Nuts man prophet

writedenzil@yahoo.com

How we go look?

Guild council election results were, like the vote to ratify the guild constitution, split 50/50. At least each slate was almost equally supported and, in the end, represented. Was it a fair result? Well, each tribe got some of their leaders in the council. Good for them.

“On Campus” readers wrote in over the past fortnight wanting to find out the final results. It seems the annual media spectacle on campus is restricted to the race and not the finish line.

Indeed, when it comes to newsworthiness, guild politics has developed an unshakable reputation for being bacchanal.

Its newsworthiness lies not in the rise of great leaders, the accomplishment of great things or the triumph of great intellectualism. Instead, the stories are framed with this one against that one and the “accusation” being the focus of the story rather than the “thing.”

Why would I say such a thing? Imagine I’m driving to school on election day and the news man on the radio gives the headline: “Allegations of voter padding at the St Augustine campus…” There was no follow-up.

While the news media has fallen short in its fair presentation of guild politics, ultimately UWI students, themselves, are the ones to blame.

Real stupidness

How it go look if every election time UWI students satisfy news media assignment sheets by making all sorts of allegations and yet provide no proof?

The Reds went to town this year, holding press conferences about hundreds of thousands of “missing” dollars. I talked to the guild treasurer and was furnished with the whole, comprehensive list of expenditure, which he provided at this year’s AGM. The only missing money was the Reds’ $300,000 debt last year.

How it go look if we, students pursuing bachelors and masters and MPhils and doctorates, know only to march about the place and call in the media to resolve issues like we working in an oil refinery?

When I first entered UWI, I was disheartened and disgusted at the way politics was handled. Even the students with genuine, vested interests did not seem to know how to go about it.

For instance, the big election forum takes place, not in the JFK Auditorium, not in the Learning Resource Centre, not anywhere racially neutral and conducive to intellectual discourse, but rather in the Student Activity Centre—a hub dominated by males, pool players and Afro-Trinidadians where few others dare to tread.

So what else can one expect than marketplace politics where Indo-Trini candidates are booed and ridiculed and where candidates appeal to the masses via physical and personality likeness rather than through aptitude and fortitude?

The university body and, by extension, the national population risk intellectual stagnation when leaders are elected by every quality other than leadership. Everybody is talking Vision 2020 and an information-based society. If the intellectuals of T&T aren’t practising intelligent politics, what hope is there for everyone else when all the information voters really need is contained in appearance and likeness and personality?

Imagine, one candidate went up for election even though he is graduating in November “just to see what would happen.” He was successfully nominated, had a good laugh, and then withdrew.

One past president was booted not only from the council but also from the university for failing his courses. And then last year his name was again on the ballot even though he was not a university student.

Is this for real?

The repair at UWI clearly needs to start from the council, and then go down.

Real people

All is not lost, though. Throughout my years at UWI, there have been councillors who had true leadership skills and genuine interest in ameliorating university life.

I remember interviewing a resolute (and chaste) Mobafa Baker about Red Day, arguably the council’s best executed and most influential protest. Then I wrote “Last virgin on campus,” much to his consternation.

I remember chatting with Ravi Ratiram—reclining in his cozy, oversized chair, his oversized personality making cozy conversation—and then writing “Charm moves the masses.” While he may not know grammar, no doubt this man is gregarious.

And I will always remember a sneezy Fallon Lutchmansingh, who spoke to me with eloquence and blew her nose with elegance when she came out to work despite a nasty flu.

Arnold Ram and Glenn Ramadharsingh? Steups.

A few students on the last council stood out. Like Anil Harry for his charitable endeavours. Like Kieran Khan for his forward-thinking publications. And like Stewart Howard for his responsible handling of finances.

The new guild president, Rodney Jaglal, headed the Reds, and now heads a host of councillors from the opposing slate—ostensibly the ones endorsed by the last council. Thus, his task—to get his council together and then deliver to the students—would be perhaps the most daunting in UWI history.

But how it go look if we fail ourselves, all the generations of students yet to come, and the national community we are purported to lead?

How it go look if university students don’t even know how to live up to their names?