Guest column: Wine, Prakash, Wine Fuh Dem....

by Phillip Edward Alexander. Reproduced unedited from the blog PLAIN TALK
Wine, wine, wine in a circle
When de song done yuh go pay de devil
Wine, wine, wine in a circle
This is not a fete in here but it could be trouble....

What on earth was Prakash Ramadhar thinking when he used the government's anniversary celebration to once again moan on and on about his party's role in the assembly of the partnership? 

Is it that he does not get how political power works? Seeming to be waiting on someone to hand him authority he is making himself more and more unattractive to the voters with this passive aggressive tantrum over Marlene Coudray, and now, based on the coded speech he delivered at the rally, seems to be content to allow his legacy to be that of someone who, bent on achieving what he thinks is his just desserts, risked everything and got nothing in return. 

Surely he must see that his political stocks are waning, and that die hards are publicly packing it in, surely, and just as surely you would think he would find a way to extricate himself from this drain that he seems so fond of circling, wouldn't you think? 

My first boss straight out of school used to tell us (whenever we were stalling to make a decision) either poop (can't use the more colorful word he used here) or get off the pot. Meaning as clear as you can get it, you have two options, and as in this instance Prakash, like David Abdullah in the MSJ and Mikandal Daaga in the NJAC, his choices are clear. Either work to build up his own stocks in the government while keeping his own separate identity or leave. Simple. 

Personally I am impressed as to the lengths the other partners in the partnership are going with him and this never ending tirade, but surely at some point someone is going to tell him off and then what, does he finally take his marbles and leave? 

Truth be told every single member of the Congress of the People knows that if Prakash decides to quit the partnership he may well be going alone, because none of the other COP MPs seem interested in giving up the state sponsored juice anytime soon.

Perhaps what Prakash needs is a good dose of reality, and what I would like to suggest to him is that he calls a COP rally to celebrate the party's two years in coalition government and see how many people turn up. 

That would be a rude awakening of epic proportions and if he takes this advice I would like to further advise him that if he does have an event that he holds it in a Pizza Boys party room so that he could still say they filled the space to overflowing.

The undeniable, inescapablele truth of the matter is that Winston Dookeran and crew made a foolish decision to join with the UNC in Fyzabad, especially as they knew full well the calibre of the power brokers in that party, and, from all reports, made an even more foolish deal for the allocation of power should the coalition succeed. 

Now like the proverbial frog that was stung by the scorpion he was giving a lift across the river, Dookeran & Co. have only themselves to blame as they begin to drown midstream. 

Prakash for all his secret messages and coded speeches is not even preaching to the choir anymore and may well be sermonizing in an empty church. The members of the Congress of the People need to wake up and realize that there will be little if anything left to save after Prakash, Tewarie and Toney are finished with it, and reminiscing over who did what when is not going to help anybody when all that political potential and promise is dissipated on the four winds. 

Going forward from here requires real leadership, but tell me from where does the COP look to find that? In his trademark work 'The Devil's Dictionary,' Ambrose Bierce referred to politics as strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage." — There are no principles left to fight for here, no high watermark, not when the party abandoned the people over a fight for naked power and position. You are not fooling anybody.