Dear Editor,
I recently conducted an opinion poll in Trinidad to determine popular support for the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) party a year after its re-election. The findings of the NACTA poll conducted in mid-November reveal widespread disaffection with the ruling party, including among the party’s traditional supporters. Voters said they were fed up with the regular run-of-the-mill politics and wanted political change. They rejected the leadership of all three of the nation’s main parties. Most of the voters wanted the rise of an Obama-type personality to sweep aside the old politics of T&T.
The poll shows the PNM is losing popular support, but the party’s hold on power is not threatened because disenchanted voters do not want either of the Indian-based parties, the United National Congress (UNC) or Congress of the People (COP), as the replacement for the African-based PNM. Opposition supporters say they are extremely dissatisfied with the ongoing fighting between the two opposition parties. A large majority of voters want UNC leader Basdeo Panday and COP leader Winston Dookeran to ride off into the sunset so that the opposition can come together to pose a serious challenge to the PNM.
The poll also found that the country was taken in by the excitement of the victory of African American Barack Obama as US president-elect, with almost all of them saying they want a similar type figure to transcend racial politics in T&T to rescue the nation from its many problems.
Asked if they approved of the way the government was running the country, only 21% said yes. A similar poll conducted by the respected academic Prof Selwyn Ryan a week later than the NACTA poll, showed a popularity approval of only 18% for Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
People feel the government can do a lot better with the large amount of resources at its disposal, complaining that it has not been efficiently managing the resources of the country.
Asked how they felt about the election of a Black (bi-racial) American as President of America, there was a positive response from every respondent and only praise for Obama. Afro-Trinis, in particular, expressed intense pride in Obama’s election saying it would impact positively on African Americans globally. There was no dissent from anyone when asked if they supported an Obama presidency. Asked if with Obama’s election they thought voting would transcend race in T&T, everyone said people should not vote on the basis of race but only 42% felt voting would transcend race. Respondents from each major race accused one another of being stuck in racial voting patterns. In general, Indians felt Africans would not vote for an Indian as Prime Minister and vice versa.
The findings show widespread disenchantment with the ruling party as well as the two main opposition parties, with many people calling for the formation of a new political force led by a Barack Obama-like figure. Voters say they are fed up with politics as usual, despairing over the country’s rising crime rate and cost of living, expressing a feeling of hopelessness about their future. Most people said a local Obama was needed to rescue T&T. If there was no Obama, they said they preferred Manning over Panday or Dookeran.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram