T&T and SVG – Common Challenges

There is a lot which binds St Vincent and the Grenadines and the twin- island State of Trinidad and Tobago together, not all of which is positive. For a start there are the trade, economic and migration ties which link our small multi-island country with its larger, more diverse southern neighbour T&T is, aside from Dominica, the country where there is still ample evidence of the descendants of the indigenous population, in fact, still having Kalinago chiefs alongside Arawak descendants. Then, there is the migration factor, the development of the petroleum sector there giving a boost to the economy. There began the process of absorbing migrants from this country and others to fill the gap after the closure of previous opportunities in similar sectors in Venezuela and the so-called ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao), as well as the Panama Canal and the cane fields of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Accompanying the migration were trade and economic ties, significantly as far as exports from this tiny island-state were concerned, exports of agricultural produce helping to correct the growing imbalance of imports from T&T.

There was also the cultural connection, for with the gates to colonial Britain and the hemispheric powerhouse, the USA, not yet open to us, it was to the “mecca” of the Southern Caribbean, T&T, that our people looked for opportunities.

Migrating to T&T and returning, gold teeth and all, in the fifties and sixties was a big thing for Vincentians, accentuated by the opening of opportunities to Vincy former members of the West India Regiment following the collapse of the ill-fated Federation and T&T independence occasioning its own Defence Force in 1962. The Nine Mornings/Christmas vacation of our soldiers in the army of our southern neighbour, was a big thing in those days.

Accentuating all this were the cultural links, especially in Carnival, kaiso and pan. The then major radio communication links were Radio Trinidad and Radio Guardian, given the limitations of the Windward Islands Broadcasting Service (WIBS), serving the Eastern Caribbean on a very limited basis. In fact we used to nickname persons who talked a lot, a “Radio Guardian” in those days.

Not all the links were positive though, for Trinidad began to get a romantic attraction for Vincies in a negative sense, the cult of the “bad john”. Many of the returning migrants spewed out tales of these “Bad johns” and many of the local underclass began to bask in the glory of proclaimed Vincies in the Trinidadian underworld.

But side by side with these developments were the perceived accomplishments in the political and academic field of the Dr Eric Williams generation in T&T.

The “DOC” as he was fondly known had successfully led the march to independence in T&T and was so highly regarded that a myth was created dubbing him as the “seventh brightest man in the world”.

T&T inherited the British Westminster tradition of two-party politics with the Doc’s PNM on one side, mostly in government, and the East Indian-based Democratic Labour Party (DLP) replicating the racial politics engineered by the British and Americans to split the anti-colonial national movement in Guyana. That division placed the minority Afro-based PNC in power to keep out the socialist PPP of Dr Cheddi Jagan. That two-party system was replicated throughout the region splitting the nationalist movements to curb the potential of the likes of Ebeneezer Joshua, Robert Bradshaw in St Kitts, Gairy in Grenada etc. The names and faces may have changed but in substance it is the same.

The PNM in T&T, and the Jamaican duo of the PNP and JLP are the lasting images, with the PNM having the longest tenure in government. Each time it has been ousted by race-based politics, it has managed to bounce back, albeit with different leaders. After its current last two-decade rule it now faces another electoral challenge in 2025.

This time, in addition to the usual governance and economic difficulties, there looms large the spectre of crime, drugs, guns and murder. The current two-term Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has opted not to lead the PNM or contest on its behalf in the upcoming elections. After 45 years in electoral politics, beginning with an electoral defeat in 1981, he has decided to cede the leadership of the PNM to Energy Minister, Stuart Young.

The new leader faces a formidable task for in spite of all the blustering. T&T is considered one of the most dangerous countries, certainly in the Caribbean, but on the world stage as well with a murder rate one of the highest. So much so that after a massive launch of Carnival 2025, the government declared a State of Emergency apparently to try and tackle the crime syndrome. Is this an admission of failure? Will the new Prime Minister make any difference? How does this impact on our own situation here in SVG and our so far futile efforts to tackle the criminal scourge?

Look out for the concluding section next week.

• Renwick Rose is a Social and Political commentator.