By their actions, you shall judge them

Leader of the Opposition coalition, Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, reminded her audience on a campaign platform recently that you should judge a person by what they do.  She used the old adage: 'By their deeds, you shall know them.'

The PNM leadership has a lot to explain from a dispassionate review of their terms in office since 2001, especially the treatment of Dr Keith Rowley after he became their UDeCOTT corruption whistle-blower. But the adage cuts both ways, and if applied to the UNC element of the coalition, there is also a glaring concern.

Journalist and long-time researcher of alleged FIFA corruption, Mr Andrew Jennings, gave a presentation in Miami on 04 May 2010 at the 8th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference.  His presentation was to have been carried live by the state-owned television company, CNMG, but the link was lost just as his presentation was due to start and was never repaired.

However, the bulk of Mr Jennings's presentation may have already been in the public domain.  The South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies released a paper in April 2010 entitled Player and Referee, Conflicting Interests and the 2010 FIFA World Cup (TM), edited by Collette Schulz Herzenberg, as part of its Monograph Series (No 169, April 2010).  The paper is available for download in PDF, and Chapter 4 contains Mr Jennings's contribution on the topic How FIFA corruption empowers global capital.  In that chapter, Mr Jennings makes some allegations concerning the involvement of Mr Jack Warner and his family in FIFA corruption.

I am in no position to confirm or deny Mr Jennings's allegations.  In fact, the things that come to mind that I haven't yet heard adequately explained by Mr Warner are the over-selling of tickets for the World Cup Qualifier between USA and T&T in November 1989 at the National Stadium and his failure to pay our 2006 World Cup qualifying Soca Warriors their promised reward, even though he was directed to do so by an independent arbitrator in London.

However, when all this is added up - even if we ignore the videos of Mr Warner's improper behaviour and outbursts circulating on the Internet and played at PNM political meetings - the waters of integrity surrounding Mr Warner appear very murky indeed to voters.  This is not healthy, especially since, were the coalition to win the General Election on 24 May 2010, Mr Warner may be in control of a government Ministry and a senior member of the Cabinet, with all the powers over taxpayers' funds that that entails.

This leads to the conclusion that, once again, this General Election is an opportunity to select the lesser of competing evils.  Can Mrs Persad-Bissessar explain why voters should not be concerned?  How would the risk of corruption be effectively managed by a coalition government?