Opinion
- Editorial
Martin
Daly:
Simply
symposing
We
can safely assume that the protest against the manner
in which the proposed Alcoa smelter (to which I
return below) is being forced upon us, without proper
reference to the requirements of good and candid
governance, has had great impact if it has penetrated
the solid wall of obstinacy of this Government.
For
example, the Government ignores weighty representations
about the dangers of double digit inflation and
laughably responds that the sky will not fall in
if, contrary to all conventional wisdom, it presses
on with its prestige buildings programme and drives
inflation further into double digits.
The
obstinacy in relation to the crime problem has now
brought us to the point where two villages in Central
Trinidad are restive because a young man from one
village, reportedly thought to be a kidnapper, was
shot to death in another village. This confrontation
has the potential to take us down the Guyana road
and it is the direct result of the Government's
pretence that it has a handle on the crime situation
and of its neglect to deal with crime and the fears
of the citizens. Let us be very clear that if fearful
villages now go to war the foreign investment profile
of our republic will change dramatically.
I
am not at all surprised by these new tensions. Fear
has a very definite fallout and I wrote about that
fallout as long ago as September 2002. I could see
the societal breakdown that was coming when I wrote:
"The first reason why the kidnappings should
concern everyone is the ease with which they have
been carried out. When the law is so comprehensively
broken, the message goes out that one can do anything,
tief anything, drive anyhow, molest anyone and inflict
instant retribution on any witness. In these circumstances,
the societal control that comes from respect rather
than the letter of the law is lost."
I
continued: "Our liberties are being destroyed
by the vicious counter exploitative strike of those
left out of having any stake in the country. When
crime is out of control, there follows a reaction
among the citizens that they are vulnerable because
they have lost the protection of the law. We must
not direct our focus away from the rip tide pulling
us out of our depth."
In the four years since I expressed the above opinion,
the authorities have simply spent money, encouraged
us to play more mas and reminded us that Trinidad
is paradise. In the face of damning reality, the
authorities have stumbled from one pretence to the
next, promising always transformation, future vision
and a golden metropolis to rival ancient Rome. We
have been engaged in relentless promising, pretending,
supposing and symposing. Consistently with keeping
us in a political bubble, the Government has now
proposed to treat the smelter issue with yet another
symposium, to be followed by a debate in Parliament.
The
first thing to be said about the symposium is that
the appointment of the NEC as the body to hold it
may represent a conflict of interest because of
NEC's role on behalf of the Government in the energy
sector. The NEC may lack the neutrality to put together
a balanced agenda for the symposium and there is
the danger that participants will be overwhelmed
with information pointing in one direction only.
The symposium will also lack credibility in view
of the lack of assurance that the Government will
now keep an open mind, not only about permitting
Alcoa the smelter, but also about the grievous errors
of governance process that it has made to date,
culminating in the statement that "we know
what we are doing".
The proposed parliamentary debate will have to be
struck by a miracle of a force capable of turning
water into wine because the output of such debates
has been watery for a very long time, and it is
water made brackish by the personal enmities of
the Opposition parliamentarians whose internal power
struggles are pursued without regard to where they
have left, and will leave, the country. The miracle
that is required might have to be a double whammy
miracle because in the Budget debate the Parliament
suffered from stoppage of water with the result
that the miracle maker will first have to produce
the water to be made into wine.
Perhaps
the parliamentarians will stop posturing and refer
to available publications which make it clear that
the proposed Alcoa smelter is tainted with illegality,
unless, the parliamentary debate includes in its
agenda the National Physical Plan, which falls primarily
within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and not
the Executive.
In
time, those of us who deplore the rotting of the
good governance process by the like or lump it attitude
adopted towards our concerns about the proposed
Alcoa smelter may reveal other areas of illegality.
For now, however, simply symposing will be a game
of charades.
Martin
Daly
is
one Trinidad Express' columnist. Petroleumworld
not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Trinidad
Express on Sunday,
November 12th 2006. Petroleumworld reprint this
article in the interest of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
11/12/06
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