Jyoti Communication: Column: Rubbish! Absolute rubbish.

Rubbish! Absolute rubbish. Look at how I am quoting Colm Imbert now!

But I have to admit that there is no better phrase to describe the rubbish being spouted by his political leader every day.

And since one of Manning’s key faux pas recently was in referring to the incident which poor Colm blurted his “Rubbish! Absolute rubbish!” nonsense, it is fitting that I honour him this Sunday by quoting him.

Colm was referring, in a post cabinet briefing, not on the campaign trail, to the reports of a death threat against UNC Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

This threat, valid or not, which was quite correctly reported to the police, was considerably less bizarre that Manning’s repeated fabrications (what else can we call them at this stage? - “Rubbish”?) about unconfirmed and undetected assassination plots supposedly directed at him.

The police have done a “threat assessment” on the reported plot against Kamla, but there has been no news of any threat assessment for Manning’s allegations.

Indeed, it seems that Colm is now spokesman for Martin Joseph who was busy trying to keep his trousers from falling down.

Then we had poor Patrick Manning, who had conveniently forgotten his powerful statements last month as to why he had dissolved parliament to call an election.

Let us remind him: He asked the President to dissolve parliament because the opposition was going to use the No Confidence motion to bring all kinds of slander against him.

So he prevented that by calling the election and forcing them to speak their slander in public, where he claimed that he had “a battery of lawyers” waiting to sue them.

Now that was Manning’s story—back then. But we all knew the truth: Manning could not face the revelations which would come out of the debate. In short, he was afraid.

But the “slander” story remained as “PNM fact” until last week. Then, to everyone’s surprise, Manning told the nation that he had chosen the date of the election since last October, when he sat with a pencil and began circling dates in a 2010 diary.

He circled the date for dissolving parliament, and the date for the election. Then, to keep everyone from guessing what those “circles” might mean, he circled several other dates as well!

Listen: This is his story, not mine. I could not invent such rubbish, such absolute rubbish! Let us backtrack now to Manning’s pitiful whine that he was the most vilified Prime Minister ever.

What rubbish! What absolute rubbish!

Let us set this straight: You are not being vilified by the people, Mr. Manning. You are being ridiculed by the people, and is it any wonder?

Why don’t you sit for a while, and instead of drawing Obeah Circles in your diary, write down all your statements, and then read them back to yourself, and see what conclusion you will draw: Rubbish, absolute rubbish!

And then Manning goes down to Point Fortin, and assures us that there is lots of oil and gas still out there. Only trouble is, no one has found it yet.

Just because previous administrations and managements have warned, going back to 1905, that proven reserves then were limited, but new oil was subsequently discovered, Manning is claiming—as a geologist—that more oil will be found again.

But in reality Manning is holding a lottery ticket and is “spending his winnings” before the draw is made. And as for his geologist’s credentials, please remember, because he has forgotten, that he tried to build the LNG plant on La Brea pitch.

And he has declared that “seismic activity” is damaging the road to the Tarouba Stadium. Rubbish! Absolute rubbish!

And, “We Ready Now!” That was the opening Battle Cry when Manning informed us which of his Obeah Circles referred to the election date. He was boasting how the opposition parties were caught unprepared, and the PNM was rolling forward, allegedly prepared and “Ready Now!”.

But when an organized Debates Commission called upon the Parties to participate in a public debate on the issues before the nation, Manning ran to hide. He said he had nothing to gain.

Rubbish, absolute rubbish! But wait! I lie! Manning was not talking rubbish here—he was right, this time.

But hear Party Chairman Conrad Enill when he stepped forward to provide damage control: The debates were too sudden, and the PNM would not have had time to prepare for them! “We Ready Now”?

You ready to win elections, you ready to run the country, but you not ready for a debate? Well, that is simply Rubbish, Absolute Rubbish! And we all know that.

And we all know what to do with Rubbish, Absolute Rubbish in two weeks time.