Political theatre

Yesterday after nine days at the Golden Grove Maximum Security prison, Opposition Leader, Basdeo Panday, decided that he had had enough of jail. His bail which had been reduced on Tuesday from $750,000 to $650,000 was posted and he went home. His stay in jail was of his own choosing, a decision we suspect that was designed on the basis of pure theatrics. We are glad however, that Mr Panday is out of jail. He is not a young, healthy man, no longer the lion he once claimed to be and photographs of him when he made his second appearance in court on Tuesday were disturbing.

Despite dire predictions of violent confrontation, Tuesday’s gathering of United National Congress supporters in Port-of-Spain passed with relative calm. This is to the credit of the citizens of this country, although the same credit cannot be so readily granted to our politicians. True, there were a few tense moments that day. Before Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday arrived at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court, the police had to clear the street of the supporters so that traffic could flow. This exercise could easily have flared up, but the police officers were firm and the crowd did not resist being moved.

The second tense moment occurred later in Woodford Square, when the UNC MPs were about to address their followers. At that point, the officers enquired as to whether the party had obtained permission to gather in the Square and to use sound amplification equipment. Proceedings were delayed because the UNC had only received verbal, instead of written permission from Port-of-Spain mayor Murchison Brown. And, as Oropouche MP Roodal Moonilal went with the officers to Mayor Brown’s office, some supporters started haranguing the police because they thought Mr Moonilal was being arrested. But that situation also did not escalate.

However, with the penchant Trinidadians have for seizing on the trivial, the police have been roundly condemned for moving the sound truck and walking through the crowd while the National Anthem was being played. But it is not clear whether Winston “Gypsy” Peters, a former UNC MP, didn’t start singing the anthem precisely at this juncture as a ploy to delay the police in carrying out their duties. Which brings us to the manner in which the Opposition has been milking the arrest of its maximum leader. As expected, the party’s spokespersons have been taking full advantage of the situation. Mr Panday himself set the stage when he refused bail, and continued the theatre by refusing again on Tuesday and deciding to represent himself.

It is good politics, but of course quite irrelevant to the facts which will be argued before the judge. Nonetheless, Mr Panday’s arrest has been a godsend to a party which was looking increasingly moribund, disorganised, and narrow in focus. Now, their weekly meetings are attracting sizeable crowds. At the same time, the fact that the UNC was able to muster only about 400 persons on Tuesday, when they had called for thousands, shows that their rhetoric has not been as galvanising as they had hoped. But, again, this speaks to the good sense of the ordinary citizens of this country. The UNC strategy is quite clear. Their message is that Mr Panday has to be innocent and that the corruption charges are therefore the result of a PNM conspiracy. So it is obvious what line will be touted if the courts do find Mr Panday guilty.

The fact of the matter is that Mr Panday has been taken before the court on a corruption charge and the law must take its course. What the UNC mouthpieces are attempting to do is play to the ethnic fears of the Indo-Trinidadian populace in the hope of winning back the ground lost during the party’s tenure in office. This is a dangerous game, which has been played to dire consequences by politicians all around the world. Luckily for us, the national character is not one which turns readily to violence for political ends. We only hope that such restraint continues to prevail as this issue works itself out.