Misunderstanding the issues - The Peter O'Connor column

I think that I am a relatively simple person, one who takes things at face value—certainly on “first take’ of most issues.

For example, it was this naivete on my part which had me wondering if Patrick Manning had lost it when he announced general elections earlier this year. Writing in “What was in his head?” on May 30th, I asked if Manning had gone mad, literally surrendering his government more than two years before he needed to. We watched his bumptious, arrogant campaigning and waited for his fall. And when came, we exulted.

But little did we realize that Manning was quietly playing dead to catch cobo. He knew, more than anyone else except possibly Karen Nunez-Teshiera, that the coming revelations (and these revelations have not yet arrived!) about CLICO would destroy this country’s economy, and bring down any government in power when the disaster began to take effect.

So, just as the PNM had done in 1986, Manning stepped out and let another government come in to face the music.

It took me a while to realize this, and clearly it is taking much longer for the rest of you to accept it. But thankfully, help is on the way. And this is coming in the form of a Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate all aspects of the CLICO debacle.

This COI, thankfully, is headed by a non-citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, for I certainly would doubt that there is anyone here who could have been appointed and who would not have been a personal friend or colleague of the persons involved in the CLICO situation. After all, principals of the company’s many tentacles were principal financiers of the two main political parties.

I believe that this COI will provide revelations into activities and conflicts of interest which hopefully will make us understand fully why Manning and his government chose to demit office. 

But I must hope that the report of this COI will be made public before the coming civil unrest, fanned by the PNM, overtakes everything. Because, trust me, folks, what we are witnessing, on several fronts, is a race against time.

If the Peoples’ Partnership government can be sufficiently demonized before the publication of this—and other—reports, the reports will become irrelevant. And Manning, Imbert et al are well aware of this, even if Rowley may not be.

So understand where this “dump Rowley” talk came from. And understand that further investigations into the Uff COI and the Guanapo Church are trivial compared to what we are about to learn about CLICO and what has happened to our country, and who would have made millions by allowing it all to have happened.

And we shall also have the cleansing light of exposure shone upon that dark shadow in our history—July 1990. Now I am sure that Manning never considered that this COI would have been appointed. He was probably confident that the UNC would have kept this issue hidden in order to protect Basdeo Panday from the revelations that would be forthcoming.

But, surprise! This COI was announced, and apparently will begin in a couple of weeks. I have not yet seen it confirmed that people will be summoned to appear as opposed to being invited to send in submissions.

But I anxiously await the questioning of persons like Patrick Manning and Basdeo Panday. Whether we as a people will consider all of this as important remains to be seen. 

But for me it will be a guide as to whether known political entities were complicit in the attempted armed overthrow of an elected government and therefore in the murders of several of our citizens.

It will give even people as naïve as me an insight into the marches and demonstrations of today and where these are heading.

The issues which we, and indeed the world, are facing today are far more serious and dangerous than we want to acknowledge. What is happening in France and England will soon spread to the United States.

The “band-aids’ which were placed on septic economic sores, where the rich all pocketed bonuses while they foreclosed on the poor, are falling off, and exposing the rot. 

The same thing happened here with CLICO and HCU and UFF and Manning’s empty buildings. But we are marching and protesting against the people who had nothing to do with the ruination of our country.

Let us make sure that we are not encouraged to shed our blood so that the people who brought this calumny upon us can walk back into power on the basis that they made us believe that the current government is responsible for this state of affairs. Let us understand the issues.