PUTTING A CROWN ON THE HEAD OF A CLOWN

 It is difficult, if not impossible, to come to any other conclusion that the sole purpose of having PNM's internal elections spread over a three day period was for there to be an opportunity to cheat. Nobody has been able to give any logical reason why the one day voting for a new executive has been changed to three days and the resistance by the authorities in the Party to the proposal to change to three days of voting from one speaks volumes. I was always taught that if you can't say something in one sentence then you can't say it at all. And I defy anybody to explain how changing the voting from one day to three days will be cost effective and prevent cheating in one sentence.

A lot of people enjoy horror movies, though , for myself, I have never understood the attraction. But when you boil down all of the plots they always follow more or less the same line: in the final act, horror movie monsters that seem unstoppable - zombies, vampires, sharks - always shock the good guys who presumed that their terrifying enemies had been killed once and for all- or at the least, are set to be killed once and for all. Keith Rowley, like one of these monsters seemed to be about to be killed politically in the PNM's internal elections. Clearly, that ain't gonna happen. Though he is gravely wounded, with the attempt to prevent or at least delay the expected efforts to cheat having been thwarted he is likely to threaten not just a handful of teens in the woods, but the PNM and, beyond it the whole democratic process in the country.

It is possible, of course, that the thinking behind putting the internal elections over a three day period and seeking to delay the local government elections for a year is that everything is 'hunky dory' and that there are no hidden reasons for the present actions - possible, but most unlikely!

The PNM is a major political force in this country. Its internal elections are therefore of paramount importance to the country as a whole - the result is obviously important not just to non-members, but to opponents of the PNM. It is most unlikely at the present time that Dr. Rowley's Government enjoys majority support in the country and that most members of the PNM are not happy with either him or his leadership - not to mention his team. If this is correct that would go a long way to explaining the two propose actions referred to earlier. And, of course, they would be acutely aware of their unpopularity. For example, the Finance Minister's bold claims of economic reform and development - which to date have not been backed by tangible and sustainable results - are they mere expressions of personal vanity and hype or are they real and substantial and something that we really can count on? And let's not forget the issue of runaway crime!

Let me put it this way: if you put a crown on the head of a clown you do not make him a king; you simply turn the palace into a circus.