The Future Of A Banana Republic Today, I’d like to provide some intelligence to the community on the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago.
Let me preface this by saying that about 3 years ago, I returned to live in Trinidad from the US just as the election campaign was in full swing with three parties
vying for leadership, for brevity, the PNM, COP and UNC
Alliance. I did not know much about PM Manning, at the
time, so I considered myself an objective observer to the
election process.
I did however, align myself with the PNM because of family, the community and in my opinion given the choices available it was easy to stick with an obvious winner. In hindsight those reasons should not have been consequential for whom I voted.
At the time my opinion was that the other two parties did not seem to stand a fighting chance. It was really a matter of having three bad choices . OK, that’s all backdrop so here is what I learned about my chosen leader since then.
As the incumbent Prime Minister in the last election, Prime Minister Manning, bared his talons during the campaign, well
for the rest of the country it may have been just him acting normal but to me it was so childish. It is enshrined in our constitution that the sitting PM be the one to decide on the exact date of the general elections.
PM Manning constantly toyed with the Opposition and the rest of the country, by announcing that he; “had the date of the next election in his pocket” and would pull it out at anytime.
I should have recognized the egotistical nature of the man at that time but as the saying goes, in time the true nature of man will emerge. PM Manning won the elections and immediately continued to belittle the opposition. In fact, the election campaign continued after the PNM party won, creating a wide division in the country, some say, along racial lines.
Since then, I have seen Mr. Manning support his appointed Finance Minister after she had blatantly lied to Parliament about a financial transaction. Despite, the downturn in the world’s economy, hosted the largest most extravagant Summit of the Americas meeting to the tune of what has been estimated over half a billion TTD.
All for a resolution which the participants refused to sign and is specifically contrary to what is practiced in Trinidad and Tobago with respects to many of the issues Included in the resolution. My Prime Minister, obsequiously brown nosed President Obama letting him know how great our little country was doing.
What he did not talk about is the way he fired a active Minister and then allege that he was responsible for the disappearance of millions of dollars.
This, by the way, has been proven to be a nefarious transaction that nobody could put their finger on. Accept, the resignation Of his Attorney General for no apparent reason and quickly recalled the previous Attorney General who was now the Ambassador to London to replace her. And when the Law Association passed a vote of no confidence on this newly placed Attorney general, and he “offered” his resignation,
PM Manning played a game with the opposition and the nation again as to whether he would accept it. Later after prominent individuals stated there opinions on the matter he refused to accept the resignation. As the sitting PM he defied a ruling by a High Court judge stopping work on one of the 3 -4 smelter plants that he has been on his agenda for quite a few years.
The judge ruled that because of the impact on the environment the agency responsible for awarding a certificate had erred, Mr. Manning voiced his resistance by saying “no, no, no, no, no” these smelters will be built. In fact, despite the judge’s ruling work on the power plants continues. Recently, he postponed a Local Government election for another year, the fourth postponement in 4 years since it was due.
What I provided above is just a few instances that I can recall. I have noticed also that he has taken to speaking of himself in the Third person, like “ the Prime Minister life was in danger” then he went on to tell an elaborate tale of an intended potential Blood shed in the land. Today the Commission of Police made it public that no such incident was ever reported to the highest law
enforcement authority in the land. Soon the axe will fall on that one for daring to contradict what "The Prime Minister" said. We will see.
I might be wrong but does not all this smell of some rotten bananas in the republic. A Third World country with a 20/20 Vision of Grandeur at the expense of it’s people and the country itself.
As you can probably deduce, my alignments has changed. I had to mentally burn my Party card that’s because the one I was promised was never issued.
The campaign is still raging for the next election, three years away. Who do you think will win?
