THE EDITOR: It is tellingly ironic that the gist of what constitutes politics and the politician as contained in my recent letter entitled “Government for the self, never for the people,” as published in the Newsday, can find so graphic expression in the current bacchanalia surrounding one of our major political parties.
In that letter I spoke of the nature of politics “having a morality of its own” to mean being devoid of all the conventional norms of justice, fair play, and sheer human decency, and its practitioners true to its nature, cunning and manipulative, shameless and bereft of any self-respect, pretending to serve the people but concerned only with serving themselves.
Let’s see how the current scenario fits. Here we are with all the talk about winning the election and serving the people when it is all about power, with one contender leading the charge to oust the incumbent, who, benefiting from such incumbency, has a decided advantage in maneuvering support full in the knowledge that her sycophants don’t dare cross her for fear of losing the crumbs of office.
Which is evident even with the contender himself, for where he would probably have won applause for his principled stance, claiming the right to question, he now seems half apologetic for his initiative as he watches the walls crumble around him and with it the prospect of continuing in office.
As if he expected the other vassals to jeopardize their own interests to support him in what seems a legitimate quest!
It is instructive, too, how another member would have joined the chorus of calling for internal elections, but is careful not to commit to the contender’s cause, nor, heaven forbid, dare to be critical of the incumbent. The craving for office runs deep! And we the people are pawns no less in this “game of thrones,” equally bereft of the dignity of taking a stance based on principle, prepared to go the way of the tribe even though our subdued rationality and good sense tell us that all this manipulation and maneuvering are never about us, only about them.
So it seems that all the ingredients of our politics and its practitioners are fully at play in this current scenario: the power grab, the maneuvering employed to achieve that power, the subservience of those wishing to share in the spoils, and of course the members of the tribe who are willing pawns in this race-based politics where one group is made to look like the enemy by the other.
And of course in all this is the total indifference to what is right and what is wrong, what is decent and what is fair and just. It’s all about the power and nothing else counts!
DR ERROL NARINE BENJAMIN
via e-mail
The post Trickery that is politics appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
