IF Watson Duke and Farley Augustine appreciate how much Trinidad and Tobago sorely needs leadership, they would stop playing the damn fool.
The two man-rat would end their ego-driven spectacle, smoke the peace pipe, and return to serving a nation besieged by crippling social and economic crises.
Mutual friends – like Dr. Winford James, who pocketed a cool $25,000 for reading some document or the other – should have long huddled the THA big boys into a room with moral persuasion to end their self-absorbed conflict.
Whatever led to the Duke-Farley street fight hardly merits quashing the aspirations of Tobagonians, who voted overwhelmingly for a new political regime in spite of lavish vote-buying by the incumbent.
Duke, as a trade unionist, is acquainted with the give-and-take of dispute settlement, and Augustine, a new kid on the block, should be tempered by the fact that the country admires and holds hope in him.
Their ugly square-off comes at a time when the national administration remains detached from the crime scourge and rampant poverty and is using sleight-of-hand on economic problems.
President Paula-Mae Weekes’ pomposity is another raw indication of our major office-holders being disconnected from the grinding issues that confront the small man.
Other national institutions – labour, business, academia, faith-based bodies – are aloof from the troubling issues, except when they directly impact their pockets.
In that environment, there was optimism in the Duke-Augustine tag-team, which demolished the PNM hegemony in the sister isle, led by a Tobago-born Prime Minister and two incumbent Members of Parliament.
That was an awesome vote of confidence in their collective leadership and announced policies and plans.
It was also a reflection of Tobagonians’ pride in home-grown talent.
Augustine was a rare young politician with depth, insight, and courage.
There was already muted talk that he could emerge as this generation’s A.N.R. Robinson, Tobago’s most successful political product.
The Duke-Augustine split relives the Robinson-Basdeo Panday 1987 break-up mere months after the historic defeat of the entrenched PNM Government.
The NAR Government crumbled on ideological differences – a Tobago-born, urban-influenced leader against a rural, labour-oriented second-man who brought the most votes to the table.
Duke and Augustine are not burdened with such dogma but are two headstrong protagonists scrambling for turf and political ascendancy.
They are only achieving the destruction of the dreams of their Tobago loyalists and confidence that they could erode Trinidad’s electoral tribalism.
Their conflict is as senseless as it is ugly, a bizarre war at a time when they are perched to spread their gospel nationally and reap the rewards of office.
Someone must urgently talk sense to these bacchanalian brawlers, demand that they resolve their senseless rivalry and that they respect the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
Failure to do that requires that they both be consigned to the political garbage bin!
