Friday, October 23 2009

Speeches in the Lower House this last week, particularly Tuesday and Wednesday, provided the national viewing public with much entertainment. The name John O’Halloran associated with corruption in public affairs surfaced like a ghost from the PNM past.

There was talk of a jilted lover and a raging bull in the same breath with quotations from the Bible about love and being drunk on love. Alas, there were few answers to the many questions that are on the minds of people today.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning, speaking on Wednesday, let fly a host of colourful descriptions mostly aimed at Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley and other UNC critics of Udecott but failed to take the bull by the horns and answer the questions that were raised.

Dr Rowley, in a fiery speech on Monday, had said “strong forces” are protecting Udecott whose dealings he said are ten times worse than the Piarco Airport scandal under the former UNC regime. Rowley recalled the taint of former PNM minister, John O’Halloran and urged PNM members to redeem the party itself by helping the Uff Commission to succeed.

We don’t think Mr Manning addressed these points. He simply did not create an impression of a leader standing up to right all wrongs, but rather seemed to just be making a tit-for-tat attack of a most Machiavellian nature.

The population heard a lot of colourful terms from Manning, about a cartel in the construction industry, a man out of control, raging bulls and he dismissed the evidence of a witness in the Commission as that of a jilted lover. How does he know this?

Manning declared, “The attacks on Udecott came fast and furious from the word go because what Udecott was trying to do, acting as the agent of the Government, not on their own, was to bring about a new order in the construction industry.”

Manning defended the Udecott Board and management from charges of nepotism and corruption, saying they “have never had any beneficial, financial and/or legal interest whatsoever in CH Development Limited, Sunway Construction Caribbean Limited or Sunway Construction SDN BHD”

The PM asserted Udecott did not breach tender rules to select CH or Sunway to build the Ministry of Legal Affairs tower. Manning described criticism of Udecott as being the “tyranny of the lynch mob.” Why then are we funding a costly Commission of Inquiry?

What was clear from Manning’s speech is that the gloves are now off. He has clearly declared where he stands in this whole issue and sailed very close to the wind in respect of unparliamentary language and in fact he had to apologise for remarks made about Dr Rowley.

Manning could have used the occasion to personally put his stamp of approval on the Uff Commission, which was merely left to be done later by Attorney General John Jeremie who cryptically vowed that once the Commission completes its work the Government would “take appropriate action.”

But Jeremie, refused to heed calls by Opposition MP for Mayaro, Winston “Gypsy” Peters to promise to lay the Uff report in Parliament.

In the meantime, we live with the noise of sounding brass and clanging cymbals in our ears.