Expatriates of Indian origin residing in the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago seem to be holding the key to Independent Liberal Party founder candidate and former senior FIFA executive Austin Jack Warner's prospects of securing victory in the crucial bye-elections to be held on July 29.
The Indian diaspora in Trinidad and Tobago is large, numbering about 550,000, or nearly 42 per cent of the country's total population. Indians migrated to the island country between 1845 and 1917, initially as indentured labour, and in the years since, have had a significant impact on the region's cultural and socio-economic landscape.
They now constitute business magnates, entrepreneurs, and professionals in academics, law and politics, and virtually have a sizeable involvement in social, cultural, political and economic activities, besides a significant role in the current Peoples Partnership Government.
Warner can claim credit for this turnaround in the fortunes of the Indian ex-patriate community. He is popular among them, has both charm and charisma, and almost always brings a fresh air of hope to the political landscape.
His contributions to reviving football as a popular sport in Trinidad and Tobago as well as the Caribbean are path-breaking and legendary.
Having resigned as a Member of Parliament in April this year, this former FIFA vice president is making a strong political comeback, campaigning on the plank of "Go Green" and with the theme of "Representation, Action and Performance".
The general opinion is that Austin Jack Warner is the saviour of Chaguanas west. He is able to relate with the downtrodden and the neglected because he knows where he has come from. He has brought the people's interests into the mainstream. They are beginning to be listened to, and therefore, there is a ray of hope.
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The Trinidad and Tobago Newsday quoted 20-year-old Felicity, an employee at the C and S Wholesale and Retail Store on Cacandee Road, as saying that she will be voting solidly for Warner because of his performance in the constituency.
"Jack comes to Ramleela and Divali. We always see him. On a normal day, you can see him walking down the street," she told the paper, and added "Anybody could drop in and talk to him."
Cunupia vendor Sita Maharaj described Warner as a blessed man, notwithstanding the allegations against him.
Warner will be pitted against United National Congress (UNC) candidate Khadijah Ameen, who is confident of maintaining the party's status quo in the central Trinidad and Tobago constituency, and most believe the voting trend is going to be tight and close. No predictions are being made just as yet.
Warner also feels that the People's National Movement Government is arrogant and dysfunctional, and does not see the UNC as a viable option for a nation that is demanding better. So the Movement for Change demanded internal elections to fill the positions for the National Executive of the UNC.
As a campaigner, Warner has probably done the yards, covering more miles across the country preaching the message of change. He talked more than any other possible candidate, and in fact become the chief negotiator in presenting a united opposition in the pre-colonial era.
He has put country before friends and self when the situation demanded it, as he did in 2010. Then, he forsook an embattled Basdeo Panday, and pitched for Kamla Persad Bissesser. That was the cataclysmic moment in Trinidad politics.
Warner's role in bringing down the PNM, which ruled the country for forty-three of the fifty-four years between 1956-2010, made him a target for derision and abuse within the government.
Currently out of party politics, partisanship and without ministerial obligations, Warner is seeking revalidation by returning to his constituents for them to determine by election whether he should be recalled as their representative for Chaguanas West.
The Green Movement is growing under the banner of Warner's Independent Liberal Party (ILP). In less than a month more than 41,000 people have joined the ILP; 7,000 alone are members of the young brigade called Youths for Warner.
A nation that was divided along strict party lines of red and yellow have now been given the green light to vote for representation over party. The people are viewing Warner's green as the new politics of the future, the promised change that the People's Partnership did not give them.
