The real villain of T&T

Trinidad and Tobago must be saved from the PNM.

The born-again Christian is one of the most cynical - if not the most cynical - men to ever play on the political stage in this country.

The PNM destroyed the effectiveness of local government bodies - making them almost irrelevant - by putting a major part of their employment-creating responsibilities in the hands of the political opportunists/party loyalists who have run the URP in all its incarnations.

This was meant to maximise the stranglehold of the PNM and to minimise the power of the opposition in the areas it has dominated politically.

Now it is being made to look as though local government is the villain when these bodies have been completely bastardised by the PNM. This is one area in which the cynicism is evident.

Here are others:

1. Not speaking out during the 1990 coup to defend democracy. (Robinson had lost much popular support because the PNM had left him a bankrupt Treasury; and he had to take harsh measures to get the country back on its feet.)

2. After Manning lost power, he said that he would never again neglect social policies - read this as always being willing to pander to the handout-dependent sector of the population that PNM had created. (He too had to follow through with Robinson's economic medicine, even more bitterly)

3. He was willing to hand over the lands at Mucurapo to seditionists, whom he thought could help him win an election. This was prevented only because other party members would not tolerate it.

4. He spits in the face of the populace by inviting the executives of a firm (Sunway) that was accused in Parliament of corrupt practices, to meet with him.

5. He legitimises "community leaders". What leverage can honest policemen then have with these criminals?

Arthur Nurse

via e-mail