Keith Rowley's government has been a complete failure almost from the word 'go'. But the opposition UNC hasn't offered a convincing alternative. While it can be argued with justification that Rowley's PNM government has had a lot of bad luck come its way (the fall in oil prices, the COVID 19 pandemic, etc.), the truth is that their handling of the various crises that hit them have been so badly botched that most ugly and what should be most unnecessary suspicions have arisen. Take for example, the A&V oil scandal. The truth is that most people believe that this was or is a cover up of mammoth proportions and that somebody somewhere took a huge bribe. Is this true? Certainly, there is no clear cut evidence showing that it is, but a lot of people will say 'hey, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck you are going to have to prove to me that it is really just a pussy cat'. And Dr. Rowley has admitted that the head of that company is a good friend. Curry duck anyone?
Then there has been the Government's handling of the pandemic. Certainly (according to the Government) they have been reporting recently the number of COVID cases and deaths, but was this so from the beginning? We didn't cancel Carnival 2020 and then we had a general election in August 2020. Only later the general election did we start to get reports about so many people being sick with the virus and then so many people having to go to hospital and that the hospitals were being overwhelmed and so on. But why does a right thinking person get the impression th we weren't told the truth from the beginning and why is the Minister of Health surprised to discover that a lot of people simply don't believe a thing that he says? Because, if you check back between February and August of last year you will find that this virus was certainly not on the Government's front burner - or it didn't appear to be. And Mr. Deyalsingh cannot be surprised if people believe him to be incompetent.
Then you have the terrible imbroglio with the Police Service Commission (PSC) which is still going on. Apparently some high up person went to see the President about this problem. But nobody seems to know who that person was nor what was discussed. And all the while you have Gary Griffith sitting on the side lines like a leopard waiting to pounce. And there are many, many other questions coming out of this. But it is the latest scandal and it is still occupying the front pages, so there is probably a lot more to come.
There is really only space to highlight these three matters. Each one could take a whole book to discuss thoroughly and to present possible solutions and/or theories. Certainly, these are not the only scandals that we should be concerned about.
But the point here is that by all that is normal the Opposition UNC should be riding high in the polls and they are not. Why? Maybe it is because they do not attack the Government with anything remotely resembling credibility nor do they deal frontally with issues (such as the radical foreign exchange shortage) with anything that offers hope to a beleaguered and battered population as to how they might fix things. It is almost as if they are saying 'vote for us. We can do better than these characters. Certainly, we can't do worse!'
They say that a country gets the government that it deserves. But I really feel that we've been hit with a double whammy: a completely awful Government and a hopeless Opposition. We don't deserve the two together.
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