Wednesday, February 22 2012

Last night we bid farewell to the Merry Monarch, and returned our Carnival flags to their shelves, in safe keeping for next year’s season of revelry. This week will see its share of cool down fetes, as revellers attempt to get back down to the stark reality from which Carnival permits temporary and necessary respite. Today, Ash Wednesday, we step solemnly into the season of Lent and during its 40 plus days, the nation’s Christians will be spending their time soul-searching. The season for reflection and taking stock is here.

To every season there is a purpose and we must make the best of them all. From early January, we have played ourselves to the max; now we are expected to look inward, as eagerly. The masquerader has had his day. But will we enjoy a proverbial calm after the storm in which to reflect? Carnival 2012 has provided us with a break from the political stresses but it has not eliminated these tensions and all indications are that this Lenten period will bring turmoil.

Government’s leading partner embarks today on its internal election train and if past UNC polls are benchmarks, this campaign will be heated and brutal.

There is contention surrounding its chairman Mr Jack Warner, who is yet to declare whether he will contest the chairmanship of the UNC. Mr Warner is heavily burdened with serious problems which are yet to be resolved, and which hang heavily over his head. Can he really seriously offer himself as a chairman of the party in Government?

We do not believe that Mr Panday’s role will have any serious effect on the elections, but Mr Warner is certainly carrying around a lot of baggage, and the party will have to decide what is to be done about him.

On the other side of the aisle, the Opposition PNM enters this season of reflection with its own agenda aimed at keeping the Government rattled, and grasping at every opportunity to show them in a bad light.

The first item on its agenda will be a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Many see this as an exercise in futility, since the Government’s majority in the house would prevent the motion from succeeding.

However, the Opposition (now reduced to eleven members, by the illness of Mr Patrick Manning,), are bound to seize the opportunity to severely criticise the Government and reveal information in its possession.

The state of the economy is certain to be one of the topics. Also, the situation with respect to the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB), and its role under the office of the Attorney General is also certain to be on the agenda. The Integrity Commission and the latest reported disagreements among certain members must also be on the list of issues that the Opposition is likely to raise.

ACIB officers were for all practical purposes under the direction and control of the AG as he himself published to the country as far back as August 2010 and right up until February 2012. Describing Mr Ramlogan as Persad-Bissessar’s “ number one confidante, walking from stage to stage around the Carnival” while all these events were happening, Rowley said, “On that basis, I think that we have had enough, (for a motion of no confidence in the PM).”

As we have noted, the Integrity in Public Life Act gives the Commission unlimited authority, but shrouds it in inscrutability, encouraging abuse of authority. The Act is unconstitutional and untenable — indeed commentators believe it is a recipe for creating Commissions which lose control. This newspaper, the victim of such loss of control, concurs and it urges action.

Government also faces heat on the industrial front as it will now have to offer at least nine percent to unions awaiting a settlement after a last minute deal was reached on Carnival Friday between the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) and Petrotrin management to settle on a nine-percent salary increase for workers. On that day, OWTU president general Ancel Roget seemed to have issued a challenge to his colleagues when he said, “Whomsoever wants to settle for five percent...that is their business!” Clearly, Carnival may be over, but the storm has not passed.