My top 20 worst political blunders in Trinidad’s modern history

Many and varied are the political blunders made in Trinidad and Tobago in the last century. The country has an unrivalled record of major mistakes that would normally guarantee death by hanging resulting in the culprits walking free.  The 1970 military mutiny by army officers Raffique Shah and Rex Lasalle, the 1990 attempted armed coup by Yasin Abu Bakr’s black Muslims and the 2013 claim by opposition leader Keith Rowley that the prime minister had conspired to murder a journalist, all resulted in the miscreants escaping serious penalties. Read them and marvel.  This is my pick of the blunders. 

1. 1937 TUB Butler, in hiding from the colonial authority because of his role in the 1937 labour riots, accepts an assurance of safe passage to testify at an enquiry into the riots. He is arrested by the authority and jailed for the next eight years until 1945. This takes the acknowledged labour leader out of circulation and weakens the labour movement Butler had galvanized. 
2. 1950 TUB Butler foolishly decides to fight Albert Gomes in Gomes’ stronghold Woodbrook seat and loses badly.  He could easily have won another seat in his south or central Trinidad strongholds, and brought his British Empire Citizens and Workers Home Rule Party to seven seats in the Legislative Council instead of six. This loss damaged Butler as a serious political figure and without him in the Council allowed the governor to choose Albert Gomes of the smaller POPPG party as chief minister.
3. 1958 Chief Minister Eric Williams calls Indians a hostile and recalcitrant minority and labels the Hindu schools as “cowsheds,” alienates most Indians and Hindus permanently and widens the racial divisions in the society for the rest of the century. This is a critical error that cost Williams any chance of becoming a true national leader across racial lines.
4. 1961 Democratic Labour Party leaders refuse to let former leader Bhadase Maraj back into the party he founded, losing their best vote getter and populist leader.  DLP dies ten years later.
5. 1963 DLP leader and Opposition leader Rudranath Capildeo accepts a full time post at the University of London and attempts unsuccessfully to run the party while living abroad. He has to give up his position as Opposition leader but retains his post as party leader. Not surprisingly, this leads to widespread infighting and competition for leadership, severely damaging the once powerful  DLP and causing the departure of top leaders as well as the formation of splinter parties for the 1966 elections.  Capildeo must take most of the blame for the collapse and disappearance of the DLP.
6. 1970 National Joint Action Committee (Black Power) leaders fail to negotiate with DLP leaders or Bhadase Maraj, sugar union, Maha Sabha leader and Chaguanas MP to guarantee Indian participation in their African-Indian Unity march.  Few Indians join, the march fails and the PNM government survives, all NJAC leaders are arrested soon after and detained under a state of emergency. NJAC’s intention is to overthrow the PNM government but they have no real plan how to achieve that other than spontaneous street demonstrations. When street demonstrations are banned NJAC is helpless and soon disintegrates as a political force.
7. 1970 army officers Raffique Shah and Rex Lasalle stage a military mutiny over working conditions for soldiers of the Trinidad Regiment. Incredibly, they seem unaware this is a capital offence, are tricked into surrendering their guns, are arrested and charged, but go free later.
8. 1971 Opposition DLP leaders are tricked by DAC leader ANR Robinson into boycotting the 1971 general elections and contesting no seats, not knowing Robinson has been vainly trying for years to steal the DLP voters away. The ploy works and the DLP without seats in Parliament collapses and dies, leaving the field clear for the DAC to emerge as a true national and multi-racial party. These hopes are dashed when Basdeo Panday and others form the ULF and take back the Indian voters of the old DLP in the 1976 elections, and the DAC wins no seats in Trinidad. 
9. 1972-74 National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) attempt Fidel Castro style overthrow of PNM government but are easily defeated and wiped out by army and police. NUFF never had a chance of success and only threw away their lives in vain. This is possibly the most incompetent coup attempt in the western hemisphere, if not the world.
10. 1975 United Labour Front attempt to hold a march from San Fernando to Port of Spain without permission from the police. It is a foolish and doomed plan and the PNM government that was nearly overthrown by such marches in 1970 has the march brutally smashed by riot police and many leaders beaten and arrested.
11. 1981 President Ellis Clarke chooses African George Chambers as prime minister over two other Indian deputy prime ministers when Eric Williams dies in office. It is widely seen as a racist choice of the lower rated deputy over the acknowledged more competent and senior Indians. Chambers performs badly in office and leads the PNM to a humiliating defeat in 1986, ending the party’s aura of invincibility in general elections. 
12. 1986 The NAR coalition hands a heavy defeat to the ruling PNM but leader ANR Robinson foolishly acts as if his DAC group has won the victory and sidelines the Indian based ULF.  ULF withdraws from the coalition and the NAR collapses, losing the next election to the PNM.  Robinson’s mishandling of the 1986 victory signalled the end of his political career as a national leader.
13. 1990 Black Muslim leader Yasin Abu Bakr attempts a military coup against the NAR government but fails to bring in enough fighters and weapons to defend his coup. The coup fails quickly and Bakr and his followers are arrested. This is the second most incompetent coup in Trinidad history. Very strangely, Bakr and his militants walk free to this day.
14. 1995 PNM leader Patrick Manning foolishly calls an election before time based on favourable poll numbers and PNM loses political power to Basdeo Panday’s UNC. This blunder breaks the PNM mantra that an Indian could never become prime minister in Trinidad and Tobago.
15. 2001 Four members of the ruling UNC vote against their party in a confidence motion, bringing down a majority government. This keeps the UNC out of political power for another decade.
16. 2002 Prime minister Basdeo Panday foolishly allows President ANR Robinson to decide who will be interim prime minister after a drawn election, although the convention is for the incumbent to be interim leader in such situations.  President Robinson chooses opposition leader Patrick Manning on the bogus grounds of moral superiority and Manning wins the next election. 
17. 2006 UNC political leader Winston Dookeran resigns his post and forms his own party Congress of the People (COP) to contest the 2007 general elections against the UNC and the ruling PNM. COP won 22% of the votes in 2007 but not a single seat, signalling the end of the COP as a viable political party.
18. 2010 PNM leader Patrick Manning foolishly calls an election before time to avoid being removed as political leader and PNM loses political power to Kamla Bissessar’s UNC.
19. 2015 Kamla Bissessar’s UNC, leading in the general elections, when extra voting time is given in some marginal seats, fails to bring out more voters as the opposition PNM does. UNC loses critical marginal seats and is ousted from power.
20. 2013 Opposition leader Keith Rowley in Parliament quotes bogus emails to accuse Prime Minister Kamla Bissessar and other ministers of conspiracy to murder and other serious crimes. Kamla is too afraid to have Rowley arrested for sedition and treason and Rowley suffers only the loss of his salary and position as active member of parliament.  Rowley recovers from this debacle and goes on to win the 2015 election and become prime minister, unseating Kamla Bissessar.