Jack Warner and the goal of politics
BY ANDRE BAGOO (Newsday)
Thursday, October 18 2007
JACK WARNER, 64, is a very busy man.
One day in his calender looks something like this- 4am: early morning meeting, 5am: respond to e-mails and correspondence, 6am: a second meeting, 7am: a third meeting, 9am: instruct staff and liaise with Zurich and Guatemala, 10am: co-ordinate political work for the day, 11.30am: constituency walk-abouts begin.
Somewhere in there, he will prepare a speech for a political rally, have further meetings with UNC Alliance officials and field questions from journalists.
But despite his busy schedule, the FIFA Vice-President and Chair of the UNC Alliance found time to tell us what he has in common with the late Dr Eric Williams, why he supports an Executive Presidency in Trinidad and Tobago, what are his goals for entering the political realm, and why many of today’s generations of PNM politicians, including Ken Valley, owe a debt to him. While many know of Warner’s past as a longstanding teacher (he taught for over 30 years at all levels, including a post teaching history at Polytechnic), not many realise that several prominent PNM faces were taught by him.
“I was happy to have taught Camille Robinson-Regis, to have taught (the second) Eric Williams, to have taught Franklin Khan and to have taught Roger Boynes. I taught all these guys. I even taught Ken Valley,” he reveals.
“For good or evil these guys are all products of Jack Warner and Ken Valley’s rebellious mode today is what I instilled in him,” he says.
Why would someone who is known for working quietly behind the scene on a number of charitable projects, who has clearly risen to a position of prominence in the football world, now turn to the messy world of politics?
“It is important to me how much comfort, how much happiness the people of this country have. And that is what has guided me to politics. When I see the disgrace, the ‘squandermania’ taking place, I grieve. When I see that we build fantastic tall buildings but no hospital beds, we build a palace but be can’t build two police stations in four years, that a drizzle is a cause for flood, it is painful because I’ve travelled and I’ve seen countries that have done more with less. I want to try to make a difference,” he says. He will be contesting the Chaguanas West seat. And he is confident that he has the support of the UNC grass-roots.
“I have always had the support of the UNC grassroots,” he says.
“I am totally for an executive president,” Warner says. He argues that there is nothing wrong with the concept and says he would support the Ellis Clarke Draft Constitution (which proposes such a President to be ‘elected’ by Parliament), once it is changed to let the people themselves choose their leader.
“One man one vote, not any kind of cabal in the parliament,” he says. “It will be like the US system and I do not have a problem with that. It should be a president of the people, not of the parliament and that is my belief.” But then, what of the arrangement of the UNC Alliance for this year’s polls? Panday has refused to name a “leader” saying if the Alliance wins the election, a Prime Minister would later be chosen from those who won seats. “The (main) contenders will meet and they will determine who is the best person among them and if they can’t then the people will have to decide,” Warner explains.
But is this not “election” by a “cabal”? If he one day becomes Prime Minister, what will be his first task? “The first thing I will do is to re-affirm my salary of $1 a month. I will take the salary, take a dollar from it and give the rest to charity.”
After fixing his salary, he says he will then go on to focus on crime, education and, of course, sport. Warner was born on January 26, 1943. He was precocious.
“If I came second in test I cried like a baby,” he says.
His parents, Stella and Wilton Warner, worked at once stage in a brick factory. When Warner missed out on a government scholarship by placing 251th in the country, the brick factory would give him a scholarship. It was the first of several scholarships.
“I wanted to go in the police service,” Warner says. But his parents pushed him to become a teacher. He retired at 50.
A football player on the local scene, he worked his way up as an official on local councils. By 1983 he was a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and became CONCACAF President in 1990. For Warner, his own journey in life has been symbolic.
“The sky is the limit to what you can achieve,” he says as he takes a quiet sip from his tea.
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