What I know of Trinidad's politics.

[Trying to find a way forward, we need to at least understand how we arrived at where we are today politically.]
(This is condensed for illustration, the broader perspective is what is on display).

After Independence was declared (allowed) from Britain, Trinidad and Tobago was ruled by Eric Williams and his political party the PNM, exclusively until he died.
The party weathered many storms over the unbroken twenty four years it was in power, including civil unrest (the Black Power Uprising and the 1970 mutiny) internal political challenges (Deputy political leader ANR Robinson, who in turn had to leave and went on to form his own party the DAC) and some of the worst examples of public corruption in the civilized world.
The first real challenge to its political power came in 1980 from the right in the form of The ONR, led by Attorney at Law Karl Hudson Phillips. The ONR won no seats in the 1980 election, despite polling higher votes than the opposition, and coming second in all 36 constituencies. If anything, this was at least a demonstration of a desire for change country wide.
The then opposition ULF, led by Attorney/sugar union leader Basdeo Panday, was seen as an East Indian worker party, and was not respected politically at a national level at that time.
After Mr. Williams' death,the least known (corrupt) member of the party, George Chambers was elevated to Prime Minister for the remainder of the legislative term.
Gripped by real recession, with a near empty treasury and a world oil crisis, the party was finally removed from power in 1986 by the coming together of all opposing forces (Karl Hudson Phillips' ONR, Basdeo Panday's ULF, Lloyd Best's Tapia, and ANR Robinson's DAC) into one coalition - the NAR, and which won the next general election with a convincing majority of 33 seats to three. This election also consigned George Chambers and the old PNM guard to history,making A.N.R. Robinson Prime Minister, and elevating political unknown Patrick Manning to the leader of the now PNM opposition with three seats, which included Morris Marshall, who died at the hands of insurgents in 1990.

The country circled the drain for four financially strapped and tumultuous years, which broke the NAR into two factions (the NAR and the UNC) and erupted in the upheaval of an attempted (failed) coup (hostage crisis) by the Jamaat Al Muslimeen in 1990.

In 1991 the remains of the NAR coalition experiment failed at the polls. Having left the marital bed of accommodation, Basdeo Panday took his ULF seats and formed Club '88 in Aranjuez, which became the UNC and went on to become the Opposition to the then elected Manning PNM.
Continuing the path of fiscal responsibility laid down by Mrs Patricia Robinson and Finance Minister Selby WIlson of the NAR, the PNM's Wendell Mottley continued to guide the ship of state out of the clutches of the IMF and the World Bank.
Buoyed by rising oil prices yet constrained by a slim majority in Parliament, Mr. Manning demonstrated his ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and called his first snap election in '95 which he lost, and gave us another DAC/ULF (NAR/UNC) accommodation, with the UNC forming the Government, and the NAR's Robinson eventually being made President of the Republic (a purely ceremonial position).

This UNC government, which included some old NAR hold outs like Kamla Persad Bissessar, was arguably the most disruptive and corrupt tenure of any government since independence, and attacked trade unions, the Judiciary, the free press, even the teachers and nurses were not spared attack and ridicule.
Utilizing the proceeds of high energy prices, the party went on an infrastructure development spree, culminating in a billion dollar airport terminal and allegations of massive corruption.
The party was rocked by scandal after scandal as factions inside the UNC wrangled for political power. History will show that Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj's political 'horn' caused the UNC's collapse, and, were it not for the rise of his Team Unity in the party (AGAINST the wishes of Mr. Panday's then handler Lawrence Duprey), went on to soundly trounce Kamla and Carlos John, and accidentally saved this country from further rape by the UNC cabal of Galbaransingh, Gillette, Kuie Tung, and Duprey, and gave rise to the 'new moralists' (read united against Panday) and the COP.
Patrick Manning and the PNM were handed governance and evidence to prosecute the corrupt UNC ministers by Ramesh, and Basdeo Panday, having been found guilty of failing to declare significant and questionable assets to the Integrity Commission, was put in jail.
That he is NOT in jail now asks more questions than it answers, but that issue, because of Kamla's elevation to political leader of the UNC, is irrelevant to this discussion.

That new PNM has challenged the UNC for the title of King of Corruption, with the Calder Hart/UDECOTT fiasco being what some fear to be the tip of a massive iceberg of systemic rape by very corrupt individuals and the loss of hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars from the National Treasury, the property of the People of Trinidad and Tobago.

That Government has collapsed and we face another election and another fool's choice, damned if you go left, suckered if you go right.

My main questions here are these:

Can the PNM ever be trusted again with the public purse?

Was Kamla Persard Bissesssar a part of the then 'corrupt' UNC, and was she bound to act against the corruption if she herself was not corrupt?

Going forward from here, re-electing the PNM is out of the question. That said, what is to be made of the UNC/COP/TOP/NJAC coalition?

One of the major issues facing the electorate disenchanted with Patrick Manning and the PNM is how to justify Jack warner's presence at the head of a party positioning themselves in an anti corruption fight. Mr. Panday has decided to make this man against man, and there is no way in hell Warner winning against Bas in an east indian stronghold, no way, no how. What this has inadvertently done is to give Basdeo Panday the moral high ground, because make no mistake, Jack Warner is a corrupt individual and he needs to be barred from public office, like all corrupt individuals.

The COP brings middle class acceptance to a party the middle class are pre disposed to loathe,because the COP either believes themselves incapable of stooping to conquer, or worse, that they will never be able to capture a seat in the House. The NJAC brings some sort of african approval to a predominantly east Indian party still based in the sugar union's headquarters, but the NJAC is a fringe party at best,with policies based in african culture and attracting the lowest on the political totem pole; The NJAC and the COP are polar opposites, and begs the question, how can this accommodation of expediency survive, in or out of public office?
TOP in Tobago is an admittance from the UNC that they will never be able to represent Tobago, so how can they claim to be a national party?


The answer to that question presents us with real hope and opportunity, but to receive it we need political maturity.
We need to remake the Parliament into what it was created to be, a House of Representatives of the People, populated by members making informed decisions, voting conscience and representing their constituents. The lie that you need a party is perpetuated by party financiers who need guarantees of significant return on investment to contribute for campaigning, which flies in the face of the basic rules of our democracy. That every sitting Prime Minister has taken part in this deceit of the people over the years is disgusting, and warrants a return to people power.

We need more independents in the House.

At the very least they will serve us a buffer against abuses by Government and function in the people's interest.