Political oppression is the act of restricting individuals in any society from taking part in the political process or from having representation in a government. This can range from restricting their rights to vote, to voter intimidation tactics, to discriminatory policy-making, to politically motivated genocide. Often associated with and most obvious in autocracies, the term is seldom applied to democracies. However as this post will make evident, it can also be present in democratic societies like Trinidad and Tobago.
The educated youth can probably be considered one of the most politically oppressed groups in our society. This oppression however is often not recognised or downplayed by wider society as it is covert and unintentional in nature. It is easy to spot oppression delved out by the barrel of a rifle or the crack of a whip, but it isn't as obvious when it is done in a systemic, clandestine manner.
Additionally, educated Trinidadian people are seldom seen as a vulnerable group in our society because it is assumed that they are automatically better off than their uneducated countrymen simply on the basis of their education. It is assumed that they hold privileged positions in society, which may have once been true but it is no longer the case in contemporary times. As we will soon see, this couldn't be further from and may in fact be the antithesis of the truth. So allow me to outline the reasons why the educated youth are politically oppressed.
The Educated Youth are a Minority
Trinidadian politicians typically only care about staying in power so they could use their positions to enrich themselves and their friends and family. Many of them are populist demagogues who have no moral qualms about confidently muttering falsehoods to the public. They will promise the moon and stars to the electorate and will do basically anything, ethical or not, to keep their grip on power. One of our prominent local politicians, former Prime Minister Basedo Panday, summed it up quite nicely when he uttered the phrase, "Politics has a morality of its own." (Ali 2009)
Of course, as Trinidad and Tobago is (at least officially) a democracy, to achieve this they need the support of the majority of the electorate. The educated youth are the furthest thing from the majority you could imagine.They comprise a very small percentage of the electorate and because of this fact, they do not really matter to politicians. This is one of the foremost reason for the political oppression of the educated youth: their minority status. They are only a small amount of votes and their needs can be safely ignored with little or no political consequence.
You want some evidence of this? Well just look at the recent policy adjustments taken by the government in light of lower national income from low oil prices. Now obviously any good government would have no option but to cut back on public spending if revenue is down, but look at the specific policies they chose to cut. There were cuts made to the On the Job Training (OJT) program (Clarke 2017) (CNC3 News 2017) (Taitt 2017) and the Government Assistance for Tertiary Education (GATE) program (Clyne 2016) (Kissoon 2016) (Lord and Tiwari Roopnarine 2016). For my non-Trinidadian readers who are unfamiliar with these programs, I will describe them below.
OJT is a program where applicants (known as trainees) are placed in temporary positions within participating organisations ("OJT - The On-The-Job Training Programme" 2017). The purpose of the program is to allow young people with little or no work experience to gain some to improve their chances of landing a permanent job (something which is extremely difficult to find in this country). While not specifically targeted at educated youth, it has proven to be a lifeline for many of them seeking employment. It essentially makes up for the failure of the economy to provide suitable jobs for the educated youth and allows them to gain some much needed experience and income. It has also proven popular with employers as the government covers part of the the trainee's salary, reducing their labour costs (which has led to abuses).
GATE in its original form, was a program where the government covered all or a portion of the tuition expenses (dependent on the program) for individuals who were pursuing tertiary education. This was done on the condition that individuals maintain a certain minimum academic performance and that they serve a certain period of national service upon graduation or repay the government should they choose not to serve this period ("GATE - Government Assistance For Tuition Expenses" 2017). Thanks to this program, the proportion of educated people in the current generation has drastically increased over the past decade.
Both these programs were subjected to cuts as discussed above. GATE saw reductions in the amount of funding given to undergraduate students and a complete removal of funding for post graduate students unless their degrees were, "in line with national development goals" (Clyne 2016) and OJT saw downsizing in the amount of staff (Clarke 2017). The demographic group which was most hurt by these decisions is the educated youth. However, politicians do not need to care about the educated youth because we don't matter politically due to our minority status. This makes us an easy target for policy cuts. There has been a noted reduction in the amount of OJT trainees and those in the program are not guaranteed contract renewals once their terms are up. GATE cuts have also made it more difficult to access tertiary education and has depleted the amount of funding the tertiary education institutions receive.
