Basdeo Panday and the Politics of Race

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This publication presents ten articles by Cudjoe on such topics as Panday's politics, a review of Selwyn Ryan's publication on the rise of Indo-Trinidadians to political power, a condemnation of Ramesh Maharaj, the author's views on the conflict generated by Dr. Dennison Moore's thesis on the rise of racial ideology in Trinidad and the particular role of the Presbyterian church, an exposition on the origins and development of the calypso art form, Cudjoe's views on the introduction of casino gambling in Trinidad and a critique of the Green Paper on Media reform introduced for public debate by the government. There is little structure to what is a stringing together of previously published (and some unpublished) articles. Cudjoe's ambitious objective as stated in his introduction was "to contribute to the ongoing discussion on race, ethnicity, the freedom of expression, and how we position ourselves inside and outside these issues". Presumably by focusing on the evolution and centrality of Panday's politics to these pressing issues. Yet the contents as outlined above makes for interesting reading but a thematically disjunctive publication. No clear thesis emerges, indeed this book lacks a coherent argument. The reader may ask: Is it about Panday? Or about issues ethnically specific to political conflict in Trinidad and Tobago to which Basdeo Panday is intrinsically intertwined? Or it is about race in the politics of plural societies? Is it an Emancipation Day offering with a dose of anti-Panday sentiments for effect? The range of central issues pertinent to the book is ill defined. Cudjoe offers a loose collection of articles which are difficult to mesh into a cohesive framework which the title promises. The book is a medium to present previously unpublished (maybe unpublishable even for newspaper columns of a low quality) outpourings. Soon the reader discovers that this publication is not about Basdeo Panday or the Politics of Race! Cudjoe uses the name Basdeo Panday (I suspect without his prior knowledge or permission) to string together a book which should correctly be titled "Articles on Recent Social and Political Issues in Trinidad and Tobago" by Selwyn Cudjoe. But maybe this would not sell, so Cudjoe uses Panday's name for market advantage. Unethical if not unlawful. The book of 129 pages has 3 (out of 10) articles or approximately 44 pages addressing Panday's politics. Unlike Sudama's attempt to put together newspaper articles (see The Political Uses of Myth or Discrimination Rationalized, Battlefront Publications 1993) Cudjoe's book lacks an internal consistency which implore the reader to follow studiously an argument within the parameters of a clearly defined problematic. Accordingly, attempts at advocating policy and practice are necessarily fragmented and confused. Sudama (1993) and Ryan (The Disillusioned Electorate: The Politics of Succession in Trinidad and Tobago 1988, Inprint Caribbean, and Pathways to Power, 1996) have demonstrated that it is possible to connect motif, logic and organisation when presenting collections of newspaper articles. After all Sudama's 90 short articles were organically linked together with the internal consistency of theme, method and structure.

Organizationally Cudjoe's book is sloppy, the failure to first develop a coherent argument within a thematically organised frame work at once presents the book as political pamphleteering. Now absolutely nothing is wrong with this, a rich part of our social and political history is captured by pamphlets. However this constrains any assessment of the work in academic terms. Once rigorous scholarship is absent, we then review the serious and provocative issues that could be raised in a political context. Stylistically the writing is crass and inelegant, strong empirical data are substituted for long winded quotations which distract more than captivate the reader. In terms of structure, an attempt should have been made to sectionize the book according to themes. I would have also welcomed attempts to update and develop with more analytical vigour and evidence most of the articles. Even the rather unsavoury piece on Ramesh Maharaj could have been made digestible had Cudjoe packed less hate in the effort.

