Trinidad and Tobago must be run according to the dictates of Patrick Mervyn Augustus Williams.
This is the only logical conclusion anyone—except of course the fanatical PNMites—can deduce from last Friday’s abominable spectacle in the House of Representatives.
On that day one of the most shameful and disgraceful acts of political interference in the Police Service played itself out with respect to the selection of a new Police Commissioner.
July 4 has gone down as the day on which a deadly assault on an institution born out of our democratic way of life was launched by a government which has shown in just four months that it has no qualms in angering the population in pursuit of governance PNM style.
And unless citizens forget their political allegiance and see exactly what that date represents for democracy in this country, the time would come when it would be too late to salvage T&T from a catastrophe we refused to acknowledge was in the making.
And because of selfish reasons we did not take steps to prevent.
The day after Senior Supt Stephen Williams was announced by the Police Service Commission (PSC) as its choice for commissioner, a daily newspaper carried a news story saying the Government and the Opposition would, in confirmation hearings in the Parliament, object to Williams’s appointment.
I half-heartedly disbelieved the story, saying the Government would not risk the accusation that it was politically interfering in the work of an independent body—the PSC—one of similar organisations set up years ago by then Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams to insulate the State from that very allegation in conducting its affairs.
The Opposition denied it was objecting to the appointment of Williams, which it proved by supporting his confirmation last Friday.
So what happened on that fateful day was Patrick Manning, by virtue of him controlling the majority in the Parliament, scuttling the painstaking assignment of the commission in choosing Williams for the plum job in the Police Service.
That was a very shocking development from an administration which trumpeted transparency in public affairs during the 2007 general election campaign.
While the Prime Minister was attending the Caricom summit in Antigua, the nation was flabbergasted, if not bewildered, as his Works Minister tried to convince a very cynical population why Manning (yes, Manning) did not want Williams to be the country’s next chief law enforcement officer.
I rate Imbert as one of the PNM’s most incisive and at times entertaining platform speakers (the party doesn’t have many of them), but he came across a pathetic figure in attempting to sell Manning’s sorry case in the legislature.
At no time did Imbert give the impression that he actually believed what he was saying, particularly on one main point—that the selection process did not produce the desired results because it was flawed.
I don’t want to be hard on Imbert because he was simply doing Manning’s bidding, but I would like him to get a video recording of his presentation and I am sure he would agree that his performance was extremely pitiful, if not downright disgusting.
If we should look at the alleged flawed process, as advanced by Manning’s willing mouthpiece Friday last, it would be seen as absolutely scandalous.
Can Imbert (Manning has arrogantly said he has nothing more to say except to confirm he had met with Williams prior to his parliamentary rejection) tell us at what point did he or Manning realise that the process was flawed?
Didn’t Manning and Imbert realise that the same enabling legislation they themselves were passing was flawed?
There isn’t anything this Government can say which would convince any right-thinking citizens that Friday’s action by the Government was not triggered after the PSC did not come up with a nominee pleasing to Manning.
And that is the real meaning of “not getting the desired result.”
The long-term implication of this latest disregard by Manning for our democratic institutions is not one to be taken lightly, especially after a charge of dictatorial tendencies was levelled by none other than his former political soul mate, Ken Valley.
One salient message sent to the commission by Manning is that members must play their cards politically correct and give him what he wants or else.
That is another logical conclusion after Friday’s public humiliation of the PSC, which spent more than $2 million of taxpayers’ money in its very transparent effort to provide the nation with a commissioner who in the members’ opinion was best suited for the job at this time of unprecedented high levels of crime in T&T.
The commission made very public it’s every step in the tedious process, including media interviews and paid advertisements.
The most transparent process ever in the selection of a Police Commissioner was knocked down by a Prime Minister who did not get what he wanted, in spite of a process everybody else said was squeaky clean.
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