There you had it!! As promised, the PNC “buy-cutted” the sitting of the National Assembly – in which they knew the PPP were gonna be approving a S44.7BILLION supplementary to the historic $552.9BILLION Budget passed earlier this year!! US Minority Leader Everett Dirksen’s sarcastic quip about “A billion here and a billion there…and pretty soon you’re talking about real money” was funny in 1962 USA. But who woulda thought we’d be tossing around the word “billions” and dollars in the same sentence here in our old mudland!! Pretty soon we’ll be hearing about TRILLIONS!! But right now, with prices shooting beyond the stratosphere, the cry might very well be, “Money, money everywhere, and not a dollar to spend!!”
But back to that “buy-cut”!! What exactly does the PNC think they’ll accomplish by staying away?? Do they really believe – even after the Courts determined that the Privileges Committee had the power to discipline their 8 MPs who rampaged in the National Assembly – they’ll be scoring some points?? With whom?? The whole point about electoral politics is to get folks to vote for you. Will the “buy-cut” convince anyone outside their fan-base of their political nous?? Or will it have the opposite effect??
Think about it. If they felt so strongly about their suspended “Raucous 8”, wouldn’t they have created a bigger impact by making the point IN the National Assembly?? Where’s their creativity? Or do they believe the only effective protest tactic in the National Assembly is to abscond with the Mace and fight off “house slaves”?? Your Eyewitness is of the firm view, expressed by that sly but eloquent arch-imperialist Churchill: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
By leaving the PPP to “do wha’ de waan wid dem”, the PNC appeared to’ve deserted the field of contestation that the National Assembly is designed to provide in a parliamentary democracy. It was like Roberto Duran throwing in the towel and crying, “No mas…no mas” to Sugar Ray Leonard!!”
Listen…your Eyewitness knows that the PPP had the votes to carry their motion. But that’s not the point, is it?? Knowing that’s the case for the last thousand years, Opposition parties understand the occasion gives them the opportunity to show the country – including the PPP’s supporters and fence-sitters – that they have better ideas on whatever issue that’s covered by the motion. In this case, the Supplementary Spending Bill. Corruption?!!
But this calls for some preparation, yes?? Like using the two Sectoral Committees they chair at any time to summon Government officials to explain their spending.
In real time!!
…just academics
One of the ways the Brits left us “underdeveloped” was to misuse the “education” system they foisted on us. Rather than “education”, it was more like “miseducation”!! Think about it. In the schools they founded right after “Emancipation”, they handed the job to the Christian Missionaries, who told us to focus on the “hereafter”, where we’d get our reward!! As Nkrumah described their modus operandi, “They told us to look heavenwards, while they stole the land out from under our feet!!”
But there was another more insidious method – launching elite schools like Queen’s and Bishops, patterned after English Grammar Schools – where our brightest competed to join their kids. They taught the “classics” – including Literature and Languages” – and developed a scorn for the “trades”. So, our elites were all siphoned off from forming a local stratum that could actually develop our economy.
Well, finally, the Government’s addressing that debilitating practice, and will have another 34 secondary schools join the 8 already teaching Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ)subjects!!
…miseducation
The CVQ subjects include crop production, aquaculture, commercial food preparation, housekeeping, plumbing, masonry, garment construction, fish handling and processing, furniture making, livestock rearing, customer service, business administration, data administration, fabric design, metal work engineering and agro-processing.
They should add air-conditioning repair!
