Democracy more than fresh air

October 17, 2001

"I Like sex more than fresh air!" Those were words frequently uttered by one "Cow-Foot" Eugene of Tunapuna. Of course he naturally used the four-letter word which was more poignant.

Not surprisingly, he eventually killed himself after a particular love affair went sour. But today he remains one of the most often quoted sons of the soil of that quaint, provincial place that is neither "town" (urban) nor "country" (rural) called Tunapuna.

Dictators, at all levels, may have attempted in the past to exist here but only at their own peril. Sooner than later they were all forced to take to their heels.

The people of Tunapuna's by-gone days questioned everyone and everything for, like "Cow-Foot", they liked democracy more than fresh air.

In political circles it was said that whomsoever won Tunapuna invariably won the country. Whichever party that is. Tunapuna was/is a microcosmic take of the entire country.

Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Muslims and Hindus all held sway here. There were RC and AC schools, as well as CM and Maha Saba schools operating side by side in harmony as well as in caustic competition.

The Muslim "Hosay" festival was as a big an occasion in Tunapuna as anywhere else. Even the Sikhs had their presence here as best exemplified by the founder of Turban Brand.

Growing up in the Tunapuna of the '50s and '60s, it was not uncommon to see funerals of that obscure Hindu sect of Black Indians who pranced and danced in joyous pleasure on the way to the cemetery and cried mournfully at births. They were referred to as the Madrasi.

Even that open savannah in the middle of Tunapuna, which in fact was its "soul" until crazy town-planners thought differently, was at one time divided up into specific cricket practice pitches of clubs that were either comprised solely of Indo-Tunapunians or Afro-Tunapunians and yet others which comprised a full mixture of the two.

But if the cricket teams reflected the racial configuration, the football teams, both in terms of management structure and players, were nearly all mixed.

Tunapuna was the home at one time or another of people such as Learie Constantine, CLR James, Sir Courtney Hannays, Sir Pelham Warner, the Narinesignhs, the Rikkis, the Padarathsinghs, the Seeteerams, the Patels, "Effel" Mohammed, and even the well-known Marxist, Holassie, all fiercely and instinctive democratic if not "republican" in spirit. Always ready and willing in every which way to challenge Port-of-Spain, the city of the centre.

That open, liberal, fearless posture, that republican stance and defiance of authority pervaded all the Tunapunian ranks from top to bottom, to the extent sometimes of utter madness and near anarchy. Be it the doings of Mastifay, that other "Eugene" of a not too dissimilar reputation as the one with whom we began this column, or Red Ken, or the Mascals, or Foots, the stylish Dil Lil or the deadly Samuel Jacobs, or even the young turk who caught Wolf, the old "bad-john", sleeping and beat him almost to death, all the while proclaiming that "bad-john cannot sleep", or the one who after being advised by a judge in the High Court to take "his time" while testifying, would reply: "Your Honour, time waits on no one", there is reflected throughout in popular Tunapunian behaviour this common sense of disdain for, if not open defiance of, all centralised authority.

And it is not that it does not exist all over the East/West Corridor, but it certainly is the signal character of this "neither town nor country" place called Tunapuna.

Such disdain for authority outside of oneself and over and above oneself is the seedbed of democratic instincts and democratic nurturing. As I said to the CLR Conference at UWI, my first encounter with CLR was in fact an encounter with an "idea".

It happened at the age of 19 when I and other like-minded youngsters, all members of a very active PNM youth group on the Corridor, went to heckle a WFP meeting and found ourselves listening to the concept of the "right to recall" as elucidated by CLR, rather than heckling.

The concept opened our minds to the possibilities of genuine empowerment, since power would repose with the mass membership and all the citizens of a constituency who would then be expected to dismiss non-functioning representatives or even possibly rotate representation as deemed necessary down the road. It was all about putting authority where authority really belongs, in the hands of the people.

It was growing up in Tunapuna and the Corridor that made us open up to such a way of seeing. Not surprisingly, wherever we have gone since then have always brought instant confrontation with authority, moreso abusive authority.

My first week on the job at the Excise Department at Customs House brought confrontation with Fleming, the then comptroller. He rang the Excise Department one morning, I answered. He asked for Mr Payne and I told him that Mr Payne was not there, at which point he questioned angrily if I knew to whom I was speaking.

I replied in the negative and suggested that that bore no relevance to the matter at hand; Mr Payne was not there.

He slammed down the receiver and the next I knew he came into the department to confront me, suggesting that I should be more helpful in future if I wished to get ahead in the Customs. I stated an inability to comprehend the logic and asked for advice on how I could have been more helpful in this particular instance.

He said that I could have ran outside to see if Payne's car was still around. I in turn advised that I knew not which car Payne possessed.

At that point he left in a huff. I knew then that my career at the Customs would be short-lived.

What's the difference between Fleming's attitude and that of the leaders of political parties in T&T? Imagine that you join a party and when you attend the general council sessions, the maximum leader tells you to sit down because he is not happy with the position you express.

In such a case you and that leader should be rolling on the floor with fisticuffs being thrown.

What's the difference between the struggle that Morris Marshall fought and that of the UNC executive presently? The only difference is that Ramesh has the material resources that Marshall could never have commanded and so he died in the course of his efforts to democratise the party in which he believed.

The 2000 election brought numerous conflicts between maximum leadership and constituents over the choice of representation. The 2001 election will bring even more vicious confrontations on all sides and on all fronts. Every little step in this direction is a victory on behalf of the democratic process.

I am counting on Tunapuna to lead the way. For there the people love this thing democracy as much as they love fresh air.