HE BROUGHT ABOUT
POLITICAL REFORM
By Michael Anthony
Express
January 12, 2000
Pages 34 & 35
One
of the men who did the most to introduce the concept of
political reform in Trinidad and Tobago was Emmanuel Mzumbo Lazare.
Lazare
came on the scene when the word "reform" tended to relate to the
intense religious struggle between the majority Roman Catholics and the ruling
Anglicans. The Roman Catholics, mainly
French Creoles, were in open war with the minority Anglicans who, in their
view, were seeking to dominate every aspect of public life.
This
conflict had taken on serious proportions since 1844 when the coming into force
of the Ecclesiastical Ordinance dethroned the Catholic Church as the state
church. Although the Ordinance was
withdrawn in 1870, the conflict had not eased.
Lazare,
as a young man, shifted the view of the masses from this religious conflict,
campaigning on the fact that it was the masses, which were ignored and trampled
upon.
And
yet, throughout his life and career Lazare was never seen as a bitter,
intolerant man. Indeed, he was known as
a bright, cheerful person.
In
his youth, it was his sparking intelligence, which marked him. He quickly passed law examinations and was
registered both as a solicitor and a barrister. He also seemed to know the secret of achieving economic well
being, for when his well-known home, Lazdale, was erected in 1885, he was only
21. He owned acres of land around
Lazdale, which is situated at the corner of Simeon Road and Morne Coco Road,
Diego Martin, and he planted orchards, reared livestock, and also kept a dairy
farm.
Lazare
was active in municipal and civic affairs and was elected as a member of the
borough council of Port of Spain in 1887.
When the telephone was being introduced on a sound footing in 1885, he
had a lot to do with the way it was handled.
The minutes of the borough council of Port of Spain showed that he also
had a lot to say, ten years later, when electricity was being introduced into
Port of Spain.
But
what Lazare was most concerned about was fairplay and justice for all. He saw the religious conflict between
Anglicans and Catholics as totally unnecessary and irrelevant. What to him was relevant was that the true
majority in the island had no chance at all, and no opportunity, and no voice.
Lazare
became part of the military and by the 1890s was lieutenant of the Trinidad
Light Horse, a black contingent of the cavalry section of the militia. This contingent was sent to England in 1897
as part of a delegation to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria.
At
the celebrations Queen Victoria was very much struck with the manner and
bearing of Mzumbo Lazare, and if reports are correct, she asked to be presented
to him. What is certain is that she
spoke to him at length.
It
is not known what Lazare told Queen Victoria, but if what transpired afterwards
is any indication it seems he told her he was planning to undermine her
administration in Trinidad. For
although he had a great admiration for royalty he had a greater admiration for
freedom from colonialism, and this is what characterised him as the 19th
century turned into the 20th.
Because
of a dispute between the borough council of Port of Spain and the government,
headed by Sir Hubert Jerningham, Sir Hubert in 1898 recommended the abolition
of the borough council, which was then the only forum in Port of Spain where
local men could be heard.
The
abolition of the council in 1899 stung Lazare and his colleagues into
action and they seized on one of the
controversies of the day to put the government to the sword.
The
government's director of public works, Walsh Wrightson, had drafted a
waterworks bill, which sought to make people pay for the water they used by the
establishment of metres. Looking at it
objectively it did not seem an unreasonable course for people wasted water.
Nevertheless,
the wrath of the masses was aroused, principally by Lazare. He called on them to come to the Red House
on the day that the bill was to be debated - March 23, 1903 - and to make so
much noise that the bill could never become law. Unfortunately, in the turbulence of that day things got out of
hand, and the Red House was set afire and destroyed.
The
flames of the Red House became a spiritual beacon for independence, for the
battle for the restoration of the borough charter was the start of the fight
for Independence.
And
this is principally why we revere Lazare, although he did a lot more to
intensify that fight.
This
great campaigner, who was born on Christmas Eve 1864, lived long enough to see
the first general elections of 1925, which gave the people a voice in their own
affairs for the first time.
Lazare,
who was also famous for a grand annual Old Year's Night ball, died on New
Year's Day 1929.
This is the second article
in a series by
Michael Anthony, which will
appear in the
Daily Express on Wednesdays.