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September 24, 2021
As replicas of the Trinidad and Tobago red, white, and black national flag fly ceremoniously, I wonder what independence and republican status mean for
our twin-island Republic. Once again, it’s that season of folly and frolic when decorative colors of postponement adorn the steel and concrete avenues of poorly maintained structures and now signal the abandonment of patience. Unlike Sparrow’s sentiment that “We Like it So,” we may not have yet found a satisfactory way of extricating ourselves from our self-made dilemma.
Can we catch ourselves in this fall? We are tired, no doubt, frustrated waiting out this COVID pandemic. But, is this what remains of our independence, our republican status?
Raffique Shah, on his release from prison, on July 27, 1972, with his father, Hanif Shah. (Photo courtesy of Raffique Shah.)
Our dead poets warned us of “This season of phantasmal peace” or the need to “… forsake this tomb, to go tipping on the water to nest in a lullaby of light.“Derek Walcott and Le Roy Clarke were prophetic as Raffique Shah, a Sandhurst-trained poet whose rousing mutiny defense (“My turn to choose. And I choose Integrity”) pointed to the pervasiveness of corruption and the casual abandonment of integrity. Writers like V.S. Naipaul in Mimic Men warned of our tendency to be mere replicas of others.
Does Republic Day, like Independence, mean anything more than seeking shelter from the meaningless ceremony of sword and salute? Have we drifted too far from ourselves, and are we now marching to the beat of some other steel drum? Are there opportunities to catch ourselves in the fall?
The COVID pandemic has provided cover for the real pandemic of poor leadership: Poor leadership indeed. So why am I not inspired by the tit-for-tat utterances of political leaders seemingly bent on smoke-screening an unsuspecting public and political base with accusations and counter-accusations of corruption? I well remember the August 31st, 1962, night when “we” lowered the Union Jack mournfully and the red, white, and black raised to the thunder of midnight applause in front of the Red House. Independence Day. We were optimistic then. We were hopeful.
My naivete, ignorant ebullience, and pride ran the course of every artery, every vein of my youthful frame. I was proud. Five years later, I was just as proud when I won the “best stick” in recognition of attaining the highest place among overseas cadets in the order of “passing out” at Sandhurst military academy in Camberley, England. I had no idea I would become a guava flower out of season. Nonetheless, we all had every reason to be proud of so much. Finally, we were on the road to something magnificent, or so we thought.
Then came Republic Day, September 24, 1976, when the government proffered a Republican Constitution promising freedom for all. And Sir Ellis Clarke became our first president and didn’t ‘use’ the title “Sir” until he retired and became a private citizen. So, we were shelving Elizabeth and the anachronistic monarchy long after we walked in the rain with Dr. Eric Williams.
Yes, “we” demanded the Yankees give us back the base at Chaguaramas with its verdant golf course, pristine Macqueripe beach, and a plethora of nature walks serenaded by the mating cacophony of red howler monkeys. These were to be ours as Nap Hepburn asserted, “This is my place, every West Indian place/Regardless to class, creed, or race/ Listen, Uncle Sam, we want back we land… We want back Chaguaramas.”
“Does Republic Day, like Independence, mean anything more than seeking shelter from the meaningless ceremony of sword and salute?”
Since then, pomp and ceremony notwithstanding, I have always suspected that I was miseducated into battling at levels that yield no personal power or panacea. I have been utilizing models designed for people with different histories and circumstances. But, unfortunately, none of our leaders – from Eric Williams to Keith Rowley – stimulated any self-inspired enthusiasm. Were their programs no more than recycled instances of previously attempted half-baked projects designed unconsciously to buoy their hubris? Was it no more than a survival hustle? Nothing touched my spirit.
The “one-percenters” lay claim to the commanding heights of an economy implicitly premised on the perennial subservience of a working-class of Indo/Afro, “Sufferers” to borrow Black Stalin’s term. And they proceed without compassion, misguided in their miseducation that their material security would protect them forever from the devices of grumbling stomachs. David Rudder reminds us that these irresponsible elites “clean out the weed well fast/But… letting the cocaine pass”. We are not to be soothed.
