From Calder Hart to Minister of Everything
Story Created: Aug 21, 2010 at 12:41 AM ECT
(Story Updated: Aug 21, 2010 at 12:41 AM ECT )
Does any of this sound familiar?
• One man who was allowed to bypass conventions and structures, checks and balances, in order to get things done fast;
• One man who seemed to have a finger in every pie;
• One man who had big men and women falling down before him in awe and obsequiousness;
• One man who nobody seemed able, or willing, to bring under supervision;
• One blue-eyed boy.
In hindsight, we can see that allowing the newly-appointed Minister of Works to also keep his FIFA job was only the beginning. Now the man is on a roll: I don't want to hear about obstacles, he warns, with regard to the building of another water taxi port; I only want to hear how it can be done.
The proposed site of the port seems to be a mangrove swamp. Suppose the EMA says no to destroying yet another piece of wetland; is he going to overrule them? Or is the EMA going to be accommodating, as with the smelter plant and quarrying regulations?
In discussing bureaucratic obstacles, Mr Warner lamented "This country is bogged down in too much democracy" (First Up, August 20). Slip of the tongue? Mouth open tory jump out? Or just mouth running ahead of brain?
Calder Hart did not wish to be hampered, either, by little things like the rules of tendering, and he was accommodated. Look where that landed us.
Why is the Minister of Works and Transport instructing the Attorney General? Is that the correct line of authority? Clearly this personage has become the "Minister of Everything'' — getting into other people's portfolios.
Mr Warner has admitted that the move to resume hangings was not a collective decision: "the party has to discuss it. It has not been discussed" (Express July 21).
Reports are that it has still not been discussed, but some of his colleagues have been individually recruited into his personal project to hang at all cost, scheduling the proposed human sacrifice as a Republic Day celebration: "the best gift you can give the country — the best republican gift" (Austin Jack Warner, First Up, August 20). How obscene. And should all of these arrangements be going on while the Prime Minister is away?
It is very disturbing to see how willingly he gets people to do his bidding — grown men with brains of their own, Ministers in their own right, working just as hard as he does, but talking less, not given to blowing their own trumpets.
It seems as though every word that falls out of Mr Warner's mouth gets reported in the media. Cameras seem to follow him everywhere (at his invitation?). One night this week, almost every story on the 7 o'clock news was about him.
This week, too, a respected radio talkshow host expressed admiration for the way Mr Warner is able to circumvent structures and get things done. And this seems to be the sentiment on the ground — Mr Warner is a knight in shining armour, acclaimed by all as an action man who gets things done fast.
Calder Hart was also highly praised and put on a pedestal, then hotly defended even after we had begun to see through him and recognise the appalling breakdown of accountability that his modus operandi involved.
Let us hope that the Government retreat/workshop can be held as soon as possible after the PM's return, and that as part of this exercise Mr Warner's colleagues will get out from under his spell and confront the issues raised by his actions and utterances.
If those who are hired as facilitators of the workshop process have the skill to make this happen, then the country will owe them a great debt of gratitude.
We're on a very dangerous path, and we have too much to lose. Let us not squander the opportunity given to us on May 24 to build a humane, orderly and peaceful society. There is no short cut to that goal.
Merle Hodge
St Augustine
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/From_Calder_Hart_to_Minister_of_Everything-101210819.htmlhttp://video.ctntworld.com/view/318/first-up-online-200810/