Another Kam’la August 12, 2020
“Let us the hardworking UNC supporters continue to pay taxes and mind the loafers that support the PNM… I hope [Prime Minister Dr Keith] Rowley starts putting contraceptives in their water supply, yes, because these cockroaches keep populating and the only thing they know to do is vote.“
Naila Ramsaran, disgruntled daughter, Ramsaran Dairy
Prime Minister Keit’ Rowley gets to keep his job after all. Yesterday’s final national tally records that the Afro-Trini PNM party takes 22 seats in TT Parliament, while Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s Indo-Trini UNC party takes 19. Then the Kaiso music starts, and they sing, and they ring around the Rosy, and stuff posies into loose pockets, ignoring pesky Covid19 protocols. They shout, “Atischoo, Atischoo!.“ Then the Kaiso stops, and they all fall down.
Only a few days ago, Caribbean Muslims raised their hands in thanksgiving that one of their own, Irfaan Ali, was elected President of Guyana. However, Allah did not extend such blessings across the Orinoco Delta. As the above-quoted UNC member demonstrates, Indo-Trini conservatives are as bitter as Angostura today. They have reason: 58% of TT cast 650,000 votes, and the margin of victory was only 13 thousand. A recount is assured, although there are no credible allegations of problems at the polls, so the UNC will likely remain the minority, virtually indentured again.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar was the second person of Indian descent, and the first woman-of-color, to be elected prime minister, ruling TT from 2010 to 2015, although her historic victory has more recently been tainted by the indictment that she employed Cambridge Analytica to suppress the Afro-Trini vote, through the infamous “Do So“ campaign, as exposed to the world last year on Netflix’s “The Great Hack.“ With the PNM’s victory, AG Al-Rawi’s investigations into UNC corruption will continue, presumably leaving the PNM corruption in place, or so Ms. Ramsaran might argue. Nevertheless, UNC expresses confidence in Kamla’s continuing leadership. As of today, Kamla has not yet conceded the race, but she is not the lead story in the Guardian. A different Kam’la is on the headline.
The new candidate is criticized as being “nasty“ and “too ambitious“ and “hard to get along with.“ Therefore, the critic must be a man, and the candidate must be a woman. Of colour, no less. The woman of the moment is Kamala Harris, who happens to be an American from Oakland, but her lineage speaks directly to the experience of Caribbean Islanders yearning for a unifying figure. With an Afro-Jamaican father and an East Indian mother, Trini’s may imagine one of their own daughters in the future. If Kamala herself ever were to become an immigrant, like her parents, Trinidad and Tobago would welcome her with open hands. Imagine a Red House instead of a White House, and an entirely republican legislature.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar may or may not retain the mantle of the opposition party, or she may go to prison for election tampering. Kamala Harris, however, is poised for bigger things. Her doe eyes and prosecutorial fangs will captivate, then incapacitate Donald Trump, and this bloodletting will do Trini’s just fine. Like the rest of the free world, they hate the orange turd. “Do So,“ I sing in refrain. Donald can whine, but Kamala can really wine—“winin’ low, if yuh know tie mean“—although here I am only respectfully speculating on the next American Vice-President.