We, in Guyana and across the Caribbean, are quick to embrace our sporting heroes, cultural icons and other high achievers. We are all Jamaicans when Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce et al dominate on the track; we revel in the worldwide acclaim for the music of the late Bob Marley and contemporary pop phenomenon, Rihanna, who, we are quick to point out, has a Guyanese mother; there are other members of the diaspora, their children and grandchildren, whose achievements in their adopted homes still give those of us who remain, cause for celebration; and those now fleeting moments when the West Indies cricket team pulls off a win still lead to paroxysms of joy.
By the same token, when a Caribbean person brings disgrace upon the region, we should be ready to accept that he or she should be treated accordingly and, if necessary, dealt with condignly according to the law. In this respect, we return to the ongoing saga of Jack Warner in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago.
The disgraced former football and political powerbroker has, over the past few weeks, been titillating the Trinbagonian and Caribbean public with allegations and promises of more revelations of sleaze, corruption, misconduct in public office and outright scandal, reaching to the highest levels of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s People’s Partnership government.
Notwithstanding the shock value of his innuendo and dirty linen, and the potent cocktail he is mixing for those willing to imbibe from his poisoned cup, especially with regard to the implications for Mrs Persad-Bissessar and her government in the run-up to the September 7 general election in Trinidad and Tobago, we would do well to pause, take a step back and consider what the whole sordid situation tells us about not only Mr Warner but the society of which he is a product.
After all, to many, Mr Warner is a sort of Caribbean Robin Hood, with a bit of Anansi thrown in for good measure, as we suggested four years ago. And like most post-colonial peoples, we have always had a certain admiration for those who could cock a snook at authority and get away with it. But this is where we confuse being smart with being a ‘smart man’ and, instead of cleverness, we get out and out corruption. Indeed, it is a cultural double standard that has for too long allowed corruption to flourish and become endemic in our evolving Caribbean societies. And as Dr Tennyson Joseph, a political scientist at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill has argued, “there is a Jack Warner or two in every Caribbean parliament today, since we have all been shaped by the same historical forces.”
That Mr Warner should have been embraced by the UNC, the PP government and Mrs Persad-Bissessar herself, serving also as Minister of National Security and even acting as Prime Minister in Mrs Persad-Bissessar’s absence, before the evidence of his skulduggery became too overwhelming in 2013, was embarrassing, to put it mildly. That he was able to dupe the good citizens of Chaguanas West into re-electing him to parliament as an independent in 2013 was proof of his popular appeal if not his ability to put other people’s money to good use. And as far as his supporters were concerned, some went so far as to say, quite crudely, words to the effect that ‘if he tief, he tief de white man money,’ as poor and racist a justification as there ever was.
This is precisely where the argument in favour of people like Mr Warner breaks down. Theft is theft and corruption is corruption, no matter how nicely you try to dress it up. Regardless of the origins of the money Mr Warner allegedly stole, these were funds that could have been put towards the development of the game and of communities, benefiting tens of thousands in Trinidad and Tobago and the Concacaf region.
Unfortunately, the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago cannot so easily disassociate themselves from the man they variously lionised, embraced, elected and tolerated. Mr Warner himself seems incapable of feeling personal shame but there can be no doubt that he has heaped indescribable disgrace on his country and, by extension, the entire Caribbean region.
One can only hope that the Jack Warner saga – even with the full story yet to emerge, as unpalatable as it already is and with the possibility that it will get worse – will lead to a new intolerance for scoundrels and their corrupt practices.