Meanwhile programs geared toward the uneducated masses (who also comprise the majority) have suffered minimal or no cuts. Initiatives like CEPEP ("About Us - CEPEP" 2017), URP ("Unemployment Relief Programme" 2017) (both basically means of providing uneducated people with money for little or no work and used mainly to buy voter loyalty) CDAP (Chronic Disease Assistance Program which is designed to provide drugs to poor citizens who suffer from chronic diseases and can't afford them) ("CDAP Overview" 2017) and various other welfare programs have not been cut. I even spent some time searching the Internet trying to find any news articles referencing cuts to these programs. No recent ones could be found. You see, these people matter more to politicians because they are the majority and are the ones responsible for keeping them in power. Obviously, they will seek their interests over that of the educated minority.
Now of course if you ask any politician this they will most likely vehemently deny it. That would be political suicide as publicly admitting that you do not care about a portion of your electorate typically does not go over well with voters. But this is a sad reality of contemporary Trinidadian politics. Educated youth and other minorities like the LGBTQ and Atheist communities simply don't matter because they have very little political value. This has led to a lack of or in some cases discriminatory policy being created toward these groups. So we can see how the, "tyranny of the majority," has led to the political oppression of the educated youth.
The Educated Youth are, "Politically Expensive"
Another reason for the oppression of the educated youth, is that they are, "Politically Expensive." Simply put, this means that a politician would have to expend more effort to gain the vote of an educated person in comparison to that of an uneducated person. Young people in general are more demanding and critically thinking than previous generations because of their increased exposure to global affairs through the Internet. The educated youth even more so, due to their higher level of education.
In Trinidad, the uneducated masses are relatively easy to win over. They typically vote based on ethnic or party lines (discussed in the next section) and thus require very little effort to win their votes. Typically all a politician has to do to win the majority of the grass-roots voters is throw a massive political rally, which more closely resembles a fete or party, make a few inflammatory statements lambasting the opposition party (or parties) and make vague promises of, "change," which are seldom kept. The most they would have to do is give their supporters a, "job," in CEPEP or URP or in the public service, provide them with minimal welfare grants and/or give them a house or apartment and this ensures their loyalty.
Now contrast this to an educated young person. The educated youth do not typically care solely about their own personal gain, they want to see policy reforms and real change from their leaders. They demand competence and accountability and would like to see progressive thinking in policy decisions. The educated youth will not stand for the rabble-rousing or corruption that have become hallmarks of Trinidadian politics. Their votes cannot be easily bought with handouts either. We care about our country's future and can see right through the shallow manipulation the politicians employ. Politicians would actually have to be good, competent leaders with a practical strategy to get our votes. This stance as you can imagine, conflicts with the self-serving goals of greedy, small-minded politicians who again only wish to get into power for the prospect of personal gain. Since the educated youth are also a minority, they do not have to conform to our desires to stay in power so it works out to their advantage to ignore us. They don't need to make the additional effort and raise their standards to win our votes.
Of course it is also in the best interest of society if they do raise their standards, and it is also in the best interests of the country to actually listen to the demands of the educated youth because these are after all our innovators, thinkers and problem-solvers. But the system is (albeit unintentionally) rigged in favour of the ignorant, selfish and small-minded in society. At least we can say we have a democracy and the right to, "choose," our leaders.
