{"id":56212,"date":"2024-12-09T00:29:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T04:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56212"},"modified":"2024-12-25T00:30:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T04:30:43","slug":"rejecting-illusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56212","title":{"rendered":"Rejecting illusions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nDecember 09, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>In this version of democracy, the Cabinet rules supreme, to hell with those people who elected them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eric Williams began his address to the Second Congress of Negro Writers and Artists Conference in Rome in 1959 by quoting African intellectual Alioune Diop, who said: \u201cThere can be no people without a culture. But what we often lose sight of is the natural link between the political and the cultural…It\u2019s the State that guarantees a culture\u2019s memory of its traditions and the nature of its personality.\u201d
\n
\nWilliams outlined the nature of democracy in Ancient Greece: \u201cThe symbol of that highly civilised democracy was recognition of the political leader as a man of culture—not abstract culture or intellectual refinement, but the culture of the entire people, of an entire city-state whose representative he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams quoted Pericles, the political leader and symbol of culture in Athens, to support his position: \u201cOur Constitution is called a democracy because power is not in the hands of a minority, but of the entire population…Let us never forget that happiness depends on the fact of being free, and that liberty flows from courage.\u201d (Presence Africane, 1959).<\/p>\n

In this conception of democracy, the people are the masters and the elected representatives the servants. It is not that Williams did not make mistakes and contradicted some of these credos, but his faith in democracy seldom wavered even when he declared that some of the PNM nominees were \u201cmillstones\u201d around his political neck.<\/p>\n

Today, the Leader of Our Grief tells us that the Government is \u201ca $60-billion enterprise\u201d and that the acceptance of the findings of the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) \u201cis a matter for the Cabinet.\u201d (Express, November 29). In this version of democracy, the Cabinet rules supreme, to hell with those people who elected them.<\/p>\n

When asked about the Government\u2019s warning in April that the people need to tighten their belts, the Leader declared: \u201cI was discussing the country\u2019s overall revenue situation going forward. I took the opportunity to alert the country—all of us, high earners, low earners—that we are in a period where we are not as flush with revenues as we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by a Guardian reporter if he felt that the new salary proposed for the Office of the Prime Minister is fair and justifiable, the Leader added more rhetorical flourishes: \u201cI am simply saying I have accepted the work they have done…As far as I am concerned, that is the end of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ancient Greeks called this kind of reasoning sophistry, a school of thought that focused on rhetoric, persuasion, and the art of argumentation rather than the truth content of their positions. Plato and Aristotle, Greek philosophers, claimed \u201cthat professional teachers such as Protagoras were not seeking the truth but only victory in debate and were prepared to use dishonest means to achieve it.\u201d (George Briscoe Kerferd, Britannica).<\/p>\n

While it is true that the Government is a $60-billion enterprise, the Leader did not respond to the moral arguments that were raised. He was more concerned with winning a rhetorical argument that satisfied his egoistic needs. Many citizens were not beguiled by such sophistry.<\/p>\n

He also took on the martyr complex. \u201cI bear that cross without fear for retribution.\u201d (Guardian, November 11). Such a posture had nothing to do with the fairness of his decision.<\/p>\n

The money to pay these increases in salary is not just sitting in a pot to be distributed by a gallant Leader. It will be paid for by the coming generation. Martin Day reminds us that \u201ca significant part of Government expenditure is repayment of debts incurred to permit the Government to spend regardless of the entrenched annual budget deficits\u201d (Express, November 30).<\/p>\n

The SRC\u2019s recommendations are not sacrosanct. Most sensible, thinking people accept this position. Whatever such a committee recommends should be subject to the good sense and perspicacity of those who are called upon to evaluate the report.<\/p>\n

Many people object to the injustice inherent in the Government\u2019s position. The physicians, the keepers of our physical and mental health, complained: \u201cIt\u2019s been nine years since our last negotiation, and since then, the cost of living has risen, working conditions are troubling, the personal welfare of doctors have had to go through various hardships, including the pandemic.\u201d (Express, December 2).<\/p>\n

The working people have been told to band their bellies and make the necessary sacrifice for the well-being of the society. However, the needs of the poli-tricksters trump those of everyone else. Maybe there is something unique about running a $60-billion enterprise.<\/p>\n

Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Laureate, was on to something when he advised: \u201cDon\u2019t take the shadows too seriously; reality is our only safety; continue to reject illusions.\u201d While we are at it, we should also ignore the sophistries of the Leader of Our Grief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe December 09, 2024 In this version of democracy, the Cabinet rules supreme, to hell with those people who elected them. Eric Williams began his address to the Second Congress of Negro Writers and Artists Conference in Rome in 1959 by quoting African intellectual Alioune Diop, who said: \u201cThere can be … Continue reading Rejecting illusions<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[171,49],"class_list":["post-56212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","tag-selwyn-r-cudjoe","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56213,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212\/revisions\/56213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}