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“Today, we start the work of transforming the hope and promise of change into the reality of change. And while we leave the euphoria and the emotion of the election behind us, what we do not stray from is the unity this election has forged.”
Thus spoke Trinidad and Tobago’s first female Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a Hindu, as she took oath of office as this country’s seventh Prime Minister since independence on August 31, 1962. Her People’s Partnership got 29 out of the 41 parliamentary seats, and this victory gave her the constitutional majority to change the 1976 Republican Constitution.
She continued, “My fellow citizens, the task ahead of us is challenging and we need all our nation’s talent, all our nation’s wisdom, all our nation’s people on board with us. What happens from this day forward is in our hands. It is up to us. And so the challenge before us is to stay as one people. We must never allow the seeds of separation to regain hold on our soil. This afternoon, the new chapter we turn is a fresh start for all of us.”
She has become the first woman to lead any political party in oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago. Her rise to prime ministership had its genesis last January 24 when she challenged her former political guru and mentor Basdeo Panday for the leadership of the United National Congress, a party Panday had founded 20 years ago. She flogged Panday ten to one in the tally of votes.
Persad-Bissessar’s forefathers are among 148,000 East Indian labourers who were brought here between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar and cocoa plantations. The Indian diaspora constitutes about 44 per cent of the population of 1.3 million people. |
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In Apirl the incumbent Prime Minister Patrick Manning broke with tradition and dissolved the 41-seat Parliament and called general elections on May 24, some 30 months before it was constitutionally due.
One of Persad-Bissessar’s first acts was to instruct all her ministers to return to their respective constituencies and assist all those who are affected by massive
floodings. She swapped her fine clothings and jewellery and wore tall boots and jeans to visit several parts of the country.
PROMINENT CABINET MEMBERS
Prominent among those in her cabinet include Leader of the Congress of the People, and one of the major functionaries of the People’s Partnership Government, Winston Dookeran, Minister of Finance; Fifa Vice-President, Jack Austin Warner, Minister of Works and Transport; Surujrattan Rambachan, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Stephen Cadiz, Minister of Trade and Industry; Carolyn Sepersad-Bachan, Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs; Senator Vasant Bharat, Minister of Food Production, Lands and Marine Resources; Senator Mary King, Minister of Planning, Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs; Senator Fazal Karim, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education; Senator Rudrawatee Nan Ramgoolam, Minister of Public Administration; Chandresh Sharma, Minister of Local Government; Prakash Ramadhar, Minister of Legal Affairs, and Dr Roodal Moonilal, Minister of Housing and Environment.
THE PM’s BACKGROUND
Persad-Bissessar is a well-noted academic. Among her academic certifications are an LLB degree during which she was at the top of her class, an MBA and a Diploma in Education, all from the University of the West Indies. She has served as an Alderman at the Saint Patrick County Council; senator and later as the first woman attorney general; and as Minister of Legal Affairs; and Minister of Education. She acted on several occasions as Prime Minister during the absence of then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. She has represented her Siparia constituency for 15 years now. She polled one of the highest number of votes—15,808.
She has become the first woman to lead any political party in oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago. Her rise to prime ministership had its genesis last January 24 when she challenged her former political guru and mentor Basdeo Panday for the leadership of the United National Congress, a party Panday had founded 20 years ago. She flogged Panday ten to one in the tally of votes.
Persad-Bissessar’s forefathers are among 148,000 East Indian labourers who were brought here between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar and cocoa plantations. The Indian diaspora constitutes about 44 per cent of the population of 1.3 million people.
THE PEOPLE’S PARTNERSHIP
For the first time since independence in August 1962, a coalition of four other parties joined to confront the ruling People’s National Movement which has been in power for 43 years. The five parties included United National Congress, Congress of the People (COP) led by Dookeran, Makandal Daaga, leader of the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC); Tobago Organization of Peoples (TOP) led by Ashworth Jack; and the Movement for Social Change (MSC) led by Errol McLeod, former President of the powerful Oil Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU). These parties contested under the umbrella of “People’s Partnership,” with each party maintaining its own symbol on the ballot paper.
The election was fought on several issues which included massive corruption in all sectors of the national economy, especially inside the Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (UDECOTT) headed by Canadian-born Calder Hart. Following the report of the UFF Commission on the construction industry Hart fled the country with charges of corruption and perjury hanging over his head.
Over US$ 60 billion have passed through the treasury, but the electorate continues to protest the lack of medical facilities, a total breakdown in the infrastructural capacity; and the mismanagement of the nation. Over 3,000 persons have been murdered over the last eight years of PNM rule, and only a few accused have been held.
Persad-Bissessar, a mother and grandmother of two, said in an interview: “I am grateful for the immense support from women and women’s groups across the country. I celebrate this victory on their behalf. But the picture is much larger than any single group and those very women would be the first to acknowledge that.”
Dookeran said that with the politics of inclusiveness as the “choice before us, we must choose that politics that engage all, including PNM supporters, and excluding no one. Everyone who wants a change wants a better Trinidad and Tobago and is welcome in the People’s Partnership.” He also said, “Today, we begin the business of government as we build a partnership of interests on a wide of range of national issues—safety and security, economic development, justice and the well-being of our citizens, and introduce a new face of governance for our beloved country.”
He felt that the election was a reason for the electorate to regain their freedom. He was the progenitor of the concept of New Politics in 2006, and this philosophy has become the hallmark of the political landscape of T and T.
DOOKERAN’S ROLE
The state of the economy will fall in the hands of Dookeran, who had served as Prime Minister on several occasions during the tenure of the National Alliance of Reconstruction between 1986 and 1991, and he was lauded by world leaders for the pivotal role he played in bringing back sanity, balance and democracy during the attempted coup in July 1990. Dookeran was decorated with an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, the University of Manitoba. He is a respected international economist who worked with the Economic Commission for Latin America, World Bank, Inter-Development Bank and several governments of economic planning and development.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Persad-Bissessar’s constitutional majority will have to focus on several matters of national importance—changing the present, First-Past-the-Post electoral system to a system of Proportional Representation which eliminates ethnic voting and give other political parties the chance of governance; a maximum of two terms for a Prime Minister; the question of the Caribbean Court of Justice that seeks to replace the British Privy Council; and fixed dates for both national and local elections.
The election has caused former Prime Minister Patrick Manning to resign his position as leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM) which he led since 1986, but he retains his San Fernando East seat in Parliament.
There is great uproar, disenchantment and cries in the PNM as it now has to go in Opposition. A new leader will be chosen in June.
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