Who is popular today?

While this country’s democracy lazily remains a work in progress, the warning must go out: there are increasing cracks being shown, alongside rising public resentment against political insensitivity.
Therefore, the role of the relevant authorities is to heal the breaches, attract public confidence in the political system by good example, sacrifice and performance. Transparency and accountability are seriously required.
But before applying “solutions,” it will be useful to have a clearer understanding of what the country’s challenges are beyond economics alone. Since 1956, political management has been a key driver, up or down, of this country’s development.
The political leadership in the 70s lost a golden opportunity by derailing the report of the 1974 Wooding Constitution Reform Commission. That report had enough political and intellectual content to stimulate a sustained public discussion on making this multicultural society a better, decolonised place.
Under Express manager Ken Gordon’s encouragement, I recall writing an extended series in the Sunday Express on the Wooding Report to help attract public discussion. Lloyd Best tried too, by his lecture at the Port of Spain library. But, like the coal pot and bicycle, those ole-time days seem “gone and past.” We need a revival of intellectual discourse for the way forward.
In this nation-building regard, I refer to two volatile political episodes – the US Senate hearings on the January 2021 insurrection against the US Congress, the departures of two senior UK ministers and the enforced resignation of new conservative PM Liz Truss.
The boisterous “fight-back” by former US president Donald Trump against US Senate Committee allegations of “instigating riots” on January 6, 2021 demonstrates how politics could be the “art of civilised warfare.”
Indeed, that unprecedented insurrection looked ugly and even treasonable. Members had to scamper for their lives. From inside and outside America, there was big noise claiming that “America’s democracy is dying,” that “America’s political system is archaic,” etc. Russian and Chinese leaders quickly chose the January 2021 episode to claim to have a “superior system.”
Of course, this depends on how you look at it. Whatever faults the US system has, it cannot be beaten on political accountability and transparency. And that is exactly what is now robustly undertaken by the US Senate Committee inquiring into the January 6, 2021 riot and Mr Trump’s narcissistic role in it.
The system has recovered. The majority Democratic Committee provides televised transparency, fearless questions, substantial documentation and high-level appearances backed by subpoena powers. Many boats will be rocked.
All this is said as a lesson for us in democratic transparency and with specific reference to our July 27, 1990 insurrection, the meandering ways of our Parliament and courts and how the delayed commission of inquiry dealt with it. Many citizens still ask: What really has been the outcome of all this?
Not so in the US. No technique, bluster or self-serving publication should hide the truth.
So former president Trump was subpoenaed. The system allows him to fight back. Meanwhile, as a further illustration of American political transparency and accountability, the Senate Committee requested former house speaker and Trump loyalist Newt Gingrich to appear. No one is too high and mighty.
Truss’s two-month-old government faced heavy pressure from inside and outside her party. “Chaos in govt,” screamed media headlines. Last week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman surprisingly resigned after the departure of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Truss’s embarrassing withdrawal of a controversial package of controversial taxes. Ms Braverman admitted a “mistake” in e-mailing a government policy. She also questioned Ms Truss’s leadership. Mr Kwarteng quietly left.
In September, 47-year-old Truss beat 42-year-old Rishi Sunak (81,326 to 60,399 votes) for the Conservative leadership, after which Sunak, thanking all who voted for him, immediately called for “party unity.” A civilised approach in party politics too.
Last week, days after declaring herself "a fighter, not a quitter,” but having failed to execute several political promises, Truss resigned. Successors now proposed include Sunak and former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Shame and avoiding public embarrassment are civilised qualities in British politics.
And that is part of my major point: the very civilised manner in which British politicians behave, even at personal cost. Personal reputation is worth more than clinging on to office. Could we learn something from this?
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