Cudjoe's approach to Maharaj and Panday is more consistent with a mission to discredit leadership rather than examine the issue of politics and race. Sadly for this reviewer Cudjoe's intent is not to critically examine Panday's ascendancy and politics but to portray him and his regime as anti-black, and all this evokes. The book has passion and a motive but not logic, structure and objectivity. It is consequently of cheap political value than of academic purpose. This is not a personality study. There is no assessment of Panday's bibliographic detail influencing his philosophy. The reader outside of the Caribbean will never know of Panday's trade union background. The book fails to address key concepts and objectives which Panday has thrown on the national agenda over the years such as ideological pluralism, the parasitic oligarchy (economic democracy), national unity, social justice and racial equality for all. It is therefore not surprising that Panday devotes considerable time and effort to realising his long cherished goal of establishing an Equal Opportunity Commission. Although the leftist shroud of the concept alienation is explained, this is relegated to Panday's alleged use of the concept within a narrow ethnic framework. All of these concepts are presented and articulated in the two publications cited above i.e. An Enigma Answered and Man in the Middle. Cudjoe's failure to consult the text of both books meant that he lost an opportunity to understand Panday's perspective on society and politics, race relations, nation building, economic progress through national unity and other issues relevant to Cudjoe's interest. If one argues that Panday must also be judged by his deeds and not his words then reading both books is imperative. It must be recalled that Panday as Opposition Leader boycotted all state functions held in 1985 in honour of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Trinidad and Tobago as a mark of protest at the then British Government's refusal to impose meaningful economic sanctions against the racist apartheid government in South Africa. Panday showed such courage when many leaders (including those that Cudjoe exalts) met and bowed to Her Majesty. In 1990 a furious Basdeo Panday took on cricket great Vivian Richards when he called for a ban and apology from Richards for insulting Indians by suggesting that the WI cricket team was the only team of African descendants to win repeatedly against international opposition. On that occasion Panday had the support of both daily newspapers in Trinidad. The first demonstrates protest action over racism against blacks, the second at racism against Indians. Many more examples of purposeful action in the cause of social justice can be found in An Enigma Answered and Man in the Middle.

No mention is made of Panday's many attempts to engage the society in debates over fundamental political reforms aimed at deepening the democratic and participatory character of decision making i.e. breaking away from the antagonistic Westminster Model, the introduction of US primary type elections in his party, the use of US styled committee systems in the legislature. If the work is ahistorical as it relates to race and Panday, it is also not comparative. No emphasis is placed on political and social conflict in other plural developing countries where blacks and Indians are the dominant populations (Guyana, Suriname, Fiji). Such a comparative focus may assist in understanding ethnic relations and power in relation to the contemporary issues in Trinidad and Tobago and point us in a direction as to policy and prescription. In this context one should note that the resurgence of ethnic identity is a global phenomena not confined to the developing countries. But these analytical elements in the wider political environment are sadly missing. Cudjoe is more about crucifying Panday. Not surprisingly we find a lone picture (of the principal figure) on the front cover (with Panday's back to the camera) of certainly the most photographed politician in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. Was this due to a lack of resources? I think not.

If the first part of the book represents pseudo-intellectualism at its best, the reader gets some relief by the articles addressing Dr. Moore and the Presbyterians, Calypso and the Yoruba Oral tradition, tourism and even his article on the media. Of course the temptation to pound Panday and Maharaj is over bearing and takes away from what could have been seminal pieces. Indeed his foreword writer Professor Biodun Jeyifo (Cornell University) expresses the bias much better than I can when he notes that Cudjoe's "passion for truth and fairness is often swept aside by his fervor and frankness.. this is noticeable in the opening more journalistic pieces in his book_Cudjoe's reactions as an Afro-Trinidadian to the actions and policies of Panday's Indo-Trinidadian dominated UNC government are tinged more with gusto and the frankness than with the more ethically demanding strict adherence to truth and fairness". Need I say more!

