness to all citizens. Most of all, they vote for the party which they believe would attend to the main political issues facing the country.

And suffice it to say, every citizen in the country is well aware that the main political issue facing the country at this point in time is the escalation of violent crimes, which has rendered TT a very unsafe place to live.

The floating voters are worried about their safety. They want to enjoy the comfort of their homes without worrying about home invasions. They desire, as it was in the past, to walk the streets without the fear of being robbed or killed. We are heading along the path of Haiti where the gangsters would have control of TT.

I say it with confidence and without the fear of contradiction that the main issue facing our country is the violent crime by the hundreds of criminal gangs in our country. And this is the political issue which will decide which party governs TT for the next five years.

I venture to say that both the PNM and UNC, on the basis of racial voting, are capable of winning at least 18 seats in the House of Representatives. Tobago is more likely than not to vote against the PNM. Thus, three marginal seats are up for grabs in Trinidad – St Joseph, La Horquetta/Talparo and Sangre Grande/Toco. And now a possible fourth seat – Tunapuna.

So, with a very slim majority of one or two seats, both the PNM and UNC know that they must ensure that all the members of the victorious party in the House must be extremely loyal to the elected prime minister because the two Tobago MPs will always be in a position to bring the government (be it PNM or UNC) to its knees, if not bring about its complete downfall.

It should be noted that a single dissident in the House from the party that emerges with a majority of one or two seats, together with the two Tobago members, can join up with the opposition members to replace the prime minister with the leader of the opposition.

And this was the main reason for Persad-Bissessar not trusting certain present MPs. As an astute and sagacious politician she cannot rely on their unreserved and unconditional loyalty to support her as prime minister with a majority of one or two seats. And as an aside, we all know that in the PNM such a betrayal would not take place.

As I emphasised, the main political issue is the escalation of violent crimes of murder, robbery and home invasions by the criminal. And under the leadership of the Dr Keith Rowley and the PNM Cabinet over a period of nine and a half continuous years, these violent crimes increased at a phenomenal rate.

This criminality took hold in the country because the PNM government did not have the political will, the acumen, the wherewithal to fight down the criminals. The government was inept, incompetent and did not really care about the safety and well-being of our citizens.

The country will never forget the statement openly made to the nation by the then minister of national security that it was not his duty to devise a crime plan for the police to solve crimes, nor was it his duty to keep the citizens safe: “This was the duty of the police and not the Minister of National Security,” said he.

Then prime minister Rowley supported his explanation for the unprecedented escalation of murder and violent crimes.

The PNM government via Rowley and Hinds kept on blaming everybody for the escalation of violent crimes over the period of nine and a half years. They blamed the police, the judiciary, the parents and friends/relatives of the criminals, but not themselves. And the present PNM Prime Minister Stuart Young is asking the floating voters to vote for him as prime minister.

I support Persad-Bissessar for prime minister. She is a strong, resilient and courageous leader who will take the fight to the criminals by selecting a strong and caring minister of national security and similarly a commissioner of police to fight down the criminals.

I call upon both the Afro and Indo populations and all the other citizens not to vote along lines of race in this election.