When the People Rise... (Real Unity)

Don't you just love it when those who set out to fool are themselves fooled and made fools of? This week we had two perfect such examples of the flipping of the script that my romantic heart was filled with so much hope it made me proud to be a Trini once more.

The first was the clearly orchestrated attempt at managing our low information voter through the clever use of racism and threats of violence to destabilize the nation, but which did not so much as backfire as it fizzled, leaving the Public Relations Officers of both of the political parties implicated in the matter taking to the airwaves to finger point and jibber jabber, while the rest of the population yawned, looked away and ignored them both. I swear, if I could have shaken one point three million hands that day I gladly would have, just for the message it sent to the two empty suits of the UNC's Rodney Charles and the PNM's Faris al Rawi. Now it's back to the drawing boards for these two and the dinosaurs behind them who still think that punctured tires and a threatening flyer placed on vehicles was going to incense the public enough to affect them on a passionate political level.

Shows just how much they are misreading the public, doesn't it? The majority of Trinbagonians aren't Africans and Indians no more, they seem to have seen through the ruse. The polls taken by the pollsters continue to tell the politicians and the public two different things, and if I were to advise those pulling the campaign strings it would be to shut up and listen, the people are guiding you. You are not getting statistical dead heats in the polls, you're getting apathy. The people are fed up. This is not twenty years ago, this is the time of instant information where the news cycle lags behind the public information curve. Now the people form opinions before the opinion shapers get a chance to tell them what to think, catching pundits everywhere off guard every single time and I have to say I love it.

Every creed and race appears on the way to finding an equal place, and step one along that road seems to be a uniting in disgust over the fables of the story tellers. Wonderful time to be alive I tell you.

The second thing that happened was the evaporation of Ancil Roget's political if not union leader career and everything else that came wrapped up in that embarrassing collapse of yet another PNM supported, ILP inspired, OWTU led march to nowhere over nothing for no good reason. Not that I am taking a political side to the union's position but am in fact questioning why the union would have one in the first place. But i'm getting ahead of myself. I wonder what David 'opinion on everything ' Abdullah thinks of this latest calamity to befall him and his comrades in arms?  Is he savvy enough to read the tea leaves to see that the entire population is just fed up of the nonsense now? That the lack of real leadership offered by Keith Rowley is a turn off? That the Jesus today, Judas tomorrow games Jack Warner plays are all played out? That no one cares if Ancil Roget is happy or sad because he has never had credibility or integrity with the public to begin with?

No, the politics of the future is certainly not going to be rooted anywhere near the politics of the past and those hoping for a career better understand the times we live in and get with the programme. The people don't care what you look like or the texture of your hair, they know we deserve better and whosoever is dealing those cards can be dealer for the rest of the game for all they care. They understand now that politicians are servants. That you are not going to get a raise in pay until we get an increase in the quality of our lives. That your bitching and moaning in the Parliament will not help you one iota come election time if the people are not satisfied with either your performance or your promise, and bet your bottom dollar, your words better match your track record or you will feel like Anil Roberts felt on his honeymoon night, unsure of if he was really in or out.

Now is the time for the rise of real people-centered, delivery-focused leaders with national vision and hearts for service. None of the numbers of the past are going to matter in this bright new frontier, in a world where the sitting Minister of National Security is so widely loved he could sit in any party, where any colour and it would matter nothing to a public so enamored with him that all they care about is him continuing to hold that job. And that's the lesson. Serving the people is now a measurable quantity not based on your predecessor or your challenger but on you and your promises. The people hold the reins of media and information and possess the ability to check you against yourself and what they know to be in their best interest. We are at a time when delivery is going to talk and gobar is going to walk, and to close how I opened, I am so proud of my fellow Trinis right about now, if for nothing, for finding their way home despite some of the questionable leadership we have had in the past fifty two years. It's a wonderful time to be alive.