Cudjoe see himself as the academic parallel to the calypsonian whose job it is to "call the shots as I see them", to act as a critic of the social order. This implies a dual role as, on the one hand, a mouth piece to express the unclad views of community members and secondly to give some analysis of his/her view of the current order and future expectations. This is emancipatory in nature. Yet Cudjoe, like many others, don't seem to appreciate that Panday has always been the equivalent of the calypsonian to the Indian masses, providing a fearless voice in articulating their grievances and an unrelenting expression to their inner feelings on a host of national issues. Indians to this day don't have the calypsonian as their voice. Those successful Indian calypsonians are still at the party tune rung and have not come forth with the courage or lyrics to address their ethnic and community grievances. Cudjoe attempts to enlighten primarily the black community to which the book is understandably pitched at (thus the book launches cleverly done during the Emancipation Day Celebrations) to the dangers of Panday and the UNC government in terms of discrimination in distributing state resources, smothering essentially black cultural art forms and suppressing the key outlet for public opposition, i.e. the media. These are very serious charges which if true deserve not only our moral outrage but speedy corrective action by Panday via legislation (like that which outlawed discrimination at night clubs) and bringing those responsible to account publicly. Indeed such anti-discrimination legislation is needed to outlaw practices developed as a result of institutionalised discrimination practised by the former PNM regimes. Of course Cudjoe ignores this part of our history which is well documented in two volumes on racial practices in hiring and promotion in the public bureaucracy and armed forces done by the Centre for Ethnic Studies. Cudjoe could have examined how anti-discrimination legislation and anti-racism training for the public and private sector work places could be adopted to alleviate any practice and perception of racism in recruitment, employment and promotion. Such policies are in place in both the US and UK. Those experiences may have relevance to us. But no such help is forthcoming. Unlike the Sudama book which attempts to highlight the institutional and systematic discrimination practised against the Indian population by the predominantly black PNM governments (in a sense Sudama advocated in ethnic terms the flip side of Cudjoe's charges) Cudjoe brings little empirical data or historical facts to support the charges of dictatorship and discrimination. He depends a lot on a case study type methodology, referring to the vibes, what the people are saying, their personal sentiments, etc. While this is an acceptable scientific method, one has to be careful whether one is reflecting or manufacturing such vibes, whether such feelings are real, whether they are perceptions or facts. Both of which are important to address.

On the media, Cudjoe presents an insightful yet inciting diatribe. Having said a lot Cudjoe still does not confront the question (now occupying international attention) as to whether the press has "an untrammelled right to publish". Some may regard this as rhetorical but it is increasingly becoming a deeply profound question. In relation to Cudjoe's book, while we concede that one must have a right to be biased; does one also have a right to incite racial distrust? Clearly many of the arguments lack evidence, truth and fairness are swept aside in the words of Professor Jeyifo. Three examples suffice, although many can be found; (i) Cudjoe states that the UNC simply dole out favours to its own, p. 42. Is this a fact? Can data be provided to show how this is happening? (ii) P. 10 - "when the UNC assumed the reigns of government, one of its first acts was to settle the Caroni issue and undertake to redistribute thousands of acres of land to its constituents_yet it refuses to negotiate with the TTUTA..". Again is this a fact? Did the UNC undertake to distribute 1000s of acres of land to its constituents? Did the government refuse to negotiate with the teachers or was it a case where negotiations were taken to its limit then broke down and the government followed the next step in the statutory provisions for settling industrial disputes? Such allegations maliciously expressed without evidence can only serve to promote suspicion and antagonism in our society and tarnish our democratic credentials in the eyes of foreign readers; (iii) Is Panday really waging "a campaign to discredit the calypso art form", as we are told on p. 30? His evidence, as Panday would be the first to argue, depends wholeheartedly on "half truths, lies and innuendoes". If the complex issues are deliberately mishandled and manipulated, the little mistakes also annoy, after all Dr. Vincent Lasse was welcomed as a member of the coalition government and not as a new member of Cabinet as the caption on the back cover would have us believe. The amusing, yet tragic irony is that Cudjoe commits the very crime he accuses Panday of perpetrating i.e. "waging an unscrupulous, subversive battle against words and their meanings_" p. 30. Cudjoe may have achieved his objective of contributing to the ongoing discussion on race, ethnicity and the freedom of expression, however his assistance may ensure that such a debate is shaped by paranoia and hysteria and not evidence and rational.

In conclusion, I need to ask whether it is not unethical to use the name of the highest incumbent office holder in the country, without his prior knowledge or permission, proclaiming him to be the principal figure of a book to gain sales and widespread publicity?

At TT $ 40 per copy Cudjoe's book is terribly overpriced when one considers that you can get the same anti-UNC perspective from a copy of the Independent at 50 cents. Like Cudjoe, I am also obliged to call shots as I see them. (Roodal Moonilal is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Social Studies, in Hague, the Netherlands.)