…and betrayal
While your Eyewitness won’t pretend to being a man of the cloth, he was yet taken aback when the Minister of Natural Resources gave, as the reason for shutting down the debate on the SARA Bill, the explanation that it was “Holy Thursday”. No, your Eyewitness wasn’t upset about mixing religion and the state – even in this highest bastion of the state – following the faux pas of the Headmistress of CHS. Your Eyewitness knows from whence the breeze blows in THIS administration!! Wasn’t David chosen to be King by God Himself??
What surprised your Eyewitness was how Trotman let his dirty Freudian slip show with his invocation of Holy Thursday. As an old Altar Boy, your Eyewitness knows that that was the day Jesus held His last supper. Yep! The day that was supposed to be a happy occasion, with everyone gathered to do the right thing, but which would eventually end in betrayal by some at the feast. And this was what went down in Parliament on Thursday. Wasn’t it?
Now, everyone from both sides of the aisle agreed that recovering state assets was a good thing. This was unlike 1992, when Jagan, for reasons known only to him, decided he wouldn’t go after all those PNC types who’d grown fat off state assets during the PNC’s 28 years at the helm. The PNC’s hand was more often in the till than on the steering wheel of state. No wonder the ship of state crashed!! Remember that big one — who eventually became the biggest one — who made a bundle on a barge from Texas that would solve our electricity woes??
Well, anyhow, the point about Holy Thursday in Parliament was the betrayal. And sure enough, even before the cock had crowed thrice – actually, it wasn’t even 10pm, and the cock probably hadn’t even settled down after servicing the hens – that the betrayal came; a betrayal of the foundation of parliamentary democracy. This was the truncation of the debate on the merits and demerits of the SARA Bill, right after a man of the cloth – Bishop Edghill – had delivered his homily.
And what a homily it was! He reminded the Pharisees across the aisles that if they were imitating the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and going after the recovery of state assets, then the least they could do was institute laws controlling campaign financing. After all, in this day and age, there are other ways to raid the treasury than dipping into the till, like the first PNC government had done.
Remember fellas who make “political investments” on which they expect a hefty return from the parties they invested in??
… PAYBACK
Oooops! Trotman DID say something about that a while back. Didn’t he? Think “Speciality Hospital”, or “Wind Farm”, or “Pharma Warehouse”, or “Jubilee Stadium”, “Parking Meters”, or “$604M Pharma sole sourced contract”, or…you get the point! Don’t you? The way this lot is humping the treasury is to pass the hefty sums of money to their “business buddies,” who will then deposit their shares in secret bank accounts here and abroad. But this is where the AML/CFT Bill will kick in.
The point here is, of course, that time is longer than twine; and just as how the descendants of Burnham lived to rue the day in regard to the Constitution they used to cackle about, they will weep and wail and gnash their teeth about this SARA Bill. The examples just quoted will inevitably multiply by 2020 — probably exponentially, from the way this lot is going on — being augmented by the shysters from the AFC. And then the same SARA powers will decimate them!!
Payback is a bitch; and revenge is best served cold!!
…ITS OPTICS
The Chronic ran a very revealing pic of those running SARA. There sat Clive Thomas, the omnipotent Director; Retmeyer, CEO; Basil Williams, AG; and Brian Horn, Legal Advisor. Harmon, their subject Minister; and Eric Philips, advisor, were absent.
A pic is worth 1000 words!
