Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 03/Aug 08:36

The bacchanal now start

THE EDITOR: HAVING returned from his voyages to Ghana and India we were expecting to hear that Prime Minister Rowley was bestowed with chieftain in Ghana and a verbal medical report on the health of Nana and Nani, and a partnership agreement with Reliance Industries on the establishment of a cricket academy to rival Brian Lara’s. His exclamation of “unnecessary bacchanal” could only be the result of his assignment of duties prior to departure. Delegating the reins of the nation to a greenhorn substitute was provoking a wasp nest. Has the Minister of Finance shown proficiency in this area without assistance? On-the-job training rarely gives an individual total experience of the grey corners of a job. Furthermore, this finance minister has not shown the temperament of an accountant or even the propensity to observe the watchwords of the profession. Acknowledging mistakes of that magnitude requires humility, not lame excuses, not fabricated answers and should even shy away from the willingness to go to court to get justification from a supporting body that is potentially pro-government. The Auditor General represents the people and is the protector of the treasury so that the Finance Ministry must come squeaky clean to face the scrutiny of the Attorney General, not the other way around. I hope Dr Rowley has enough court clothes to take a walloping from Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass, the giant. Bacchanal two: I feel sorry for the Minister of National Security and the Commissioner of Police, the scapegoats, the hosts for a number of failures, yet still Erla Harewood-Christopher is the best option. Was her job specification ever made public or everyone was left to speculate? Did the high rating come from business and John Public, or people with sinister intentions? Media reports gave the impression that solving crime was Harewood-Christopher's mandate. Do citizens feel any safer? Is there a reduction in murders? Corpses are carted to the mortuary in fours. Crime is a societal problem and no one person can shoulder that responsibility, though someone can lead an institutional charge against it. Our assumptions led us to think that making the TTPS an institution that protects the law was priority. What do we have instead? The membership divided between renegades and those who know only about protecting and serving; ammunition and guns unaccounted for; rental of uniforms and those who will die with their boots on; and Police Complaints Authority officials wearing the body cams (to save face) that were intended for the patrolling police officers. Has Harewood-Christopher corrected any of these ills and sealed the cracks in the TTPS? Most plans to curb crime were advertised as the brainchild of the CoP. Who claimed success on her behalf? Was Gary Griffith given another chance, this time unbiased? Or his blissful bubble punctured for good? Did the selection panel search as far back as the possibility of the return of former police commissioner Dwayne Gibbs and deputy commissioner Jack Ewatski? Is the Police Service Commission going to scrape the barrel at the end of the year or look outside the barrel? The stench of the party system pollutes the atmosphere. It encourages mediocrity, promotes incompetence, harbours hate and rewards loyalty. Bacchanal three: Who selected the employees of the SSA? Or did they think they were forming an ASS (Agency for Stupidity and Stunts)? What were the checks and balances to ensure complicity? Were the members of a church given the role of “macoing” for the Government? Is it true that a ball-head pastor was wearing dreadlocks as camouflage? Did this same man of God need four pieces of weaponry for protection while officiating? With no red flag raised one can only point to the poor judgement of the people charged with selecting the employees. Now your cohorts have been demoted to suspension and arrests with sizeable bail. Shame on Rowley. Surrounding himself with people he trusts but knows nothing about. What is coming through the exhaust is negative production. These bacchanals represent smoke and there are others so fiery they potentially can reduce the Government and its party to cinders. Rowley has now earned the title of “bacchanalist.” Sorry Destra. LENNOX FRANCIS via e-mail The post The bacchanal now start appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.