Sex scandal, abuse of power, misconduct in public office, threats to freedom of the press, mismanagement of ministries, failure to properly account, depressing economic measures, total breakdown of independent institutions, incompetent, enhancers of crime and corruption are just some of the labels and/or descriptions which can be easily ascribed to the present Government.
Its members must be aware of their shortcomings else they are certainly too arrogant. It is obvious that the Government’s strategy of survival and potential return to office following the next general election is to torture the population as much as it can, bringing it close to its tensile endurance, and just as it is about to snap, to warmly embrace everyone in an attempt to put things right.
In layman’s language, the Government is quite prepared to do absolutely nothing at this time to deliver good governance, but will start to pave roads and provide handouts after the next budget and beyond. Why will they run that risk with an intelligent population, you ask? Because they can, under our system of governance and with a mainstream media on its side, they will suddenly paint a picture that T&T is a paradise once again.
There will be a sudden decrease in the increase in crime. Statements like “we found the Treasury empty,” “we had to stabilise the economy first after the mess created by the last government” and “we are now in a good position because of prudent fiscal management over the past three years” will be preached to us, Finance Minister Colm Imbert with an even wider smirk on his face will most likely be chief spokesperson.
Statements such as: “We raise gas prices twice and nobody riot yet” or “a woman is like a pasture which has to be groomed” could be proposed by our Minister of Education as metaphors to be included in primary school’s creative writing syllabus and textbooks. The minister seems to have garnered sufficient empirical data to suggest that a new school Course of “Fishing out sewage” is necessary. In recent times, he surmised that there was sabotage of sewage systems.
AG Al-Rawi and Minister Stuart Young might even join Garcia in contending that the Opposition had a hand to play in school children flushing their underwear down the toilets!
Anyways, or youth will be empowered to fish or pluck out panties and jockey shorts from sewage lines and cesspits on board our phantom inter-island ferries and school toilet systems. It may even become necessary to fish lingerie out of sewage systems in ministries such as the Sport Ministry. The rate at which the Government is proceeding, we can expect that the intellectual depths of ideas like these will become the major talking points leading up to the next general election.
Why are officeholders who are expecting their back-pay and codification of their updated remuneration packages suddenly subject to the approval of the Chief Personnel Officer? Why are there ongoing audits in ministries and special purpose entities where there is simply no need or basis to commission such an exercise?
Why are we continuing to oppress and penalise drivers who are barely driving over the speed limit on back roads. According to the Attorney General, this is a revenue earning measure. Yet we are doing nothing about the fast paced reckless drivers who surpass 100mph on the highways, cutting in and out, subjecting lawful drivers to unnecessary risk and harm. The irony is that whilst we deploy police officers to entrap drivers, serious crimes continue unabated and unsolved.
The Government seem hell bent on doing the wrong things. The way I see it, there is a brain drain in the Government.
To compensate for this, the Government’s strategy is to torture the people of our country without apology. When the next budget is due, the Government will simply seek to open up its hands in spending “political-bribe” monies.
Party hacks will be happy but the country will not move forward and the problems we face on a day to day basis will remain. God forbid, but if the majority of the population falls for this strategy, the political brain drain in Government will intensify. In such a situation, the ruling party’s deliberate strategy would have worked for them but would result in a long-term infliction of a reign of terror on our people.
