Incredibly Dumb & Extremely Stupid...

There is no arguing the fact that the People's National Movement is in a very bad place right now, and in the ongoing battle for that Party's soul, things are being said and done that will be hard to live down when elections eventually come along and one or the other faction has to lead them into battle.

A clear and recent example of this, from the moment Dr. Keith Rowley was prevented from visiting former Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the hospital where he was rushed with a mild stroke, questions were raised as to the reasons behind the refusal that will be hard to live down or explain away anytime soon, especially in light of other far less important visitors being granted almost untrammeled and rather public access. Now rumors are circulating of Hazel Manning locking the door to deny him (Rowley) entry, demonstrating to all that the feud within the Party is not only real but in fact runs very deep, as deep as Patrick's sick bed if not worse and, missing a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the Party's prospects in some trying political times, made the kind of decision that wins little battles at the expense of the entire war. What could have been the thinking here, was the idea to prevent Dr. Rowley's political stocks from rising due to Patrick's illness through humiliation?

If the rumors are even remotely true then it has to be the most incredibly dumb and extremely stupid political act in the history of dumb and stupid acts and may well have snatched (again) defeat from the jaws of victory. A tiny window of hope was presented to the PNM through some very unfortunate circumstances and, instead of taking the high ground where everybody could have sipped from the cup of hope collectively and where the Party could have experienced something like renewal, little men and women conspired to slam that window shut, leaving in the wake of those actions a publicly embarrassed political leader and a mess of questions that are going to need answering sometime soon if the Party is to survive.

There is an old saying, before you set off on a journey of revenge first dig two graves, and Hazel and her co-conspirators by their actions here may have done exactly that. Make no mistake, Rowley, Penny, Hinds and others are not to blame for the PNM's current fortunes (regardless of what those in the San Fernando East cabal would have the public believe) and were in fact entitled to and justified in mounting a challenge against the then vastly unpopular Prime Minister Patrick Manning and, as is clearly evident by the results of the May 24th general election, a view that was obviously held by many within the Party and the electorate as a whole at that time. Ever since those results and Dr. Rowley's subsequent rise to the post of political leader however, they (Patrick Manning & Co.) have been demonstrating to all and sundry why it makes little sense to cut off your nose in order to spite your face. By playing the part of spoilers to the hilt by undermining the new leader at every turn to keep him off balance, they are hobbling the Party's prospects by extension and reducing the once great People's National Movement to a parody of itself.

It is high time that Manning and the San Fernando East cabal accepts the fact that he (Manning) has had his turn at bat and that his turn is now over. His accomplishments and his failures, for better or worse, are now part of our history and should be left as just that, history. The options open to them now are either  to close ranks around the current leader as an effective opposition and prepare the Party to mount a challenge as alternative to government, or to do the democratic, courageous and honorable thing and leave the Party altogether and start something new. If the ideas that they have to sell are as popular with the electorate as they believe then they will get support at election time. If they do not they will get an even clearer message, one that many believe they should have gotten since the evening of May 24th 2010.