Book review

Conclusion

CRISES IN ethnic relations and their political consequences may change in intensity over time and assume different forms and would be related to circumstances which induce heightened or diminished levels of ethnic consciousness. The study has not given sufficient indepth attention to the modalities and variability of such latent consciousness.

In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, the dismissal of the core ULF element from the NAR Government in 1988 (the era of “triumph over race”) unleashed palpable ethnic tensions despite the effort to overcome the race factor in the formation of the party.

In the general election campaign of 2015, it was not difficult to discern the obtrusive ethnic innuendo and the associated allegation of racial propensity as the basis of the PNM campaign when Indo-Trinidadians as a group were characterised as the high priests and priestesses of corruption.

This allegation, to a large extent, demarcated the ethnic and political divide at the time when five years earlier a concerted attempt was made by the People’s Partnership to forge a coalition supported by a cross-section of ethnic groups in an effort to emasculate the race factor.

While it may be argued that ethnic tensions between people of African and Indian descent reached their peak in the period of the early sixties, the consciousness of ethnicity remains a potent and subliminal factor in determining political outcomes. It therefore cannot be discounted that in certain societal conjunctures in the future such consciousness can assume crisis proportions.

However, the chapter headings seem to suggest that there is a secular trend in ethnic relations which moves from a crisis mode to one in which ethnicity is triumphantly eliminated as a cardinal predisposing factor in determining political configurations and outcomes. Thus, it may seem somewhat premature and overly optimistic to predict political outcomes as denoting a “triumph over race”.

With respect to the notable effort to neutralise the salience of the race factor in Trinidad and Tobago, the study gave merely casual recognition to the relevance of the emergence of the Congress of the People (COP) political party in 2006 and its quest for electoral support in the 2007 general election.

The party, though led by an Indo- Trinidadian, was not overtly identified with any particular race and drew its support from diverse ethnic groupings.

In the process, the party garnered the not insubstantial proportion of 22 percent of the votes cast in the 2007 general election and its association with the People’s Partnership (PP) in the general election of 2010 was arguably the most significant element in the PP’s ability to project a national multi-ethnic image and gain overwhelming electoral success.

When the COP’s support base largely withdrew by 2015, the PP lost its multi-ethnic appeal and there was a reversion to the more familiar ethnic bases of political alignments.

Another issue with the study is the large number of variables employed to identify changes in the relevance of the race factor and its relationship to politics.

Such an approach makes the analysis somewhat unwieldy and indeterminate in assessing the relative effect of each variable. It should be possible to simplify the analysis by identifying in certain conjunctures three or four variables of paramount significance and examine their impact.

This book makes a useful contribution to the literature on race and politics in plural societies.

The subject has been well researched.

The study offers a wealth of detail and corroborating material in support of its thesis and presents an engaging perspective on politics in the two countries examined. It should be of interest to academics, politicians, policymakers, and leaders in the spheres of civil society.