The Tribal Nature of Trinidadian Politics
Politics in Trinidad is highly divisive. More often than not, a politician does not have to make any effort to win votes because of the tribal nature of our electorate.Voters mainly vote along ethnic lines, blind party loyalty or for religious reasons. Typically, a candidate's ethnicity, religion and party matter more than their actual policy decisions. Ethnicity is by far the largest factor in local politics and it shows. The two largest political parties, the PNM and the UNC are associated with the two largest ethnic groups: Afro and Indo Trinidadians respectively ("Trinidad And Tobago" 2017) (Ultimate Pocket World Factfile 1996). They have evolved as a reflection of entrenched societal racism and subsequent voter preferences typically draw along ethnic lines.
Ethnic conflict is something that has been entrenched in our society since colonial times, originating from the days of slavery. The European colonisers needed to maintain control over our society despite being in the minority, so they utilised a strategy of divide and rule. They turned the two largest ethnic groups against each other so they wouldn't unite against them. Five and a half-decades later, this entrenched racism still plays a significant (though thankfully dwindling) role in the political landscape of our country.
Tribal voters often display similar convictions to religious fanatics, staunchly defending their chosen party's ideals and stances without any critical analyses of them. At political rallies many can be heard shouting phrases like, "UNC Till ah' dead!!!" or, "We Red and Ready!!!" whilst proudly wearing their respective party's t-shirt and waving a political banner. Moreover they tend to be antagonistic to members of other, "tribes." Their blind loyalty and ignorance are the nectar that feeds their political leaders who then in turn manipulate policy in their favour. This, "political symbiosis," has helped maintain a long line of incompetent leaders which has led to a host of societal problems.
Moreover, tribal voting is typically a family affair. In many tribal families, if your parents support a political party, you also support that political party. It is often an entrenched part of one's family culture to fanatically support a particular political party. Parents will attempt to influence their children's choices at the polls and often successfully do leading to families with several generations blindly supporting the same party. Politics again shares much in common with religion in this regard.
Similarly to religion, if one were to assume a contradictory position (as many educated youth often do) one could face ostracism and intimidation by one's own family. Going against your family's party can be seen as an act of sacrilege. Any questioning of the dominant political views of your parents will result in a swift reprimand followed by a lecture about why the other party is bad and why your party is good. In extreme cases, one can be threatened with expulsion from the family home. This is the depth of political fanaticism within our nation.
So how does this lead to the political oppression of the educated youth you may ask? You see the educated youth typically exist outside of this culture of segregation and zealous party devotion due to their higher level of education and their greater exposure to a global events. Many of us are quite rightfully disgusted by this present situation and desire to see it ended. We wish to see candidates chosen based on their policies, aptitude for governance and educational backgrounds not blind tribal loyalty.
However, the fact that many of our countrymen still adhere to this tribal system makes it near impossible to achieve this. In all but a few constituencies, one particular ethnic group and therefore one particular political party dominates. This means that your vote essentially doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you abstain from voting, vote with the dominant party or against them your vote simply does not count because of the masses of tribal voters in your community. You are only going to be represented in parliament by the candidate chosen for you by the ignorant masses.
Lack of Suitable Choices at the Polls
This one should be fairly obvious if you have read the previous sections. There is a lack of suitable choice for the educated youth when it comes to voting. The experience of voting for an educated Trinidadian youth can best be described by the the following analogy:
Picture two buckets, one filled with bovine excrement and the other with equine excrement. Now you have to choose between sticking you head in one of those buckets. You do not have the option to simply choose not to stick your head in excrement, which is the most sensible option and if you waive your right to choose the bucket, others will select it for you. Some people will try to convince you that one type of excrement is better than the other. Maybe the animals grazed on different types of grass, maybe one smells slightly better. Others will chastise you for complaining about having to stick your head in excrement and tell you you should be grateful you have to right to choose in the first place as other people are not as, "fortunate." It doesn't matter what you want or do, at the end of the day you still end up with your head in a bucket of excrement.
This is the sad reality that faces the educated youth at the voting booth every election. They have to choose from some very undesirable choices or simply abstain from voting. There is no party that truly represents the intellectual vote to choose from. Many choose to abstain because they have been disillusioned by the political system and retreat into a semi-depressive state where they simply lose all hope that things would ever change for the better.
