Bent upon destruction - the Peter O’Connor column

Mad, baying mangy dogs are running through our society, without direction and without a discernible purpose. They tear around, fighting to feed on rotten morsels being tossed at them so that we can watch them fight among themselves.

And we fall into just two categories right now: Some of us are part of that pack of howling dogs, and the rest of us are tossing the rotten morsels to watch them fight.

What in the world is driving us all right now?

We appear to be a nation bent upon self-destruction. And this is happening just when we seemed to have rescued our country from a different threat of economic disaster and bankrupt leadership.

First, let us remind ourselves of what we had rescued ourselves from in the election last May: 

We rescued ourselves from the excesses of Calder Hart and his penchant for spending our money on the useless Waterfront Complex, NAPA, SAPA, Tarouba and the Education and Legal Affairs Towers, for which some of the contracts were awarded to Calder’s wife’s family.

We have been saved from wasting any more money on “Manning’s Fleet”, the huge Offshore Patrol Vessels ordered to feed Manning’s ego, and which need a full study and disclosure as to why we needed to terminate that contract and recover the money spent to date.

We have been saved from the continuing increase in murders, which Manning promised us would actually increase further when he commissioned the OPV’s.

We have been saved from SUATT and the Blimp which have not demonstrated any capability to prevent or reduce crime.

And we have been saved from a government which presided over the collapse of roads, bridges, the President’s House, the non-payment to contractors and suppliers, the refusal to settle workers agreements, and the flooding and filth which were part of the PNM’s total haplessness and corruption.

We should be proud of ourselves, and demonstrate that we are ready to support, and even help, the people who rescued us from the disasters we were creating.

But we are not interested in supporting any of what we had started. We are bent on bickering and fighting about every step we try to take forward. And I am in no way claiming that every step we take is the right step, or even a step in the right direction.

I am fully aware that the team we suddenly pulled together when Manning decided to abdicate in the face of the coming CLICO Tsunami would face challenges. And the challenges were not just those of saving the country from the known and still unknown (the size of the tsunami for instance!) challenges left by Manning, Hart, Rowley and Imbert.

The challenges included the task of pulling a new team together from the disparate, and in some cases, previously hostile elements which now make up the team.

It seems that we should now require the full cabinet to meet first thing every single morning, where the news of the day can be presented and a reasonably common position taken in terms of responding to the news, revelations and innuendoes being thrown to the pack of wild dogs.

I have said this before, and say it again: The problems of corruption, incompetence and the still unknown CLICO disaster cannot be corrected by anyone in the short term.

This realization is what caused Manning to abdicate—just as George Chambers and his PNM did following their hand over of our economy to the IMF in 1986.

The level of scrutiny, valid and simply hysterical, to which we are subjecting this new government is totally without precedent in any period of our history.

I accept that most of this is being driven by the remnants of the PNM. But the fires which they are lighting, supported by sections of the media and the “talk show’ dogs are being fanned by those within the partnership as well.

Why are all of you turning against yourselves in this way? Why are you going public with every perceived slight before you sit and talk these issues out between yourselves?

If I support anyone in this political callalloo it would be COP. However, I do not support your public whining over every issue.

Have you thought of asking for a meeting with “your” cabinet members to discuss your complaint about Board appointments? Who was nominated by you guys? Did your nominees accept the call?

There are places to deal with these issues. Use those places, call off the dogs you are “loosing” upon the government and your country, and help the government you put into power to deal with the real issues on the horizon. CLICO for instance! Or live to regret it all!