NOW that Election 2002 is over - thankfully without the feared disruption of the electoral process by intimidation and violence - and a new government is in place, what of the political future in this key partner of the Caribbean Community!
For a start, there will be as significant a regional focus on what is happening in the camp of the United National Congress (UNC) as there is expected to be in how Mr. Patrick Manning runs his "elected" government, after the past nine months of what his opponents had labelled a "selected" government with a hung parliament.
In addition to Trinidad and Tobago, a regional watch on political developments within CARICOM will also very much revolve around this Wednesday's general election in Jamaica - where another close race is predicted between the two dominant contenders for power, PNP and JLP. The governing party is favoured to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive term.
Right now, however, not just Trinidadians and Tobagonians are keen on knowing of the coming leadership changes in the UNC, but people from various segments of the Caribbean Community.
Especially in view of the declared intention of Mr. Basdeo Panday, ex-Prime Minister and leader of the UNC, to vacate the party's leadership and, subsequently retire from active politics.
News of such a development, voiced within two days of the official election results being disclosed, and as Manning was being sworn in as Prime Minister with a 20-16 parliamentary majority, provoked an immediate expression of deep concern by that foremost of West Indian political novelists, George Lamming of Barbados.
"The retirement from the Trinidad and Tobago political scene by Mr. Panday at this time", he told me, "would be disastrous both for his UNC party and the country as a whole..."
It was the awareness of a Caribbean writer and intellectual quite familiar with the ethic/political divisions of this society where he lived and worked many years, and where communal-oriented politics blend despairingly with a mediocrity in leadership of parties to compound the society's problems.
Lamming happened to have been one of two "special guest speakers" invited by the late Eric Williams to address a mammoth rally at Woodford Square back in 1956 at the presentation of the PNM's first slate of candidates for a general election. The other guest was the late noted Caribbean historian Gordon Lewis.
Now, as he assesses the post-election political landscape in this reputedly most cosmopolitan of West Indian societies, Lamming has concluded that those anxious about social cohesion and unity with social justice would come to realise that the departure of Panday from active politics would signal a development of "enormous proportion".
Lamming, the writer of the English-speaking Caribbean best known to have the closest possible working relations with most of the major politicians of this region, contends that:
"Whatever his limitations, Mr. Panday's was a solitary voice, calling for the possibility of an authentic civic nationalism which would embrace every self-defined ethnic type."
And, reflecting on the implications of communal or ethnic-based politics, Lamming had this warning: "I think the pursuit of the politics of ethnicity will spell the social death of Trinidad and Tobago".
Political scientists and social commentators of the Caribbean familiar with social and political developments in Trinidad and Tobago would be aware of the vision and sustained contributions of Panday, the militant trade unionist turned politician, that largely contributed to ending what had come to be known as the 10-12 seat syndrome for parliamentary opposition to PNM's unbroken rule until 1986.
Lloyd Best
Father of the 'New World Movement' and noted Caribbean thinker Lloyd Best, who has often both praised and criticised Panday's contributions, would perhaps stand out among local commentators in a non-partisan assessment of the leadership qualities of the UNC leader and how the UNC could perhaps withstand the pressures after his departure.
In the post-election atmosphere, Panday's bitter critics and opponents may be more inclined to focus on his current personal problems, such as the impending court case on claimed non-disclosure of a London bank account he shared with his wife, Oma.
But that would be to deliberately miss the big picture of a politician, soon to be 70, who had devoted a significant part of his public life to consistently advocating and working for national unity and preaching against race hate and intolerance.
Reflect, for instance, on his contributions in the formation of the United Labour Front with well-known trade union colleagues, among them the late George Weeks, and, subsequently, creation of the "party of parties", as Lloyd Best was to describe the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) that ended the PNM's 1956 -1986 rule.
Whatever political differences existed between him and Mr. Arthur Robinson at the time the current President was Prime Minister, Panday was to subsequently become the first Trinidadian of East Indian descent to be head of government in the country in a second 'coalition' with Robinson.
Robinson Factor
The so-called 'bad blood' resulting from the second 'parting' of Panday and Robinson during the UNC's second term in government was clearly a crucial factor in his replacement by Patrick Manning as Prime Minister, after neither his incumbent UNC nor the PNM won the December 2001 election.
The rest is history - right up to his most recent call last week for a government of national unity pending constitutional and electoral reforms before a new general election.
Professor John La Guerre's political biography of Basdeo Panday is a relevant reference source for an understanding of the politician who succeeded in achieving the political heights that had escaped all who went before him as "leaders" of an "opposition" with varying names, to PNM rule.
What perhaps distinguishes Panday's contribution in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago is his consistency in advocating, in and out of government, a national front administration that would reflect the ethnic composition of the society and aspirations of its citizens.
With his impending retirement, there are fears that the UNC could fragment into the old, stultifying communal politics of past years when Indo-Trinidadians had virtually resigned themselves to the status of being a permanent parliamentary opposition to the PNM when Williams was around.
After Williams and George Chambers, the PNM's Manning, well meaning as he undoubtedly is and anxious as he may be for racial harmony, was to talk, strangely about "looking for Indians" for Cabinet posts and, by last week of seeking "ethnic balance" in his new Cabinet.
Basically, this is head-counting politics in a multi-racial society and hardly a substitute for what a Caribbean icon like Lamming sees as the "civic nationalism" of a Panday that would embrace "every self-defined ethnic group".
And so, the national/regional watch is on for developments in the camp of Panday's UNC and Manning's PNM administration.