Union with small-islanders for votes, not growth

THE EDITOR: Prime Minister Patrick Manning, in a previous incarnation (1991-95), floated the idea of a political union with TT, Barbados and Guyana. No one embraced this political vision of Mr Manning’s. Now our Prime Minister insists that TT must form a new political union with St Vincent and Grenada. He views this new federation as a necessary condition for economic growth in the poor islands north of Trinidad.

He has found enthusiastic support from Ralph Gonzales, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines. His predecessor James “Son” Mitchell and Eugenia Charles, who was Prime Minister of Dominica, were the darlings of the US State Department under the Ronald Regan presidency and had little use for TT. But after 9/11 and the Gulf War, tourism and banana are dead so they now invoke Caribbean friendship and solidarity. TT dollars are now in demand by those who once laughed at us.

Close scrutiny of Mr Manning’s political project which his opponents dub a Forbes Burnham form of voter padding, shows that its economic cover is fatally flawed. Caricom was the economic arrangement to promote trade and economic integration of the entire Caribbean Basin area including Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Haiti and Santo Domingo. Mr Manning must study the reasons why Caribbean States have failed to implement their own decisions which is the main reason the economic benefits of Caricom have not been realised. Prime Minister Owen Arthur of Barbados realised this niand says of Mr Manning’s dream of a new political federation: “It is a sweet melody without lyrics.” That is the Bajan way of politely saying Mr Manning is talking nonsense. Prime Minister PJ Patterson of Jamaica dismisses abruptly Mr Manning’s dream: “Jamaica has absolutely no interest in any political federation.”

Mr Manning defends his dream of political union by saying that Dominica, St Lucia and those little islands buy products and manufactured goods from Trinidad. He argues that as their economies collapse they cannot buy from Trinidad. This is a very deceptive argument because those islands have nothing to offer Trinidad. Why is Mr Manning not offering to have a political federation with Canada? The small islands reject our TT dollar. We can’t use our dollar in Barbados or anywhere in the EC area. Yet Mr Manning promises money to bail out LIAT while saying BWIA must make its own way or go bankrupt.

Dominica cannot pay public servants. A senior Caribbean economist warned that paying all public servants in a federation between TT and the Eastern Caribbean will bankrupt TT. Is Mr Manning proposing to give VSEP to the public servants and bureaucrats who draw fat salaries in those islands for doing nothing? Mr Manning’s mind must address our squatting problem which will explode when those islanders can just take a boat and land on the coast in Trinidad.

The union of Trinidad with Tobago is not settled. Tobago stays with Trinidad only because of a massive annual subsidy. Tobago has less people than County Caroni. Yet Tobago gets more than $1 billion a year to spend as the Tobago House of Assembly wishes. A political union with Grenada and St Vincent will only vastly increase the economic burden because those small islands are worse off than Tobago. Towards the end of the last century, there was a move in many regions of the world to promote economic growth through trade and the linking of capital markets. Many of these succeeded. But none of these groups sought to promote political union or federation.. The record is very clear that there is absolutely no need for political union in order to promote economic growth.

The population of TT is an immigrant population. Our Afro-Trinidadian population is almost 100 percent descended from immigrants from the islands. From Grenada and St Vincent they came in waves when the oil industry was being developed.  There was also a wave during World War II. And they are still coming! Politically the voting pattern of these immigrants and their children is very stark. All the areas around Point Fortin and in the East-West Corridor are dominated by immigrants or their descendants who vote the present ruling party. This seems to be the basis for the devotion to the ideas of political federation. Votes is the issue. Not economic growth.

SATNARAYAN MAHARAJ
Secretary General
Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha