Selling Guns to the Indians... (Show Me Your Motion IV)

For those who are not blind supporters of the People's National Movement, Political Leader Dr. Keith Rowley's assertions that we are to believe without questioning the authenticity of his 'evidence' simply because he wants us to believe it has no meaning or value. What needs to be asked is why he believed that he had the authority to receive what he thought to be credible information of a clear and present danger to named persons and the country as a whole and to keep it to himself for over six months. What did he do for these six months while the country soldiered on blissfully unaware of the dastardly machinations that he believed were underway? How did he sleep at night believing that the government of this nation was capable of this sort of behavior, had what he thought to be factual proof to that, and did nothing of value about it?

That itself should be a crime.

It has to be clear to anyone paying attention that Dr. Rowley and his 'PP mutual dislike society' assemblage are pinning all of their aspirations on pressing the public into supporting allegations based solely on the fact that they may be plausible, but I want to tell him again in no uncertain terms that it does not work that way. The benefit of the doubt that he himself has enjoyed in the past despite serious allegations of corruption against him personally should be reason enough for him to agree that the burden of proof should always rest with the accuser, and that he cannot have it both ways.

I find all of this so implausible and unbelievable and worse, I believe that Dr. Rowley, caught up in his zeal to unseat the government, either played cheap politics with a potentially serious situation or, worse, conspired with others to create it out of thin air. Not one person following what began in the Parliament that faithful Monday when the good doctor got up to speak believes him to be a stupid man, yet his inexplicable actions based on his own words leave very few other options. As it is, Dr. Rowley now stands guilty of making fools of the entire country and should be made to step down as Opposition Leader simply because he failed to respect the purpose of that Office. Clearly he misunderstood the responsibility and assumed it solely to be to remove the government at all costs. That is certainly not what Westminster intends, and while I absolutely agree that we need to be eternally vigilant ESPECIALLY knowing the nature and potential of the characters we currently have in government, because of that more than anything else it behooves us to observe the highest of standards in what we do if we are not to risk throwing the proverbial baby of our democracy out with the bath water.

Anyone who has ever read anything that I have ever written has to know that I could never be considered a fan of this government, but I am also no fan of anarchy. We remain a Republic, a nation ruled by laws, underpinned by the maxim – 'he who alleges must prove.' Without that protection the country would have become ungovernable a long time ago as governments would fall under the weight of accusations weekly, leaving us in a perpetual state of electioneering, accusing, denial and collapse.

Like most I believe that there was much more behind the whole Section 34 fiasco waiting to be uncovered and am still unsure as to why the disgraced Justice Minister has not been charged for the misbehavior in public Office that he was fired for. The Director of Public Prosecutions alone can answer that, but rather than go the tried and proven route of investigation and prosecution, we seem to have opted the path of expedient speculation. There is nothing good at the end of that road. Sensible leadership seems to have given way to theatrical politics in the PNM, and now that the party has lost even more ground the membership have to be concerned as to who is making their decisions for them. In a world of unforced errors this has to be the most ill thought out that I have ever seen, and I would be very surprised if the good doctor, when he set off on this adventure, did not in fact dig his own grave.