Weapons of Mass Distraction

Sarcasm is one of the few tools left when intelligent people allow their intelligence to be subjugated by the media for propaganda purposes, and one that I employ liberally.

The New Politics of the day is making me cynically sarcastic and I am tired of seeing good, kind hearted people who have a genuine love of country being taken advantage of for camera shots and sound bytes.

This National Clean Up is the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

Look, as worthwhile an effort as this National Clean Up is, I fear it is nothing short of playacting and misdirection by a Government long on promises but short on any real plan for running the country.
In case anyone has forgotten, the country's major issues are (and ostensibly why we changed governments) crime, traffic and corruption, and National Clean Up is not going to make a dent in any of these.

Obviously being used as a metaphor for decay under the past administration, this Campaign is nothing new and we're getting a little tired of this same script now; what the last administration did wrong, what the new administration will do right.

Please, enough with the campaigning already.

Is it that this Government, so long in Opposition, is having difficulty moving from opposing to governing?

Where is the news media in all of this? Why are they (the News Media) avoiding asking the hard questions or tackling the real issues instead of regurgitating this drivel?
Why the 'Dr. Feel Good' reporting?
Is this based on something that 'we the people' are too stupid to know? or has the local news media business become more about business and less about news?

There are serious questions being asked to and about the present Government by rank and file Trinidadians and the people must have answers to those questions.

- Like the Warner issue.

Exactly how much control of this government did Mr. Warner's campaign money buy?
Mr. Warner's claims that he was 'instructed' by the Prime Minister to do this or 'instructed' to do that is fooling no one outside of the cult that the 'coalition' is trying to become, and again I have to say it, methinks he doth protest too much.

What is Mr. Warner's 'real' role in this Government, and what is preventing him from being discarded for breeching the Parliamentary Code of Ethics?

Is wrong under the PNM different from wrong under the UNC?

What is Winston Dookeran's position on Mr. Warner's appointment and the flouting of the Parliamentary Code of Ethics?
What is the Congress of the People's position on this issue?
Does Mr. Dookeran share Makandal Daaga's views that the rules need to be changed so as to accomodate Mr. Warner?
Has Mr. Dookeran abandoned his position on integrity and morality in Public Affairs?
And, if so, does Mr. Dookeran still speak for the Congress of the People?

- The Deficit issue.

If we are indeed operating on an 800 million shortfall per year in real income over expenses, what measures are being considered for the shortfall?
Is the Government willing to forgo frivolous campaign promises in order to close the gap?
Is the Government, in keeping a campaign promise to remove Property Tax, considering an end run around the problem of the deficit by raising Value Added Tax to twenty per cent, and if so, does this fly in the face of the 'No New Tax' campaign stand?

- The Financial Sector issue

Former Central Bank Governor and current Minister of Finance WInston Dookeran, in toeing the Party line (where embarrassing the last administration is concerned) is playing his part to the hilt; so much so that he is running afoul of the Central Bank Governor who has had to repeatedly contradict the Minister's position on National Finance issues and risks making him (Dookeran) appear foolish and ill informed.
On the heels of another insurance company's failure and public skepticism over Unit Trust, we cannot have an ill informed Minister of Finance making life altering decisions.

- The Crime Issue

Three Legal Affairs Ministries and multiple Ministers of National Security (some with title, some just with posts and positions), and still eight murders in three days.
Where is the much touted Anti-Crime Plan?

- The Galbaransingh/Ferguson Extradition issue

This Government's position on crime is 'Do the Crime then Do the Time', regardless of race, religion, class or political affiliation.

Anything other than a firm stance on the extradition of the two (former) UNC financiers indicted in the US for crimes committed during the last UNC administration and whose 'accomplices in crime' have confessed to the corruption and are already doing time would be a reversal of that position and would make this Government's position on Law & Order a joke.


These are some of the issues that need asking and answering by the media and the Government and should take precedence over what now obtains as the 'Top Story'.

We are well into the 120 days, during which time we were supposed to have referendum and recall legislation laid in Parliament, as well as draft legislation for term limits for Prime Ministers.

Why the delay in delivering the promised Pillars of Governance?

This Prime Minister needs to decide what exactly her Government is about, what she's for and against, and make those facts known more by her actions and less by her words.
She needs to decide if her legacy is worth the stink beginning to emanate from her Cabinet over the Warner issue and the Extradition issue.

Now is not the time for diddling with side issues, the country needs firm decisive leadership and some measure of integrity and honesty in Public Affairs, especially so close on the heels of the Manning PNM and its memory.

We the people voted the last government out of office before its term was up and the present government would do well to remember that.

Without us, all this current UNC administration would have had was a replay of Warner and Panday's Orange Revolution.

Something to think about...