Captain the Ship is Sinking

Under tragic circumstances, a tourist submarine got lost on a voyage to the Titanic at the bottom of the sea. Many would recall, the Titanic sank in 1912, one hundred and eleven years ago with 2700 passengers on Board, inclusive of many “powerful” persons. Seven hundred and five people survived with 1500 perishing. This after several warnings from nearby vessels. It is reported that the Captain and the crew felt that the Titanic was impregnable. The rest is History.

The vessel also has some powerful people on Board at a price of USD$250,000 per ticket. This brings me to Local Government Elections and its silly season. Amidst a flurry of defections to the PNM party, the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) said that “Jumpers will sink with PNM”. She claims she is not fazed by Political Opportunists who abandon the UNC Ship. Calls for her to step down and make way for new blood do not faze her. She reiterated that the voice of the people is the voice of God and her place as Leader comes from the membership. I guess she is referring to the 120,000 odd members as of December 2020. This is out of 1,134, 135 Registered voters or just more than 10% of Eligible voters.

Mrs. Persad –Bissessar wants the public to know that while some members of her party may have left for another, “many” PNM members have also shown an interest in joining the UNC. However, she said the UNC does not want any “PNM rejects”. Last week, former UNC senator and chief economist at the Office of the opposition Leader Taharqa Obika joined the PNM. Before that, three UNC local councillors also switched sides to the PNM. These are signs that a Leader must not take for granted or treat with impunity. Persad-Bissessar said all

Judases will find their Judgement day and the UNC will not pay ‘no 30 pieces of silver” to bring in PNM rejects.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister is welcoming all on board his ship, seemingly to get as much hands on Board to save his own Ship. I would think that desperate times call for desperate measures. So the question arises which ship will sink. What is certain is that one of the ships will indeed sink. The other question that arises is that what is expected of the Leader of the Ship that sunk. I would think that he or she should do the honourable thing.

There is a saying that empty vessels make the most noise, now is the time to put up your hands and be counted. So is Local Government Elections of great significance? It would seem so since the Government postponed the elections and it is only because of a Privy council ruling of three versus two that we have elections. The behaviour of both Leaders give the impression that this election is a make or break one. The election comes two years after the PNM’s landslide loss in the December 2021 Tobago house of assembly election where the party was wiped out of Office after two decades in power. Unofficial polls point to a widespread rejection among the population for both the Governing party and the Opposition. Both are Leaders of their Parties since 2010 and both are facing the stiffest test of their career. Guyana recently had its local Government elections and whilst the results are yet to be finalised, the ruling party has claimed victory in 62 out of the 80 districts. Incidentally, the Opposition in Guyana had asked for a postponement of the elections but they lost in Court.

The results of the last Local elections in 2021 showed a tie basically with each ruling party holding seven Corporations each. Unofficial polls

tend to indicate some level of discontent with our current Leaders. I think that our Leaders show throw their “hats” in the ring and the loser should exit his or her ship. He or she should bow out gracefully and the population must thank them for the yeoman or yeowoman service they have rendered to their country.

How do we measure performance then? The major Political Parties are defending the following numbers of Electoral districts from Municipal Corporations on Election day :

PNM – 72 electoral districts from seven municipal corporations and the UNC 67 . The Overall voter turnout was 34.71%. therefore in my mind, if the Leaders do not better these number ie improve on the number of districts they control and improve on the voter turnout, then it could be a sign of waning support in Leadership. According to the Hunger games slogan “may the odds be ever in your favour” – just remember, there cannot be two winners.