Jack is a born fighter

It is true that political office enables the successful aspirant to be of service to the electorate which elects him to office. Voters believe the promises made that the candidate will use his office and the authority with which he is vested to serve the people who voted him into office and that he will make himself available to his constituents to listen to them and fight for such services and rights to which they are lawfully entitled. They expect their representative to be a servant of the people and not become arrogant and think he/she is the master of the people.

Most constituents are rudely disillusioned by the conduct of politicians. When a genius appears on the political landscape and by his unselfish and indefatigable labours strives to improve the lot of the people, the dunces are all in conspiracy against him! And in this my native land the ugly spectre of race is one of the dastardly weapons used against the ‘enemy’, even if he is on your own side! Jack Warner is enduring that treacherous experience today which I endured in the 1961-66 term of parliament. To fight the opponent is challenge enough, especially when you are in Opposition. To find treachery, back-stabbing and conspiracy against you in your own party is an unexpected hurdle.

And if the leader is weak, the dangers are great. Most people know who the conspirators are.

But Jack Warner is more than a match for those, singly or collectively, who envy the influence he has been able to exercise on the political leader of his party who is Prime Minister. There is no one in the PP party who is anywhere a near match for him in his sagacity and profound political sense. He is an extremely shrewd politician with a sharpened political instinct. He is a survivor non-parelle.

But more important than all that is the joy he finds in the trust and love the people of his constituency have in him. He revels in the Herculean task of lifting the oppressed and abandoned people of Chaguanas West, the constituency he represents, to a status of equality where they can feel the dignity and equality long denied them. Jack Warner is a born fighter.

Balgobin Ramdeen

Attorney-at-Law (retired), author and former MP