When you notice something like this, you might feel a bit flattered that others were beginning to realize that your opinion was credible and therefore supportable by a growing number of people. And a part of me feels good about that.
However, the point which I had raised is one which, if true, portends an almost apocalyptic financial scenario bearing down upon us. And that is extremely worrying, and I would rather have been wrong in my opinion.
But no one has suggested that I was wrong. Rather, several commentators have recently been expressing, quite independently it seems, the same scenario I had suggested last September. That several of us, without any consultation, are expressing the same point of view, should be of major concern to all of us.
But what is this opinion now being expressed so in variance to what we all (and indeed some of you still) thought when elections were called by Patrick Manning earlier this year?
It is the growing awareness that Patrick Manning had realized that the CLICO debacle, combined with the UDECOTT fiasco and the debts he had incurred while he was “making us first world” in his eyes, had created a financial tsunami which is heading our way.
So he called an election which the PNM would forfeit so that he would not be in the Chinese Palace when the dispossessed population stormed its gates. And not only did the PNM deliberately sabotage their own term in office, they also had set about an effective propaganda campaign to convince the population that the incoming Peoples Partnership is responsible for all that is being revealed today.
Listen: The PNM is just like the captain and crew of the Titanic. Having struck the iceberg, and knowing the ship was sinking, and knowing there were insufficient lifeboats, they ordered the band to keep playing, so the unsuspecting passengers having paid for the voyage, could keep dancing until they drowned.
So now the former government ministers, safe in the lifeboats provided by those who Do Pray with all their Harts, are telling those of us who are drowning that “The PNM never treated you like this.” And of course, we agree, because that part is true. They just set it up.
And, having fixed their business, they are all gone or going. Duprey gone. Hart gone, his son claims he has no idea where Daddy is. Reverend Pena gone, Trinidad was unkind to her! Karen gone Barbados, having gotten all her money from CLICO, just as CLICO failed.
And we vex with Kamla and Dookeran? We really have to be a very strange people, yes!
And CLICO depositors are shouting at this government: “We going to throw you out”! You think PNM was going to continue to pay you all? Hello—that is why they gone, so you would be stupid enough to blame Kamla and Dooks for the fact that Duprey, Karen and Calder all run with your money. Why you don’t ask Monteil for your money?
And PSA marching and threatening in the streets. And I really feel for them. But when I see them embracing Amery Browne, who was going to fire all of them and refused for three years to negotiate with them, how can I support them? Clean your house and run the PNM out of your meetings. It is “dem who have you where you are”. Accept that!
I cannot believe that the PP would set out to give the PSA 0-0-1 per cent. For them to have taken that stance, there would be a very compelling reason. I cannot believe that they would simply dump the victims (albeit willing victims!) of the CLICO debacle.
And I am confident that you cannot believe that they took their position to spite these people whose goodwill they needed.
And when I read my fellow columnists, and see that we are all thinking that the PNM rats had fled the sinking ship, we must all accept that we are facing a very serious immediate future. Before we can help to save this ship, we must all know just how badly it is damaged.
Despite what the IMF has said, our concern is growing.
So, it is time for Kamla to stay at home and manage this situation, and for Dookeran and the Central Bank to give us a full and proper accounting of our assets and liabilities based upon the knowledge which the PNM had, but kept hidden, and which should now be known to the government: What we owe, what we have, and how we intend to share it.
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