By Michael Harris
October 25, 2010 – trinidadexpress.com
A spectre is haunting the PNM and unless that party can discover within its ranks a person, or persons, versed in the rites and rituals of political exorcism, it is likely to stay in its present state of limbo for a long time to come, incapable of undertaking the vital task of critical self-assessment without which it could never begin the task of reconstruction. The spectre has a name. Its name is Patrick Manning.
Ever since he led his party to the ignominious defeat in the general elections last May, Mr Manning has maintained a pointed silence. He attends Parliament religiously but says nothing. Not even in the budget debate did he deign to say a word. He appears and then disappears like the ghost who walks but does not talk.
In the immediate post-election days his reticence to speak or to appear at official party functions was ascribed to an uncharacteristic but nonetheless gracious and responsible unwillingness to appear to be upstaging his successor in the post of party political leader, Keith Rowley. But as the months have passed his silence has become so conspicuous that it has now led to a veritable cacophony of whispers from people within the party and outside.
Full Article : trinidadexpress.com
Mr. Manning’s silence is typical of the very nature of people who think that they are above the bustle of ordinary Trinis. He is displaying the stubborn arrogance which characterized the manner in which the PNM operated since 1963 and even earlier. The secret scholarships, the insider trading, the culture of corruption, the partisan appointments, the preferential hiring practices, the prejudicial treatment of Indians, the fostering of the Port of Spain elite,the proclivity for everything foreign, the neglect of South Trinidad, the stifling of Indian culture, the biased allocation of cultural funds,the lies regarding the Clico funding,the practice of appointing unelected officials to ministerial positions, the stacking of state boards with PNM party hacks,the establishment of Prime Ministerial regal entrapments, the tendency for unaffordable megaprojects,the authoritarian governance, the confusion over the separation of religion and state governance,the attitude of PNM party followers that it is their divine right to rule, to dictate and to define the culture and traditions of T&T……etc.