Snatch defeat from the brink of victory

By Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Ph.D.
July 2, 2024

A few months ago, I wrote about the United National Congress’s ability to wrestle defeat from the brink of victory. I saw this trend play out in 1976 when the United Labour Front (ULF) was predicted to win the election until its ignominious march from Arima to Port of Spain the Saturday before the vote. I stood there as the parade passed the corner of Cowra Royal Road and East Main Road in El Dorado on its way to Port of Spain. “What they don’t say about black people is what they don’t know.” Such missteps led to its defeat.

I was reminded of this scenario recently when another offshoot of the ULF, the UNC, took revenge on itself, which likely led to its defeat in the Lengua/Indian Walk local elections. The UNC had received the same number of votes as the PNM in the previous election. This time it lost by more than 600 votes.

Even more shocking, Dr. Rai Ragbir, the UNC MP for the Cumuto/Manzanilla constituency, broke with the party and voted in favor of the government’s Whistleblower Protection Bill. It does not matter whether he voted out of conscience, revenge, or, as he said, because the legislation “brought his actions in line with his spiritual and moral values.” (The Express, June 26.) What matters is that his vote marked the beginning of a split within the party, even though he insisted that he “remained loyal to the party.”

This tendency is how politics works in many countries. What I cannot understand is why my columnist colleague Roy Mitchell feels the need to vilify the UN General Assembly and its leaders for such normal political behavior.

He declared: “The decline of the U.S. Congress is no surprise to voters. It is detrimental to the national interest and the result of inexcusable political apathy, immaturity and irresponsibility.”

He continued: “They are so inevitably imprisoned by their own evil mentality that they have unwittingly deprived themselves of the keen insight and judgment given to them by God, which makes them unable to distinguish between fact and fiction, truth and propaganda… They manipulate everything, and in many cases it is a lie of their own making.” (The Express, June 27)

First, this normal phenomenon does not need to slander the Party and its leaders. When a writer describes a nation as having a “malicious mentality” deprived of “God-given wisdom”, what exactly does he mean?

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology, described the mind as being made up of the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. It is the repository of a person’s entire life experience. It is neither good nor bad. It simply exists.

Second, most UNC members are Hindus who neither identify nor talk about “God-given wisdom”. Most black people in Trinidad and Tobago believe in a Christian God, which is a Judeo-Christian theological understanding of the world. Therefore, each group’s view and understanding of the world is necessarily different. Such differences should be acknowledged and respected.

Third, the distinction between fact and fiction, truth and lies, is a matter of logic, which is usually defined as “reasoning conducted or evaluated according to strict principles of validity.” The first principle of logical reasoning is: “If A is B and B is C, then A is C.” I learned this when I was studying philosophy at St. John’s University in New York.

Faith, on the other hand, is associated with “a strong belief in God or religious teachings that is based on spiritual conviction rather than evidence.” If this is true, then Hindus with different belief systems would not identify with the concept of “God-given acuity” as Mitchell does.

Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissesar admitted that the quarrel within her party had gone beyond the line. She said: “I have no intention of having any quarrel with anyone… We are all UNC members and everyone has his or her own space. Members and supporters of all parties must act in the greater interest of the party and ultimately in the greater interest of our country. Supporters of both parties must now work together. Any anger, any resentment or hurt should be forgiven.” (The Express, June 26.)

Trinidad and Tobago is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society. As such, each group responds differently to its political, social and philosophical challenges. So, talking about the “ruthless subversion of the democratic spirit”, as the young people put it, seems “out of place”.

The General Assembly should respect itself and its own institution. It should forget ancient hatreds and realize that one does not have to love one’s brothers and sisters to tolerate each other in the same political body. Compromise and tolerance should be its watchwords. Unless it does this, it will always snatch defeat from the mire of victory.