THE APPOINTMENT OF A COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

Okay. Full disclosure: Gary Griffith is a friend of mine. I also have acted as his lawyer in a few matters in the past (though not recently). One of those matters was the infamous 'emailgate' affair. I was satisfied then ... as I am satisfied now that the despicable allegations involving him in that sordid mess were all false. I am also satisfied that when it comes to matters of national security that he "knows his onions" probably better than anyone else in this country and that he is a man of high integrity.


But, here's the problem: the Prime Minister went on record in Parliament when his Government was rejecting the recommendation to appoint Assistant Commissioner of Police Dulalchan to the post of Commissioner of Police, and said that the Government could not support the recommendation because the process was "flawed" (his word). To which I thought, okay. I didn't think that it was a flawed process from all that I had read, and the erstwhile Prime Minister did not say exactly how the process was flawed, but if no less a person than the Prime Minister says that it was flawed, who am I to question that? Certainly, I didn't see any of the three daily newspapers seriously questioning how exactly the process was flawed and there has been no questioning of the Prime Minister by the media on this. Why? I don't know. Ask them.


But I did come away with the most unnecessary suspicion that the real reason for Mr. Dulalchan's rejection by the Government was not the allegedly "flawed" process but the fact that Mr. Dulalchan is of East Indian heritage. Do I have any evidence that this may be so? None whatsoever! It's just a nagging suspicion in the back of my brain that I can't get away from.


And then the Express reports in an exclusive headline on a Sunday that my friend Gary Griffith is tipped to be the next CoP!  Well, you won't be surprised to learn that I was as pleased as I ought to have been. I think he's a good choice and a good guy. But I've already confessed my bias.


So? What's my problem? In one sentence, my problem is that I don't for the life of me understand how the process that threw up Mr. Dulalchan as being the best candidate, can be flawed and therefore he (Dulalchan) should be rejected, but that we should not reject the third candidate (who would have been my first choice) using the same process.


Quite frankly, this whole thing has a most ugly smell to it. And Mr. Griffith's appointment (because from all newspaper reports it looks like it will happen next week) will be most unfairly tarnished by those who believe that race had everything to do with Mr. Dulalchan's rejection. And the truth is that at least half the country is going to believe that!  This is not at all happy; not for the country, not for the Government, not for any of the candidates, and certainly not for the citizens who are being taken for complete bobolees.


The democracy of our Republic is threatened ... seriously threatened ... when we allow our politicians to act as they please and not account to us properly. This issue ought to be addressed not on the basis of race or on who is whose friend, but on principle. Anything else is dangerous and divisive. And up to now it is not being addressed properly.

FERRYGATE ... WHY CAN'T WE GET PROPER ANSWERS?

There are a couple of truisms that are so basic, they hardly need repeating. And yet, sometimes it is worthwhile to remind ourselves of them so that we don't forget them. The first truism that I thought of in this #@&*% ongoing scandal with the infamous Galleons Passage ferry is that there is only one reason for government; only one reason for politics: to make life better for the people! Full stop! There is no other reason!


The second truism is a little more nuanced: it is when a man is telling you something that you don't understand, ninety-eight percent of the time it is because he doesn't want you to understand. Two percent of the time it is because he doesn't understand what he is saying.


So, I approach this ferry business again and ask myself what exactly is it that the various Government Ministers (Imbert, Young, Sinanan etc.) don't want me to understand? I mean, their statements and those of their surrogates on the ferry just don't make sense. Take,  for example, the latest statement coming out of NIDCO (the Government entity that is supposed to be in control of the ferry and its operations. First of all, the newspapers reported that Minister Sinanan questioned the authenticity of a report from Lloyd's Register that identified around 100 defects some of them quite serious) in the ferry. The statements from the various Government Ministers  were to the effect that the allegations of Opposition Senators Mark and Hosein that Lloyd's had put out a damning report earlier this month (July) were based on a fictitious report ... a fake report.  Aided and abetted by the three daily newspapers (who collectively seem intent on not reporting on this matter fairly or accurately and certainly have not seriously questioned the Government spokesman about it) the government spokesmen at first denied the Lloyd's report completely. Then, seemingly out of the blue, The National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO) then takes Lloyd's Register to task  saying that while the Lloyd's report identified 92 non-conforming issues on the ferry, the survey which was paid for and delivered on July 11 was done without a physical inspection of the vessel by Lloyd's.
To which I can only say "WHAT"?!?


What happened to the fake report? So there was a report after all? Why didn't the Ministers say that there was a report but they considered it inadequate because of whatever? Why attack the Opposition Senators and their credibility?


And then we were told that the ferry would be in operation within two or three weeks of its arrival. But NIDCO's chairman Herbert George is now being reported as saying that any delays  resulting from making the vessel compliant in order to work the seabridge is "...not a consideration. Safety is more important to us, as long as it takes to get it right." Which means what? Because the way I read that is that the ferry won't be in service within two or three weeks of its arrival down here!


I could go on, but hopefully you get the point. There are so many other issues that it boggles the mind. For example, we were told that the ferry was going to Cuba for ten days to have a canopy installed and some other very minor works done at a cost of a little more than US$300,000. No explanation was ever given (and no newspaper ever asked) why these minor works could not have been done in Trinidad. As it is, the ferry spent more than five weeks in Cuba and eventually left there reportedly with certain other works to be done down here! Again, WHAT?


We have been consistently lied to about this ferry and about everything connected with it so that nobody knows the truth. Why? What is it that the Government Ministers do not want us to know or understand? Because when we don't know or don't understand very ugly and most unnecessary suspicions arise that there may be some sort of corrupt activity lurking somewhere in the background. As to who might have "dipped his hand in the cookie jar", I haven't a clue. I can't even say that somebody did "dip his hand" in. But I can and do say that things are not at all clear ... or put another way, this story is as clear as mud. I can and do say that alarm bells are going off. Is it a false alarm? Maybe, but shouldn't we check it out? What if it isn't a false alarm? Why can't we get a straigt answer? Why is it that the newspapers are not asking the hard questions? Incompetence? Bias? What?


And to end up with the first truism with which I began this piece, a government can NOT make life better for the people if it won't tell the people the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Obfuscations and outright lies on anything simply destroys the democracy.