Theirs is a counterfeit revolution, a new breed of ‘grand chargers,’ with nothing in their minds but incestuous reflexes. No manner of corruption is a cure. We need a new model—an alternative social construct because our social evolution has brought us to this untenable point.
Why have our promises become so worn with rust and Le Roy Clarke’s bat shit? Why is corruption in our public institutions so commonplace, so endemic? Have our public institutions failed us? Dr. Eric William boasted that “the future of our nation is in our children’s school bags.” Still, on this Republic Day 2021, more labour seems woefully underemployed cutting grass in middle-class neighborhoods than spouting new economic models from the University of the West Indies or the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
If only we could come to terms with our individual lives’ contingent and potential nature. Life is what it makes us and what we make it. Was I conveniently miseducated to perpetuate the myth of second-class citizenship? If so, I am committed to a deep change.
Trinidad and Tobago was granted independence, but no such experience paved the way for rigorous exploration of the self at the individual level. Think about intelligence based on skin color or education reduced to credentialing/certification. Indeed, George Lamming’s sentiment, as captured by Wayne Brown, still rings true for our ‘good citizens‘: “money in the West Indies was not something that bought you an education but something that freed you from the need [for critical] education.” Talk about miseducation! There is more to our universal possibilities than traditional education envisioned. Far more.
It should be evident by now that various social constructs have outlived their usefulness. In contrast, others are interpreted for the convenience of colonial, personal, tribal, and other exploitations. They must be reconstructed or replaced. We can perhaps seek to persuade with pure love in the face of ongoing racial discrimination, social unrest, pandemic, corruption, and egregious stupidity. And with a new model of what it means not just to be independent, to be a Republic, but what it means to be a human being in Trinidad and Tobago.
There is hope yet.
Sunity Maharaj, a renowned columnist, is the former Director of the Lloyd Best Institute of the Caribbean. (Photo: NEWSDAY.CO.TT.)
Dr. Susan Craig-James is the author of What Means These Stones? and the two-volume set, The Changing Face of Tobago.
And so, a few enlightened thinkers and social activists like Susan Craig and Sunity Maharaj are quietly redefining what it might mean to be a Republic. Likewise, our artists like Makemba Kunle are beginning to rechart the ruins to critically redirect our national consciousness toward a possibility that neither Dr. Eric Williams nor Sir Ellis Clarke could have imagined in their vision of national independence or a republican state.
All is not lost!
The Republic has a unique and beautiful mix of flora and fauna, mountains with caves, waterfalls and trails, flat plains, and mud volcanoes to explore. The built and natural environment displays its diverse heritage forged by the First Peoples, the former enslaved and indentured, and the fortune-seekers from Europe and Asia. Our sense of humour, creativity, musicality, blended food, and hospitality combine to ensure that we survive.
This combination of diverse attributes has encouraged several organisations to focus on our virtues instead of our challenges as a young nation. For example, entities like the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago are committed to expanding our knowledge and appreciation of our built and natural heritage and thus make us proud and committed to maintaining our legacy for generations to come. The challenge is to utilize these assets to develop a robust heritage economy for Trinidad and Tobago. Likewise, I am committed to rebuilding a model of Responsible and Rugged Individualism (2RI) to more fully empower us as individuals within a context of social responsibility.
We can catch ourselves in a fall. However, there is yet hope for the Republic and justification for the shout-out: HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY!
Dr. David Brizan, a published poet, is a Leadership and Life Empowerment Coach. In 1970, the T&T government imprisoned him for supporting the Raffique Shah-led Mutiny and the Black Power Movement. Since then, David has remained uncompromisingly resolute in advocacy for people. His work delivers unconditional personal power (UPP) while providing transformational coaching, training, and empowerment workshops throughout the Caribbean and North America.