WON’T YOU JOIN THE DANCE?

The decision of the Polical Leader of NAR Tobago, Cecil Caruth, to link up with the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) even as his Party was holding talks with the DAC on an alliance against the People’s National Movement (PNM) in the upcoming Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections may have weakened the NAR’s bargaining power. The NAR has been placed in a position where it would be inappropriate to continue with the talks. In addition, Caruth’s declaration that at least one member of the NAR Tobago executive would follow suit and that there was the possibility that several of the NAR’s candidates for the elections would contest on the DAC platform strikes as odd even for the game of politics. In turn, there is the hint, however unintentional, that either arrangements were made with the DAC for NAR candidates to contest certain seats or that, whoever the nameless “breakaway” NAR “candidates” referred to by Caruth, they will form part of the package that will come with his support. Caruth has gone further and has stated that he has been receiving calls from NAR supporters both in Trinidad and Tobago backing his move.

Caruth’s position conflicts with that of NAR Tobago Chairman, Christo Gift, who is insisting that not only does the NAR Tobago executive “to a man” not support Caruth, but that NAR supporters are “dismayed and disgusted” by his action. What is puzzling is why Caruth, who as Political Leader of NAR Tobago would have been leading discussions with the DAC with repect to the working out of a single NAR/DAC platform for the THA elections should have broken ranks and decided to go it alone. Did Caruth believe that the talks between the two political groups were not proceeding well? If so, why then did he not seek to use his clout as Political Leader and seek to convince other members of the Executive that a particular strategy would have been better for the NAR and the alliance, had this been the problem? Is it that there was a powerful faction within the NAR Tobago executive which was having second thoughts about the proposed election alliance to unseat the PNM and Caruth feared that plans for a common platform between the two groups would have been torpedoed? Meanwhile, since there were specific issues which had led to the breakaway from the NAR of what is known as the DAC, had these points been resolved and differences put aside with the rationale being the defeat of the PNM, regardless?

It has been said over the years that politics was the art of the possible. A former Trinidad and Tobago leading politician and Government Minister, the late Albert Gomes, taking it several steps further, had declared that “in politics anything goes.” Which definition, if any, did either or both of the two political groups apply in deciding on the need for a common THA election platform? Or did each, almost at the same time, ask of the other (with apologies to Lewis Carroll) “Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?” Tobago electors have been taken on a merry dance with the on and off proposed political “marriage of convenience” which NAR Tobago, in particular, was prepared to impose on the electorate without even the courtesy of an explanation as to whether the fundamental principle underlying what had been an acrimonious separation had been worked out.

Unseating the PNM or for that matter any Party in power in any given election, is not simply a question of working out the support that either side is believed to have and adding up the numbers, while at the same time hoping that uncommitted voters would jump in with additional support. There must be a genuine platform as the NAR itself demonstrated on December 15, 1986. What is taking place today may be viewed by many as a plus for the PNM and a minus for the NAR and the DAC, whether collectively or singly.