Diminishing Returns...

The Congress of the People now seems beset on all sides. With two of its members purged from the Partnership for disputable breeches, one wonders if it is a breakdown in discipline, a campaign to rid the Partnership of the COP or just plain faulty hiring practices within the COP in the first place.

Looked on from afar, both Nizam Mohammed's and Mary King's resumes read as right as anyone currently serving in Office and significantly greater than many whose rumored offenses can make a demon blush, yet it was these two and for what can be considered minor infractions compared again to what may be currently simmering away in plain view whose political throats were cut.

Will we see a move to discipline the frontline Minister whose brother is an overnight transport contracting heavyweight and who demonstrated this prowess in the pineapple for all to see? If it is found to be true that one of his transport roles is as a 'bag man', will we see heads roll?

If Mary King was found to have abused her Office through nepotism, what of Chandresh Sharma and his bloodline? Is it that the COP goose is different from the UNC Gander?

And if Nizam was a racist, what is Suruj? 

What is the difference between Nizam's disclosure and Rambachan's full on muslim/hindu attack live on public television? 

And is the claim of ethnic cleansing in the Ministry of Health not worthy of similar public outcry as to rumors of racist promoting within the Police Service? Or is it okay because those being discriminated against and cleansed were of East Indian origin? 

My question here is simple, why are the members of the COP and the UNC being judged by a different standard?

Made to suffer due to a questionable agreement that left its members begging at the table they helped build, the Congress of the People seems saddled with fools for leaders who are only interested in their own moment in the sun leaving the devil to take those left behind.

Winston Dookeran needs to either step up to the plate, take up the mantle and lead, or vacate the position and allow for others not yet burdened by tears of seeming regret and missed opportunities to carry the Party forward and build it into something of political value.

I have been made privy to real information regarding the positions of the leadership in the Party (both within and without the Cabinet) and it would seem that the only consensus is that everyone disagrees. This is fertile ground for those who see the COP as an enemy to their own progress, and to the members and the supporters who did all the work to create the fortune from which the last election was invested, nothing is left but a sad IOU from people notoriously good at not paying political debts.

This government cannot continue to be coalition in name only, not when the COP still holds the present and future fortunes of both the UNC and the PNM in its hands.

I have been calling on the membership since May 24th to wake up and grow the Party into an institution of formidable strength worthy of respect. I am calling on them again; get out your jerseys, ready your flags, gather in your numbers and begin the work of creating a truly national Party.

We need to come to terms with the fact that there was a reason Moses never crossed into the Promised Land; sometimes after the guiding and the leading is done the baton must be passed to a younger generation forged in the spirit of political conflict and hardened and ready for war.

If the Congress of the People ever had a moment in time to claim that moment is upon us now. Let it not be said that the opportunity was missed for want of a direction or a leader for that matter.

History will not be kind to the memory of those who squandered pure gold for bronze and trinkets...