Guest commentary: Why the government must NOT resign

Inasmuch as Opposition Leader, Dr Keith Rowley, has been popping up here and there, mouthing sententious demands for the government to resign, allow me to do as former Prime Minister Patrick Manning did: put some relevant perspective on the written record, that will stand incontrovertible for many, many years.

Freedom of expression and freedom to be democratic are precious rights bequeathed to us: they were paid for with the blood, sweat and tears of many, many good men and women, some of whom we know and have recognized, others who struggled, fell or faded away outside our kin, thus who may be categorized and honoured with The Unknown Soldier. 

So, stop wasting those freedoms...cherish them instead! Otherwise, know your legacy shall be the dustbin of history.

Democracy means the majority shall rule and that all shall have the chance, at predetermined regular intervals to make that choice. Inherent in democracy, therefore, is that the minority has to accept that it cannot rule, especially where it is allowed unfettered leeway to enjoy said rights, except by subterfuge or force of arms. 

The minority is thus expected to permit the majority unfettered leeway to decide, alter, or reverse the course all must follow, otherwise the minority shall be deemed as being recalcitrant.

Those of or from the minority who feel they are being denied their rights are free to go to court for redress. It's a right they have also by the same martyly sacrifice referred to above. 

They are also free to leave, as Dr Williams did several times say to the "recalcitrant minority", when his "majority" was in its heyday. His "majority" used to be in charge because a portion of the real majority was too swell-headed to unite or too fickle to remain united. And, Dr Eric Williams, all agree, is the Father of The Nation.

Since April 2010, thank God, the real majority has put its differences on the back burner for the greater good of the nation. To ensure such was possible, it first had to put aside those who thought nobody but them could or must lead. 

In such circumstances, only the blind or uninitiated would expect that, having assumed its rightful place, the real majority would have an easy passage or sojourn, moreso, given that the person holding forth to be Leader of The Opposition was pronounced by his own party to be a wajang of the worst sort (the incorrigible kind), as the following excerpt from the Hansard of October 21st 2009, reveals.

"The minute you oppose my good friend, he gets very, very angry and if you oppose him strongly, he becomes a raging bull...

"When he cannot have his way his method is to bully. That is what it is. His method is to bully you. That is what I fought against. That is why his appointment was terminated. 

"We do not tolerate bullying in the secondary school system and we are not tolerating bullying in the Cabinet. We are not tolerating it. If the Member for Diego Martin West wishes a Cabinet in which bullying is the order of the day, he is going to have to form that Cabinet himself. "It eh go happen in dis one." 

"It is not going to happen. He must learn to behave. Do not go and give people the impression that it is wrong. [Interruption] What does it have to do with you? Some people just do not know when they are out of order. Some people just do not know. We are talking serious business and he is talking frivolities."

Watch the video:

Page 363, House of Representatives Hansard (http://www.ttparliament.org/hansards/hh20091021.pdf)

Having not been expunged, the foregoing condemnatory evaluation stands and paints a sorry picture of who and what Dr Keith Rowley is. 

So what's being presently witnessed of the Leader of The Opposition and those with him (the "birds of a feather" law applies), is par for their course, thus easy to thwart. Consequently, no stone must be left unturned in tending to it, for bullying is not to be tolerated under any circumstance, regardless who the bully is.

So, if there are those who feel aggrieved that, here, the majority rules, well, thanks again to the martyrish sacrifices, freedom of movement is also a privilege all of us enjoy: moving on or moving out are two options freely open to them.

© Richard Wm. Thomas | kid5rivers.com
5 Rivers, Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago.