A TRINIDADIAN author who is championing the cause for a working class party to take over Trinidad and Tobago has hailed George Chambers as the best of the post-Independence Prime Ministers.

And Raymond Watts has also slammed as erroneous, the Father of the Nation title bestowed on Dr. Eric Williams after his death in office.

In the original version of his 636-page thesis, From Colonialism to Capitalist Democracy: A Failed Option for Trinidad and Tobago, which is now being finally prepared for publication, Watts, who migrated to Canada in his early years, also likened Patrick Manning to “the dog and the bone” story, and described A.N.R. Robinson as “the man with all the qualifications who led people up a dead-end like his predecessor Dr. Williams”.

“The first People’s National Movement (PNM) successor to Williams, Chambers, towered above all the other Prime Ministers including Williams himself,” said Watts, whose posturing is anti-imperialist/capitalist, pro-socialist.

“His slogan, ‘the fete done’, his snubbing of US President Ronald Reagan’s West Indian roll call in Barbados and his obvious unwillingness to grant an audience to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) brought about his humiliating defeat in the 1986 general election to the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), who were subsidised by the business community that now support the present government and will continue to do so as long as there is the absence of a workers party.”

He added, sounding almost disappointed about the move: “Without a public explanation, PM Chambers dropped out of the public’s view until his death in 1996.”

But Watts noted: “Chambers appointment as a person of mixed race did very little to calm the racial hatred that existed at that time, and a political tilt toward nationalism did not help him very much.

“Nor did ignoring the call by Amoco for a reduction of the petroleum taxes and his unwillingness to jump at the option to borrow from the IMF that brought disfavour from the US upon himself and his party.”

Watts continued: “In the 48 years since the PNM came to power, the society has changed governments only four times and each time the new government appeared to be worse than the one before; save for the period when Dr. Williams reigned uninterrupted.

“This was due largely because of the public’s misconception that his academic reputation as a scholar gave him leeway to do as it pleased him.

“He died after 25 years in office with the erroneous title of father of the nation.”

Watts contended: “His work Capitalism and Slavery was an excellent analysis of slavery and its relation to the industrial revolution.

“His reputation as a scholar assured him great respect which he used instead of using history as his guide.

RAYMOND
WATTS

GEORGE
CHAMBERS

A.N.R.
ROBINSON

BASDEO
PANDAY

PM PATRICK
MANNING

“But although he was an able historian, he was, in fact, a reactionary political leader who played a subordinate role in submitting TnT to its status as a protectorate of the Anglo/American alliance.”

He continued: “When NAR replaced the PNM in 1986, pre-election feelings were stirred by propaganda suggesting that the people were about to vote for something new: ‘one love’, a euphemism for racial tolerance.

“The NAR canvassers called upon PNM members to jump ship, because the PNM ship was sinking in a ‘rough sea’, but the truth was that the PNM was up to its ears in corruption and NAR did not square with the working class either on where they stood ideologically, as they cozied themselves with a passage to power free from any ideological explanation.”

Watts added: “The atmosphere caused by the demise of the PNM carried an aura of a new beginning to some members of the public and for a short while many people honestly believed that something consequential was going to happen.

“An anxious silence pervaded the political atmosphere, but in a short time all the hype disappeared and all that was left was the residue of the electoral rhetoric about ‘One Love’.

“But frustrated by the fact that there was little change in the infrastructure of NAR and by the absence of a policy that captured the workers expectation as an alternative to capitalism, the electorate was persuaded to sanction the return of the PNM under the new leadership of Manning.”

He spoke about Manning’s “greedy, dog and the bone” decision to call an early election in 1995 and the coming into power of the UNC, which political accommodation, he said, “lasted for a full five years of Hindu fundamentalist capitalism”.

Watts added: “At election time, political parties tend to misuse such terms such as national unity, democratic alliance and reconstruction.

“These terms have always been deliberately used to mislead.”

He added: “It is difficult to imagine the present leader of the Opposition Basdeo Panday ever being allowed to abuse the term national unity again, in the winner-take-all system and where unequal in the superior sense is the order of the day.

“In the heat of political hustling, inclusion and alliance came to simply mean a fundamental change in the administration of capitalism at the expense of the Afro-Creoles or vice versa, with racial undertones that make this political hype predictable ...

“Until then, they would once more dress and talk in a mockery of poor people as they walk about generously distributing worth-less hampers and promises and pressing the flesh in a mockery of genuine greetings and a total lack of respect for the intelligence of the population.

“The ritual speaks for itself; the problem is not the fault of the other party.

“It is more likely the system of capitalism, and therefore both parties could be ardent capitalist and be incumbent and opposition at the same time, but what about the workers?

“And no one seemed to have thought of giving the power to the people.

“In this sense it can be said that Robinson ‘the man with all the qualifications led the people up a dead-end, just like his predecessor, Dr. Williams’.”

He added: “There is no mystery in the winning of elections by the PNM.

“The reason they came back to haunt NAR and the UNC was because it was more organised and experienced in campaigning in bourgeois elections with the additional power of 30 years of incumbency.

“The vote that returned the PNM to power was a statement that read: we know the devil we have, but we don’t know the devil that we will get.”

But Watts warned: “Should there ever be the formation of a vibrant socialist party it would be very difficult for the present crop of politicians to survive without the use of violence and the direct intervention of the States of the Anglo/American alliance to protect them against revolutionary elections.

“If voting for an end to racial discord is one thing, voting for democracy in the distribution and production of wealth is quite another.

“This is where the socialist or workers party education will make the difference but it will take time, patience and courage to achieve this high political status.”