Yesterday, I saw once more how Trinidadians and Tobagonians are blind to which way the wind is blowing.
I am not Superman; I don’t have X-ray vision, heat vision etc. But I was among the first to see the significance of the then unclaimed draft constitution (when Kamla found one in her mailbox and Pa-trick denied it was his). I was also one of the first to point out when he claimed ownership – after strenuously denied for some time, mind you.
I pointed how, despite his words of assurance that public consultation will take place before any constitutional changes, Pa-trick did autocratically ‘order’ a new constitution that gave him… ultimate power as Executive President.
I’ve been pointing out since then, how laws are slowly being eroded, or just simply ignored, all in order for Pa-trick and cohorts to milk the treasury dry. Sure we have some new buildings, but who makes the money? The Sunway group, owned by Hart and family, the Chinese, the Karamaths etc. Sure, you’re saying “well, the Karamaths aren't related to Hart or Pa-trick or Imbert-cile etc” and you could be right. Except that insider PNM sources alleged that the kickback is 60% according to a famous email printed in the dailies!!
I’ve pointed out, time and time again, how legal stops are bypassed, eroded or ignored.
The latest I see from yesterdays Guardian, is that the Integrity Commission is not working so Pa-trick wants to do away with it.
Frankly, I haven’t seen that the Integrity Commission is not working… I have seen that it refused to work!
The IC prior to the Fr Plagiarism, sorry Charles, one was not working because they were… biased and under PNM orders. I’ve pointed out so many times that members of the PNM (and opposition) who flouted the law were never charged, only Panday. The IC was too eager to nail Rowley for crossing Pa-trick, it committed a basic faux pas in the process of ‘trying to get him’. Hmm, an IC that was dishonest with itself and the country!
The IC collapsed shortly thereafter and the new IC imploded, not because it doesn’t work, but because the members were less than honest with themselves, the President and the country.
So, basically, we’ve never had integrity in the IC before, so we don’t know if it works!!
But hear Pa-trick:
He admitted that the Integrity Commission "had not worked well" in T&T. "That is a matter that we have to completely review. We have to completely rethink this question of the Integrity Commission because it is becoming increasingly more difficult to sit on boards because of that arrangement," he said. Manning said what was worse was that "we are now discovering it has become very difficult for people to sit on the Integrity Commission itself."
This is yet another excuse to remove one of the bodies that is designed to put checks and balances on a runaway Government. the other tactic is to set up parallel institution to bypass the lawful ones, institutions like UTT, UDeCOTT, SAUTT etc.
Someone say Executive President? It’s coming, and no one seems to have noticed.
Next:
The idea that the public service commissions are to be removed…
Manning said Government was proposing that the Constitution be amended to allow permanent secretaries to hire, discipline and promote public servants instead of the service commissions. Manning said this was one of the measures proposed in the Draft Working Document on the Constitution Reform. He said the existing service commissions were unable to discipline public servants."To get around that we are going to delegate these functions from the service commissions to the permanent secretaries in the various ministries," Manning said.
I’ll deal with this some time soon…
