24 Mar 2010

Disconnect, or delusions?

P**rick, to put it politely, is showing signs of ‘disconnect’ from the people whom he lords over. I’ll like to be more accurate and say he seems to be showing signs of paranoid delusions, or even perhaps schizophrenia.

There is a lot of evidence of the latter in the public domain.

Here we have the leader of a nation, and head of an ‘influential’ Commonwealth one at that, showing separate personalities. Separating the man from the office might seem to some to be the ideal scenario a head of government should aspire to, but not in this case. This is a man who refers to himself in the third person, refers to his office in the third person, refers to… well, basically each of his personalities in the third person. Evidence of hubris or schizophrenic symptoms? I know which I deem to be the more accurate choice.

Then we have the death threat paranoia which once again raised its ugly, and untruthful, head.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning believes his launch last month of drug interdiction Coast Guard boats has something to do with the increased level of attack against him in the media in recent weeks.

He said the information 'we have' is that the drug dealers were targeting him, not his party, because he could not be bribed.

Manning's comments came as he spoke to supporters at a cottage meeting in St Margaret's Village, Claxton Bay, on Monday night. This statement comes a week after a meeting in San Juan, at which he declared war on the local construction sector and spoke of a 'plan to kill Manning'.

Maybe it is wishful thinking on the part of P**rick? Does he want to go down in history as the first political figure to be ‘assassinated’ in Trinidad? Sorry, Selwyn Richardson beat him there already. Of course, maybe he wants to be known as the first head of state of Trinidad and Tobago to be killed while still in office. Sadly, I am not sure this will bring the martyrdom he seems intent on seeking.

This is not the first time we have seen the announcement of fictitious plots to ‘kill’ him. I recall the paranoia surrounding the so-called ‘attempt to peel off’ a car in his security detail. Unfortunately, it was much smoke and no fire. The attempt was fully described previously.

It seems to me the more unpopular he becomes, the more fantastic the stories spewed by P*rick.  All I can say is that I wish the psychiatrists all success in diagnosing this man, since he might use the machinery of the PNM to investigate them too.