The couple of times we did have parties that represented the intellectual vote in the form of the Organisation for National Reconstruction (ONR) and the more recent Congress of the People (COP) they simply could not gather the support needed to get into power because of the ignorance and majority status of the tribal party zealots. They ended up merging with other political parties into pretty one-sided coalition governments ("Organisation For National Reconstruction" 2017) ("Congress Of The People (Trinidad And Tobago)" 2017). Both these parties were founded by intellectuals who were fed up with the status quo of tribalism. They both failed to gain critical support because they simply couldn't win the votes of the tribal majority and ended up having to dissolve into other parties which didn't adhere to their same ideals.
So why don't the educated youth run for public office themselves? Instead of complaining that they have no choice at the polls, why not be the better choice they wish to see? Well that is easier said than done. As explained before the Trinidadian electorate is mainly driven by tribal loyalty when making decisions at the polls. Many will not entertain another choice other than their preferred brand of populists. Those that are willing to, are simply not in large enough numbers to make a difference in the results. If you want to get into parliament to try to make a difference, you have no choice but to join with one of the main political parties and hope that you might get some of your policy changes through even though you'd probably have to, "tow the party-line," most of the time or risk expulsion.
Additionally, because the populous is largely uneducated and depressingly ignorant, they will often view educated individuals as a threat to them. They tend to see us as aloof or don't think we'll look out for their best interests. The fact that many educated youth also lack the charisma to garner support does not help the situation. Additionally, a young educated candidate would be unwilling to make unrealistic promises to the electorate simply to win the election. In short, the electorate does not want to hear rational, well-thought out solutions and facts, they want to hear sensationalist promises that all the country's problems will be magically fixed overnight. Also they do not want to make any sacrifices themselves to do it. They must be allowed to do as they please and the country's problems must be solved within an unreasonable amount of time. This is obviously illogical but its what the population wants to hear. A candidate that doesn't promise them this will not stand much of a chance at the polls. Granted they don't seem to have to deliver on these promises when they get into power, just emphatically yell them into a microphone on the campaign trail.
Age is also another factor in the reluctance of the populous to elect an educated youth into power. Ageism runs rampant in Trinidad, you see it when you apply for jobs and they brush you off for not having enough, "experience," (assuming you are fortunate enough to get an interview). You see it when members of the older generations chastise you for your progressive views and tell you rather condescendingly that, "you young and have to learn." You see it when young people are called, "lazy" and, "entitled," simply for wanting the same things our parents and grandparents have like secure, well-paying jobs, affordable housing and the ability to support a family. This mindset permeates into the collective consciousness of the electorate with younger candidates being seen as, "green," and too inexperienced to make proper policy decisions. The only way they win seats is if they run on a ticket from one of the major parties where the population will select them not on their talents and policies but because they belong to the right tribe.
Now the other educated youth will most likely support their kin as candidates after all that's who we want in power, other like-minded educated individuals who will push for real change and not another populist demagogue who will maintain the status quo in the interest of personal benefit. But again we're too small in number to make a difference. It is akin to a drop of knowledge and right-thinking in an ocean of ignorance. Such is the depressing reality of the Trinidadian democracy.
Conclusion
So in summary, one can get a sense as to why the educated youth are politically oppressed. They are hopelessly outnumbered, politicians do not care about them and they are stuck with a backward tribal electoral system. Their destinies are controlled by uniformed, small-minded individuals who are only interested in personal gain and not actual development and change in the country. It is truly a frustrating, depressing situation to find oneself in, especially if you see the potential your nation has to develop and progress and realise that under the current political system this will likely never happen. It is something I can attest to from first hand experience. So can this situation be rectified, or are we doomed? Well in my next post I will put forward what I think are the best solutions to these problems and discuss the likelihood that they would be implemented and we'll see.
Thanks for reading,
Barindra
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