The Hunger Games, T&T Style...

In his contribution in support of the Defense Amendment Bill on Friday, Member of Parliament for Chaguanas East Stephen Cadiz deigned to mention the name 'Keith Noel' for the first time in a long time, but only in so much as it was used to scold his detractors for daring to mention the name of the man whose murder catapulted him (Cadiz) to national attention and whose death is responsible in no small part for the gentleman being in the Parliament today. Having campaigned that crime was the problem and promising to never give up until his 'friend' Keith's killers were found, Cadiz made no apology for what to many still appears to be the blatant use of the man's corpse as a campaign prop and for prostituting real activism for personal gain as, since achieving Office, seems to have completely forgotten why he said he wanted to be there in the first place. And he was not the only one telling convenient half truths or making up stories that day, as many others who took to their feet seemed content with the ends justifying the means, but despite all the reasons, excuses and explanations proffered, the reasons for the ends still make little or no sense. And it is here where Stephen and I have a problem, because Stephen knows that the population expects him to know and do better and for him to compromise that faith to push someone else's agenda is the unkindest cut of all, is deceit of the highest order and a debt he will never be able to repay. To the public at large, the idea behind the precepting of soldiers may be a fair and an agreeable one, but not without the safeguards that have protected the people from zealous or vindictive politicians in the past. And make no mistake, the Minister of National Security, the man to whom this law, if passed, would deliver almost superhuman power operates with a zealotry that ought not to ever be trusted. His vision to harness the Concacaf votes and parlay them for a seat at one of the most corrupt organizations in the world is not something that one wants read in the biography of a decent man but it is his history and one that he chose and for which he has personally benefitted many times over. To pretend that success in those pursuits were somehow comparable to nation building or nation securing is laugh out loud funny and is equivalent to the mouse receiving extra credit for stealing the cheese.

No it should not be allowed to work like that and at some point we in this country are going to have to be mature enough to call a spade a spade and a crook a crook and to stop electing or allowing the appointment of questionable characters to our high Offcies and institutions simply because of our own political laziness and immaturity. Nothing in the world justifies the likes of Ganga Singh, Carlos John, Emanuel George or Jack Warner being allowed in or around our government, and it is a stain of incredulous proportions on our history that not only are men of such infamous repute allowed to benefit from the largesse of the state, that they are finishing what they started all those years ago under Basdeo Panday but with alarming impunity as they appear now protected from on high.

So what do we do? Do we sit back and give this notorious cabal an army to defend them against opposition? Because clearly the present danger that presents itself to the people is not one that operates from outside, and if the army is funded in protection of the people, why would we allow it to be used by those who have demonstrated only scorn and contempt for the very people? Ishwar Galbaransingh, Lindsey Gillette and Lawrence Duprey were names that were supposed to live on in infamy after being brought low (mercifully) the last time they were around, not given a second bite at the proverbial apple. What are the people to think or believe, that wrong could be made right if you wrap it in the blanket of political respectability?

We seem to be fast approaching a place where grand gestures of the extreme kind are going to have to be made to save this country and people are going to have to be prepared to lay down their lives in that regard. The old guard are sounding the call, where are the new leaders? Where are the men of steely spine and firm commitment to rout this unholy alliance? We are there now, at that place we were always headed to, where the two faces that disguise the greedy investors of both political sides square off with Trinidad & Tobago as the prize, and caught in between are the one point three million citizens of the country, transfixed, drunk, numb or in awe of all that is taking place and the coming storm. Will the next fifty years of our independence begin with a chapter written in blood? That may well depend on how far some are prepared to go to raid the country, and how far others are prepared to go to protect it.