An Answer to Corruption — The Past

“When I want to understand what is happening today,
Or try to decide what will happen tomorrow,
I look back” - Oliver Wendel Holmes Jr

The 1950s was an exciting time of political change in TT. We were moving from a Colonial Government to Internal Self Government to Independence. Those were the days of the old stalwarts like Uriah Buzz Butler, Albert Gomes, Roy Joseph, Norman Tang Ajodhasingh, Victor Bryan, the legendary Bhadase Sagan Maharaj and others. It was a politically muddled time. There was talk of corruption in the air and a racial tone was creeping into politics.

It was onto this scene that Dr Eric Williams in 1955, like a knight in white armour and mounted on his sturdy and multiracial steed, the PNM, entered the political fray. Using his unique oratory as a sword and holding aloft the banner of “Morality in Public Affairs,” he slashed this way and that at the enemy and emerged victorious in the 1956 Elections. He then went on to win the crucial 1962 Elections. But alas! The banner of “Morality in Public Affairs” very soon began to droop and by the late 1960s was dragging in the mud. From the late 1950s I began to witness a disturbing trend to racialism in the then Civil Service and the Police Force. I was there, a civil servant at the Treasury. I am not one to cry “wolf” when there is none. I saw what I saw. After Independence it grew into open discrimination and then sunk into the cesspit of corruption. Corruption cannot exist without public officers who are willing to join in it or who for one reason or the other, keep quiet about it.

The sordid financial deals followed — like the Lockjoint Sewerage Project, the Tesoro Scandal, the DC 10 Affair, the Caroni Racing Complex. This was the time of the Prevatts and the O’Hallorans of the PNM. The most debased of all was the Gas Station Shame. It led to the death of Miss Gene Miles who thought that there were men of honour in the government of the day. She died a slow and horrible death at the hands of wicked men, losing her beauty, her womanhood and her dignity in the process. When we stood by and allowed this sickening thing to happen to this courageous woman, this nation began to lose its soul. Corruption was institutionalised and given legitimacy the day a PNM Minister of Government openly proclaimed — “All ah we tief.” This removed any lingering doubt that there was something rotten in the land.

Like Gene Miles before him, Selwyn Richardson, PNM Attorney General, tried to do something about the corruption in his party. His attempts were cleverly shunted aside and he was later murdered one day outside his home. His murder have not been solved up to this day nor have the Police cleared up in any way, the uncertainty which still lingers. Many people believe that his murder had to do with his fight against corruption. By 1986 the PNM was drowning in the cesspit of corruption and discrimination. The NAR came on to the political scene sweeping the polls by a margin of 33 to 3. The people had enough and demonstrated by their vote that they wanted a multiracial and honest government. That is still the longing desire and hope of the majority of the people today....and will show itself again if a multiracial party of honest men and women arises.

The NAR inherited a failing economy, a bloated Public Service and a culture of corruption and discrimination. On the economy, it was faced with the down-sizing of the Public Service or reducing salaries, a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. It chose the latter and brought down the wrath of public servants on its head. Its greatest challenge however, lay in keeping multiracialism in politics alive. It failed in this. It split apart giving rise to the UNC. The consequences were tragic. The splitting apart of the NAR threw the country into a state of despair and hopelessness. Into this seeming void came the Muslimeen attempted coup of 1990. No one knows how many innocent people were murdered in the coup, it is said to be about 28.

Both leaders of today, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, were, fortunately for them, not in Parliament and at that fateful hour of our history and they escaped the horror of it and the terror inflicted on those who were there. Surprisingly, no public inquiry was ever held into this outrage on our democracy. Surely if ever there was a need for a public inquiry into anything, it was this. Why, the public continues to speculate even to this day, did not Mr Manning or Mr Panday hold a public inquiry when they  subsequently came into power in 1991 and 1995. What is more amazing is that both these gentlemen courted the Muslimeen leader while in office paying him a deference which is bewildering. Did our two esteemed leaders use the Muslimeen in their election campaigns which followed the coup to intimidate the “enemy” and are they now bound to him in some way? Can the public be blamed for the lingering suspicion it feels?

When we, the people, did not demand, first, of Mr Manning and then later, of Mr Panday, that a public inquiry be held into the coup in which many innocent citizens of this country were murdered, at some point in that time this nation lost the last of what remained of its soul. In the election which followed the coup in 1991, the new PNM postured that it had changed its ways and had thrown off the cloak of corruption and discrimination worn by the old PNM. It regained power on that promise and formed the Government with the UNC in Opposition. The NAR was annihilated with its only support remaining in Tobago. It quickly became clear that the new PNM had deceived the nation. It continued the policies of the old PNM. It was business as usual with corruption and discrimination.

It was into this scene the UNC came into power in 1995. The people were optimistic. They looked forward to a cleansing process and honest government. It was not to be. The lure of corruption, of easy money, was too great. The UNC followed after the PNM and wallowed in the slime.
Ramesh Maharaj, another Attorney General, this time of the UNC tried to do something about corruption in his party. The Prime Minister threw him out of the Government and in doing so, threw the UNC out of power in the election that followed. Today, we have this Prime Minister charged with an offence under the Integrity Act and several “big” people including a past minister of both the PNM and the UNC charged with various crimes of corruption.