Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 01/Jan 05:59

New political geography

THE POLITICAL landscape has changed. And that’s going to come even more clearly into view in 2026, starting with the upcoming Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election. That poll’s going to be a barometer of support not only for Farley Augustine’s fledgling Tobago People’s Party (TPP). The outcome will also reflect indirectly on Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress (UNC). And it will say something about Penny Beckles’ People’s National Movement (PNM). Watson Duke’s December 8 announcement that he has thrown his support behind the TPP ahead of the January 12 THA election surprised no one. Arguably the endorsement is hardly a boon for the TPP; Mr Duke may well be a spent political force. But his suggestion that Tobagonians might vote tactically in a bid to rid the island of the PNM is relevant to a wider dynamic that could be at play. “A successive defeat of the PNM, first by the PDP in December 2021, and now by the TPP in its first THA election, would confirm beyond any doubt that the PNM has no future as a governing force in Tobago,” Mr Duke claimed on December 28. “The objective is clear: to prevent the return of an outsider party that has consistently failed to put Tobago’s interests first.” That reference to putting “Tobago’s interests first” was a telling echo of the UNC’s “Trinidad first” rhetoric, itself an echo of Donald Trump’s “America first” jingoism. This, amid regional re-clustering, in which our country is now more aligned with a group of Trump-leaning Latin American nations than it is with Caricom. In this new-fangled partisan constellation, political expediency has reigned supreme. On Mr Trump, the UNC has embraced the three wise monkeys doctrine: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The TPP has averred convenient ignorance on the US radar. And the PNM expects the country to have collective amnesia; forgetting it was in charge for ten years. The world has changed and so have Trinidad and Tobago’s leaders. With few exceptions, none of the major parties seem capable of demonstrating, right now, a strong enough moral compass that takes them beyond grassroots support. Coming clearly into focus in 2026, however, will be the crime fight, once emergency measures expire and new laws bite. The UNC’s management of Carnival will further reveal much. Towards the mid-year spending review, results will also be expected in fiscal management, as the government progresses along a five-year plan that might hinge on foreign policy positions. Those foreign policy positions and any fallout will also strongly crystallise, as might the implications of our failure to address the climate crisis frontally. What’s clear: as historic as 2025 was, 2026 could be even more momentous in this changed order. The post New political geography appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.