On Past Morality & Present Savvy

"Politics has it's own Morality..." - Basdeo Panday In many regards this statement is true, for to be a Politician in Trinidad and Tobago, one must give up independent thought in favour of the greater "good".

Colm Imbert in an interview published Aug 15, 2010 in the Trinidad Guardian admitted he was unhappy with the property tax but never publically stated his  objection because he "...was part of a group"

Policticans tend to put the needs of the party above the needs of the people. This is an unspoken truth. Politicans also tend to be very civil to each other while attacking each other on the hustings.

Putting people and country first should be the key towards winning an election. Unfortunately, it often becomes a case of who has the best accusations about the other side and are willing to say it the loudest.

Politicians seem to take great pride in doing things themselves. A former Minister when told about what happened in the past asked was I there then? No, well lets talk about what I am doing now.

Where is this going? Well it comes down to Politicians and Parties make mistakes. Often no one is willing to talk up and speak out about these mistakes. Thus the current government can make same mistakes of others. Once upon a time, A PNM government hired a Canadian consultant, at great cost, to lead the privatisation and revamp of the Public construction sector. Several
Billion dollars later we have realised that mistake.

During this process, he brought in a construction company that would benefit from multiple government contracts. Thus the pie was shared and we were left holding a half emptied plate.

Today, we are in the process of hiring a Canadian Commissioner of Police, to revamp our Police Service. We are about to pay him, (with benefits) in excess of  $20000 CND a month for a job we pay roughly $7500 CND.

In addition, unmandated by Parliament, he brings a  fellow officer, to be a Deputy Commission of Police, at roughly $17000 CND a month for a job we pay roughly $5000 CND. How is this fair to our local Deputy COP's? This is especially difficult for Stephen Williams, who fairly won the post of Commissioner of Police and was vetoed by a past Government. How can this assist in building moral and capacity in local law enforcement?

Can we see the similarities of these situations, even if they are in different fields? Do we want to wake up one day and realise we have spent so much money on someone who has failed to live up to our inflated expectations?

I hold out hope, that our Politicians will wake up and realise we are heading down a similiar path. I fear tho that after justifications, it will be so and Politicians will prove yet again that they cannot learn new tricks...

wP