The trick in politics seems to be to know when to speak out, and when to just sit up, shut up and try to look intelligent.
For most of the members of the People's Partnership that ship has already sailed. The few members still holding the political capital they brought with them to the dinner and dance are the ones least likely to pursue any attempt at self promotion or high handed 'above the people' personal glorification.
Most noteworthy among them are Verna St. Rose Greaves, Social Development Minister-in-Waiting, and Prakash Ramadar, a man who seems to understand clearer than most what serve the people really means.
Throughout the entire ordeal that the public has had to endure since the May 24th elections, I must say that (with the obvious exception of Anil Roberts), the members of the Congress of the People have carried themselves with something like sober decorum and diplomacy in public affairs.
The UNC on the other hand, has been the staging point for many ego centric flare ups, from Minister 'Strike a Pose' Ramadhar Singh, Attorney General to the stars Anand Ramlogan, no room left for any more feet in mouth Cornelis, Media Killer Ninja Barbie Surujattan Rambachan to Minister of everything under the sun, the man who successfully fought against ethics and won, HNIC Austin Jack Warner.
Mary King is being used in much the same way that Winston Dookeran is being used, to bring something like nausea control to an otherwise noxious stench. Kamla Persad Bissessar is now the head of a skittish and broken coalition desperate to consolidate power, and the actions of her Party and her colleagues would be funny to watch if they were only a sketch comedy show.
We have witnessed the marginalization of women in politics before, but none so glaring an abuse as the one meted out to the much loved and much respected Verna St. Rose Greaves, whose only misstep since election was to rein in Warner and Volney with their hang them 'here, there and everywhere' silly ranting.
Has she been sidelined and marginalized as a silencing of dissent?
Is this the tone of this Administration, to silence who they cannot control?
It would certainly appear so to this writer, and the direct intervention of Surujattan Rambachan as Party hatchet man into formerly free to express, State owned media house CNMG has left the entire population disgusted, disturbed and outraged.
For all the beauty pageant behavior, this Administration is now walking wounded if not already dead, and the firing of Fazeer Mohammed will be remembered as this Government's Waterloo.
Based on everything that is taking place in the country, from demonstrations, joblessness, homelessness, a looming economic shutdown and the Government's lack of anything like a coherent leadership response save for the tired 'I Love Kamla' routine, the question has to be asked, is Kamla Persad Bissessar really the Prime Minister of this country?
Or is she, as some have suggested, the window dressing and the face of a more sinister, duplicitous and deliberate construct?
Instead of the promised iron fist in a velvet glove we were promised on the hustings, we are treated to sash wearing, truckbed riding, magazine posing, beauty queen behavior while the country is circling the drain.
I pointed out during the campaign that she offered nothing of substance then, and sadly she offers nothing of substance now. You CANNOT run a country on platitudes and photo ops, regardless of what the fashion magazines say. It simply does not work that way. The people are sick to death of the 'drunk on the party line' talking heads who simply regurgitate cultic drivel for points and props and are desperate for something like calm, cohesive and sensible governance.
Kamla Persad Bissesar may not fully understand that being the first female Prime Minister comes with tremendous responsibility; Her moment in the sun is 'pregnant' with the aspirations of every woman behind her, desperate to be seen as equals in the male dominated world of top level politics and not just as sidekicks and bag holders.
It is not too late to save her legacy, but it is almost too late. Only Kamla knows the truth here, and while she may have little control over what she was, she still has the final say in who she allows herself to be, now and in the future.
Having kicked open the door to what was formerly a man's world, it would be tragically ironic if her actions and her legacy shuts it hard against other deserving women of substance in the future.
What trash! I strongly disagree with the implication that somehow more is to be expected of a woman in power than would be expected of a male counterpart. I find it to be yet another patriarchal subterfuge which seeks to destroy and downplay the achievements of women with a shadow of "what else could she be doing for women?" when no similar question is posed in relation to the achievements of men. I also take great offence to that "her moment in the sun is pregnant" metaphor. Pregnancy in Western industrial culture is generally associated with weakness and unproductivity (however erroneously), and I would think that the association of the concept with a female Prime Minister represents a deliberate and blatant attempt to attach those judgements to her performance - merely because she is a woman. All I ask is that we not have different standards because of her gender. It should not matter that she is a woman. An article like that would have NEVER been written about a male Prime Minister; and therein lies the huge and festering problem.
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