Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
Raffique
Shah: Lies,
damn lies and politics
IF
only politicians on all sides of the divide would
stick to the facts, given the "goods" they
have on each other, or on individual targets, they
could sway people's opinions infinitely more than
when they spew lies like a person purged. In fact,
because character assassination and mauvais langue
are easier for not-too-bright speakers to use,
these are rampant on almost every platform. And
please, don't confuse the above with "picong",
which is good Trini humour that teases and tickles
crowds, hence invaluable to good speakers. The
late Dr. Eric Williams was a master of picong.
Pretenders to Eric's throne have no sense of humour.
They are mere comics.
What
we are getting nowadays are lies, damn lies,
so much so that soon the people peddling them
come
around to believing them. A lie, told too many
times, transforms itself into the truth even in
the minds of the perpetrators. Let me take one
example that bugs me: ever since he wined his way
out of office, Basdeo Panday has been crowing about
how much he did in government "when oil prices
were $9 a barrel". His supporters actually
believe that. Worse, those in his party who should
know better have never sought to correct this gross
inaccuracy.
I can tell them what the prices of oil were in
any given year, from as far back as 1970 to today.
In fact, anyone who knows anything about oil also
knows there is not one oil price: the daily quote
for, say, Brent Crude, is not the price at which
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is sold. There are
many varieties of oil, priced in the main according
to their sulphur content.
Our land crude, for example, is generally high-sulphur,
hence not as "sweet" as our offshore
oil. Using WTI prices, I have worked out that
between 1991-95 (Patrick Manning's first stint
as PM), prices averaged US$19.49 per barrel.
The lowest price was in 1994-$14.20 per barrel.
Between 1995-2001 (Panday in government), prices
averaged $20.66, with the lowest being $11.50 in
1999. I can go further. Between 2001-05, prices
averaged $30.73, with a low of $20 in 2002. And
just to round off the more recent, lucrative years,
even with $60.87 in 2007 used as the WTI benchmark,
the average price between 2001-07 is US$39.51.
You
hear lies? One has only to listen to pro-UNC
programmes to find out how many people actually
believe "de Bas worked magic with oil at $9
a barrel", while Patos can't match his performance
with oil selling at $84 a barrel. Ignoramuses actually
believe that the high prices we see quoted on a
daily basis are what we get. They don't know that,
with a mix of crudes, our prices average lower
than that.
I
shift to Panday's claim that "drug barons
are financing the COP and PNM", which he repeats
nightly. Where is the evidence? The (m)asses applaud,
blow horns and whistles, but never wonder if what
he is saying is true. If there's one thing I've
noticed at COP meetings, where crowds are usually
smaller than at PNM and UNC meetings, is I do not
see maxi-taxis and buses aplenty. In fact, I don't
see any. Which signals to me that the COP is scrunting
for money, while the other two are wallowing in
it.
Another lie: Anand Ramlogan blames the UNC for
closing down Caroni Ltd. What Anand probably means
is that the UNC in government did nothing to save
sugar. I don't know that it could be saved (or
resuscitated now), but the fact is it's the PNM
government that shut down sugar. Manning, too,
is into the lying game.
When
he questions where the other two parties are
getting money to fund their "wild advertising
spree", he's treading on very soft ground.
He should, instead, turn to his colleagues and
ask: where the hell is the PNM getting the money
to splurge on a multi-million-dollar promotional
campaign? And someone will tell him: from the government's
coffers! Yes, all those ads from government ministries
surging forth today are not intended to promote
government. They are intended to promote the PNM
as a party.
I guess if my one stint in electoral politics taught
me anything, it's that I do not qualify as a
politician. It's not that I never tell a lie.
But the volume of "tatah" and lies
I hear nightly is nauseating. I can easily rattle
off many more, some of them so stink, I swear
I'm in a sewer. But to what end? Lying politicians
litter this country, and if the (m)asses can't
smell them, then they deserve the stinkers they
get as elected representatives.
This week's DSO award goes to my columnist-colleague,
Selwyn Ryan. Sello, where the hell you got those
numbers from? The UNC at five per cent? The COP
at 30 per cent? That alone should have caused you
to abandon the exercise. For buying and selling
untreated sewage, take a bow, Sello. With humility,
accept this week's DSO.
Raffique
Shah is
one of the important columnists in The Trinidad
Express. Petroleumworld not necessarily
share these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Trinidad
Express, Sunday, October 21st 2007 . Petroleumworld
reprint this article in the interest
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10/21/07
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