Blind Loyalty. What is it?

I have always condemned this and I think all should. Blind loyalty in my view is the one reason politicians have been able to mismanage, misappropriate, neglect the needs of the ordinary citizens and enrich an elite few.

As I read different articles, listen to talk formatted radio and engage in discussions, I always hear persons say that there are those who continue to hold on to their party no matter what that party does/not do in terms of developing the people of this country. Why is this so? Have we really held on to our party, blindly?

The PNM has been the party in power for most of our so called independence, with a couple of breaks in its grip on power. Why have those parties opposed to the PNM not able to hold on to power for more than one term? My answer to this would have to be that the supporters of the PNM have not moved away from supporting their party. This is not so with the other parties that has managed to capture power. For one reason or another, those parties were not able to hold on to power. One reason could be that together with leaders, supporters have moved, creating a situation where there is never enough support for one opposition party to retain power for more than their initial term. Therefore, could we conclude that the supporters of parties opposed to the PNM are blind loyalists? It does not seem that way.

But wait; there are those who argue that there is a core base in all parties that never moves. True, but what has that translated to? Simple, it has translated to the PNM being in office for most of our so called independence. Again, my logic tells me that the supporters of the PNM have never moved. They have held on to their support for decades. The fact that the other parties who have held office for one term on two occasions tell me that the supporters of those parties were not willing to accept anything less than real representation.

Today we have a coalition of parties in government and already, nine months into their term in office, there is talk of discontent amongst the parties. Just three years ago, two of the parties making up the Partnership could not have won an election on their own and the PNM was returned to office by their supporters. Why did the COP for example not win the election in that year? Why could the UNC not persuade enough supporters to re-elect them to office. This should have been simple enough considering the discontentment at the time with the then Government.

I know the Gurus who crunch the numbers may differ and they may very well be correct considering the statistics. But I tend to deal with these issues in a simplistic manner, no numbers, and no stats. I just say what I see.

And I see loyalty to party, for decades, have gotten us nowhere and will not get us anywhere. There is hope however; an entire generation is leaving us, being replaced by a whole new generation of thinkers. A new generation who demands much more. They say we are a young democracy; well it’s time we grow up.