Saying Nothing With Mouths Moving

When I blogged yesterday about Keith Rowley's offensive, I expected someone else from the PNM would go on the defensive - and I knew it wouldn't be the person presently occupying the institution of Prime Minister. Not to be disappointed, Colm Imbert rose to the level of the gauntlet thrown... and no further. The Trinidad and Tobago Newsday's article, This is not the Calder Hart Inquiry, has some quotes that are ambiguous at best.

For example:

...the Government could have taken advantage of a legal loophole which could have derailed the inquiry when it was discovered that notice of the proceedings was never published in the Gazette even though hearings had gone on for months...

True. The Government could also have screwed up on that count - it isn't as if the Government has a stunning track record. Thus, this is ambiguous and simply demonstrates that either the Government is incompetent or stupid. Consider this other quote: 

...He said while doing their research after Khan’s departure, the commissioners began to look into the question of gazetting the commission. When it was discovered that the commission had not been gazetted, Imbert said Information Minister Neil Parsanlal consulted with the Government Printery to find out whether this was in fact so. “Eventually it was confirmed it was not gazetted. So immediately the Government had to look at this and come up with a solution,” Imbert stated...

So what we have is a Government that doesn't read the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette? The Information Minister had to go to the Government Printery to find out if something had been published? Considering I had my own head handed to me by a senior journalist about my own lack of knowledge about the Gazette, I don't expect this is to be considered an adequate defense. I subsequently found the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette archives online, direct link here.

When the Information Minister has to go find something out from the Government Printery, doesn't that demonstrate a certain level of incompetence? The Trinidad and Tobago Gazette is supposed to be in a stack in every Minister's office: That's where their official portfolios come from! So the other aspect of the Government's defense is that the Information Minister, Neil Parsanlal, has no idea what is published in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette and had to phone a friend? The Minister of Information? Really? That's the defense? 

Of course, I'm not saying that the Government is actually guilty of wrongdoing. What I am saying is that this aspect of defense is weak, and becomes weaker when Imbert is later quoted as stating that the party-pretending-Opposition has its own problems and that the Silver Fox is still in court. In other words, 'We are as bad as you, so why are you complaining?'

Another weak defense.

And meanwhile, the Government is still shifting cookies on the plate in the hope that the 4 can somehow become the original 5...