Abdullah the Butcher... (On the MSJ Play)

With an announcement that may well be responsible for sending Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar to the hospital in Barbados, the leader of the Movement for Social Justice David Abdullah did what the entire leadership of the Congress of the People failed to do in their series of marathon meetings, press conferences and talk show appearances and despite having six seats in the Parliament as opposed to the MSJ's zero. Very much like his biblical namesake, David demonstrated with what can only be referred to as a surprise and very sophisticated move that size really does not matter when you know what you and your organization stand for and against, and he succeeded in registering a serious complaint with a government that he and his organization are a part of without sound, fury nor threat of removing himself and his party from the Government. That took some doing, didn't it?

Having returned all the benefits of remaining in government to demonstrate that he and they were there about service to country first and foremost in stark contrast to the COP's fight for position, Abdullah managed to pull all the moral authority of the disenchanted, under-represented center to himself, leaving the (former) party of the moral center (the COP) high and dry and without a map, a paddle or a clear idea between them. Listening to their leader Prakash Ramadhar compare the actions of the MSJ  to what they (the COP) was trying to do caused one onlooker to remark that Prakash was quite possibly suffering from a bad case of testicular envy. Expectedly the sting in all of this has to be felt by the members of the Congress of the People, who must be wondering what they did to find themselves in such a blighted and sorry place leadership wise.

So what happens next? Can the predominantly labor based MSJ becoming politically sexy enough to challenge the established PNM and UNC in a straight up fight? I doubt it. Especially not with wildly unpopular characters like Ancil Roget in its ranks. At best the most that they could hope to be is a spoiler in the race, but as that has no political value in and of itself, the exercise would serve no one, especially not labour. And what of the Congress of the People, what are their fortunes in the growing redevelopment of the center? From my perspective the time of the COP is behind us now and any impression they make in the next election will at best be a protest vote as a swan song. With this in mind I would like to suggest that they put up Carson Charles and Joseph Toney to fight seats on the ground, and bring back Jensen Fox and Tony Smart to round out the return of the NAR, the only real faction left in the now gutted COP. Too harsh? Where are the east indian supporters who, disenchanted with Basdeo Panday were willing to follow Winston Dookeran into the 'promise land' of new politics? Did they not return in droves to their former home in the UNC once their leader Prakash Ramadhar sanitized it for them once again on the no confidence campaign?

Those who want to rewrite history and force facts to fix their version of reality could go right ahead, but some of us prefer to call things as they are. The only reason the electorate are not panicking at the spectre of a revamped and rampant PNM taking advantage of the hiccups in the partnership is that they too are too off balanced due to internal wrangling and power struggles to bother anybody, and until Dr. Rowley can solve simple issues like the public revolt of the balisier tie issue being played out in the Parliament every Friday, they are no threat to anybody. The political play-field remains ripe for real change and one can only hope that somewhere, someone(s) are looking at starting something new, something fresh and devoid of recycled politicians. Until then, simple plays like the MSJ play will seize the electorate's attention, because anything that looks like integrity and morality would be celebrated by a people long jaded by displays of selfish self serving politics regardless of what they promised going in.