Quite fortuitously, I happened to be in Trinidad in the week that saw the resignation of controversial member of parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and former CONCACAF president Austin “Jack” Warner as an MP, a cabinet minister, and as chairman of the ruling coalition partner the United National Congress (UNC).
In that very week, too, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar held a pre-emptive “birthday celebration” meeting to rally her party faithful before heading off to Canada, effectively absenting herself from a no-confidence debate against Warner that Friday.
The debate in itself had been prompted by opposition concerns arising out of the findings in a CONCACAF integrity committee report, spearheaded by retired Chief Justice Sir David Simmons of Barbados.
It was indeed, therefore, a week in which our democratic governance was on show for public judgement.
However, in passing judgement, it is important that non-Trinidadian Caribbean citizens avoid the smug, dismissive stance of “this is Trinidad”. This would result in political denial, missed learning opportunity and would be indicative of a dangerous selective blindness which enlarges the faults of others and diminishes our own.
There is a Jack Warner or two in every Caribbean parliament today, since we have all been shaped by the same historical forces.
We have seen Jack Warners in the boastful way in which he, in seeking to show himself as a man who could extract benefits from an international body, and oblivious to the ethical consequences of his revelations, announced that he had been responsible for FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s election in 1998 and “had used a measure of subterfuge to achieve this end” (Trinidad Express 27/04/13 p.3).
“An interesting development at that congress was that Haiti was absent and with Blatter’s permission, I got Captain Horace Burrell’s [of Jamaica] girlfriend to vote as the Haitian delegate by saying “oui” when Haiti’s name was called (Trinidad Express 27/04/13 p.3).
There are many Caribbean Jack Warners who, because of an underdeveloped ethical consciousness, would applaud the way his electoral end justified his unprincipled means.
In addition, the appeal to party faithful as the only source of justification is the modus operandi of the many Warners scarring the Caribbean political landscape. Once in trouble, they turn to the group least able to judge objectively and least qualified to offer moral and dispassionate advice, and boast: “I have the people’s support”.
The reluctance by upper leadership to act early, owing to false loyalty or the fear of offending a “popular” politician, is familiar to all of us. “Bring me the evidence”, or “I have seen nothing wrong” is a familiar refrain providing the opening for the many Jack Warners to occupy public office smug in the knowledge that no institutional, moral or political restraints will apply.
As the Warner saga unfolds, let’s remember that in such matters we’re all one.
• Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, specializing in regional affairs.
