Future looks bleak

It is a truism that electoral politics is the main millstone around our society’s neck. It is also a truism to assert that, if our politics is to improve, change must be ushered in by the upcoming generation. But, if we are to judge by those younger persons who are active in politics, then our political future seems rather bleak. This is the unhappy lesson to be drawn from the latest brouhaha in the Students’ Guild of the University of the West Indies. Last Thursday, a group of students gathered at the Guild’s office to confront president Glen Ramadharsingh about the spending of the $1.8 million of their Guild’s budget, which has reportedly led to the organisation’s accounts being frozen.

The group, led by Guild secretary Fallon Lutchmansingh, claimed that there has been excessive spending on foreign trips and other activities. Now Mr Ramadharsingh may not be guilty of any financial impropriety, and he has promised that every cent will be accounted for. At the same time, his off-the-cuff explanations reflect an attitude that hardly does him credit. On the specific issue of foreign trips, Mr Ramadharsingh’s response was that several Guild presidents before him had also made expensive journeys to far-flung places like South Africa and Paris. Even if this is so, it only shows that Mr Ramadharsingh does not hold himself to a higher — or at least more thrifty — standard. Mr Ramadharsingh also made some curious claims about his critic, Ms Lutchmansingh.

He described her as an “illegitimate” office-holder — an accusation which, if true, raises the question as to why Mr Ramadharsingh, as Guild president, did not remove her. He also said Ms Lutchmansingh was a “terrorist” — apparently because she does not attend meetings or press conferences. This kind of absurd hyperbole is tiresomely familiar. The public hears similar refrains all the time from the nation’s Parliamentary chamber. Indeed, it has long been clear that the attitudes which inform national politics are well in play at the nation’s highest centre of learning. The candidates for various positions always form slates, and those slates are usually divided into racial camps. In matters of competence, just last year one Guild member was found to be occupying his position in contravention of the convention that a student must have passing grades in order to be eligible for office.

It is also apparent that a major motivation for seeking office is not the desire to serve the student populace, but to have access to the hefty $1.8 million budget. After all, the greater part of these funds is spent on entertainment activities, such as fetes, organising campus games, overseas trips, and so on. If any money is spent on intellectual activities — panel discussions, think-tanks, research, newsletters — nobody hears of it. And, as with our national politics, financial restraint is not a priority. The disheartening aspect of all this is the young adults at UWI are supposedly our nation’s best and brightest. Of course, it may be that those persons who fit this description do not get involved in political activity. But, if they do not, then they leave the field open for those whose main advantage is raw ambition. And that is not a campus problem, but a national one.