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Offline Die_Hard

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Show Me Your Motion
« on: March 04, 2012, 09:20:25 AM »
Plain Talk - Phillip Edward Alexander

Sunday, March 4, 2012
Show Me Your Motion....


The motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister has been defeated, arguably an outcome predetermined from the start based on the division of numbers in the Parliament. Many damning revelations of abuses that are allegedly taking place at all levels of government were exposed during the marathon sitting, but, and as occurred under the last administration when it too was new in Office, this 'new' group has not yet stolen 'enough' to surpass their accusers so they are being 'given a pass.'

They say turnabout is fair play but surely Dr. Rowley could not have anticipated that his motion could have backfired as badly as it did, and besides giving the usual suspects (especially those who specialize in misdirection) a perfect opportunity to further gild the lily where the Partnership is concerned, it provided them with yet another opportunity to demonize the PNM in justification for their own existence. In this long and arduous debate for the contributors and spectators alike there have been very few winners but some notable losers.

The first casualty of the exercise has to be the Congress of the People, who may have now fully surrendered their 'separateness' as a distinct and separate Party to the UNC. Their overwhelming public support for the Prime Minister may have indelibly blurred the lines between the two Parties forever, and listening to the demonstrations of loyalty and outpouring of love on the response campaign, one would have been hard pressed to tell where one side ends and the other begins. To many who deal with only 'what is before them' this is not such a big deal, but students of history and those who take the long view of politics well know that this new handicap on the Party will become most evident if ever there is an opportunity for the Parties to square off once again as adversaries. One wonders if such an eventuality were to occur how the conversation might then go, but perhaps it may be the dawning of polite politics with the winner of the next election being decided by a 'by your leave' or 'no, after you, I insist.'

The People's National Movement lost even more ground as they labored to prosecute their case against the government even while still struggling to hold back tsunami of wrongdoing that took place on their watch. Dr. Rowley's assertions that his side did not fear the numbers in the House because of the thirty three Parliament experience is a little disingenuous and he knows it, because unlike what obtains now on his bench, none of the then 'three' were suspected or accused of being part of any wrongdoing. Having the almost open revolt  in his Party being further displayed for public consumption by the likes of Amery Browne and Colm Imbert in their choice of neckwear is not helping, and despite protestations to the contrary by Marlene McDonald that it is 'just a tie,' in this case a tie is much more than 'just a tie' and everybody knows it. The PNM's political leader (in whose name this motion was piloted) may have lost the most of all, because among the issues outlined in his contribution there did not appear to be enough of a reason to raise such a serious motion. This defeat may well be the last straw for a career that really could not have afforded another failure, especially one of this magnitude.

Far and away though in my estimation the biggest losers in this matter has to be the people of Trinidad & Tobago, who had to endure this embarrassing record breaking display of 'who tief more than who' for just over twenty six hours. If it were possible for them to lose whatever faith they had left in their public officials and the broken systems that allows such abuses to take place unhindered, then it is fair to say that all faith is now lost.

Sean Penn's character says at the end of the movie Fair Game - “The responsibility of a country is not in the hands of a privileged few; We are strong and we are free from tyranny as long as each one of us remembers his or her duty as a citizen.”

To everyone with an interest in this country the question that wants to be asked is where do we go from here? That question should occupy us all because, as this debate and this motion has clearly shown, where we are and what we have right now is not serving us well at all.

 

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