Well, the pretty campaign mask has slipped off, and reality returns in a stink mout’ rage. But the mask was loose from the start, in other utterances which passed unremarked, and the phenomenon has been emblematic of two emerging trends as the government and opposition changed seats. First, the welcome the new government is getting compared to the last; and second, how many gaffes and gimcracks have flown out of gushing ministerial maws to no response from the morality police.
It’s an issue raised in this space before: episteme—how the media (on behalf of the public) are interpreting what’s going on. I’ve noticed, since September 8, a sense of relief—optimism almost. Understandable, as the last days of the PP evoked a Caligula-like decadence. But that mighty oak of certainty of the PP’s malfeasance grew from an acorn planted by the media almost from the start of the PP’s term. Vasant Bharat’s luxury SUV, the former PM’s shoes, turtle eggs and other frivolities were hyped and amplified, so when serious issues arose (like the $900m passed to a handful of lawyers) they found an enraged, receptive public.
The same media, these last few weeks, despite the spike in murders, unabated irruptions of discontent, and looming economic doom, have been positively anodyne, careful to not connect the state of the nation to the government. Opprobrium has actually been directed to the Opposition leader for being a sore loser, even as the PM has been burnishing his image. “Everything’s going to be alright,”—glad-handing and backslapping (until he walked out of Parliament). And this has apparently distracted the media.
So to fill the journalistic hole (so to speak) here’s a few of the utterances which have attracted little comment, but which augur woe in days to come.
After some fuss about the appointment of the Chairperson of the CNMG/GISL board, there occurred two remarkable events which slipped by with minimum friction. A press conference which was being carried live on CNMG was pulled off the air without explanation. And a freelance journalist/radio host sympathetic to the now Opposition was “let go.” Had the PP done this, the press freedom corbeaux would have been feasting on their entrails. But now, not a squeak. The change in senior management, CEO and chairman, is routine, but the board micromanaging the newsroom isn’t. (Jimmy Bain much?)
The press conference CNMG pulled featured a process server who had been accused by the Attorney General of “disrespect” for attempting to serve him summons for the PP’s elections challenge. Incidentally, the PNM and its attorneys, if the news reports are true, were “evading” service of these papers, an unheard-of tactic among Honourable Gentlemen, my legal friends tell me. And after berating the process server, the present AG then threw a hissy fit on social media. Most ungentlemanly. But who notices that kind of thing?
Still on matters of law, there’s been a noticeable spike in murders after the election. Much as you’d like to, you can’t blame the government. But you can be agog at Minister of National Security General Edmund Dillon’s assessment: “Don’t politicise crime.” And then he retreated into a thorny thicket of technocrat-ese, whereby resources would be allocated, strategic plans formulated and appropriate responses executed. This, so far, has meant the transfer of Snr Supt Johnny Abraham from Chaguanas to PoS.
But there are some crimes even the venerable Snr Supt Abraham cannot detect. Like sex crimes yet to be committed. Those crimes, however, can be prevented by education. But Minister of Education, Anthony Garcia, said sex education should be taught by parents, not in schools. Because that’s worked so well in the last half-century, and the nation's children are so well-protected from predators.
Elsewhere the Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh, addressing the high rates of infant mortality and maternal deaths, opined that women were the soul of the nation. But apparently there is to be no change in abortion laws to protect women from illegal abortions. And as gender, children, women and sexuality issues go, vague religiosity and the holy books seem to be key in the PNM’s strategy. Clearly a bull-it (sic) proof strategy, hence youngsters in school sex videos re-enacting Biblical scenes from the apocalypse and sodomy and gonorrhoea. By the way, where does the PNM stand on LBGT rights? In the closet?
If keeping uncomfortable things in the dark is to be the guiding principle of the new government, it presumably means vice in all its forms will be unheard of, unseen, but mutely, feverishly practiced. Like the offer of $15 million to the JTUM which JTUM had the sense to decline (but a part of which NATUC accepted). What if the PP had done this? I can see the righteous breasts swelling, and the cliché cannons primed and pointed—bribery, graft, buying assent. (To be fair, it’s not that the PP didn’t try this: throwing hundreds of millions at Carnival and “cult-yere,” which the Carnivalists took, and ahem, whizzed on them anyway. Serves them right.)
But as anyone with sense can see, this is how it’s going to be for a while: the rabid, inquisitorial press and do-gooder, NGO concerned-citizen posse is going to be mellow, balanced, and judicious. Let’s not rush to judgment. Have faith in the government. In fact, criticising and not co-operating with the government’s agenda would be unpatriotic. Crime? Illegal drugs? Guns?
It’s all over the world, can’t blame the government for that. Economy in trouble? Worldwide phenomenon. Heard of Greece and China?
But even as public thinking and interpretation will suddenly become expansive, reflective, and philosophical, the PP will sit there like the parliamentary fowls, bristling, hissing, and insular.
