JOINING THE RANKS OF THE INSANE

 I came across this saying from the ancient Roman philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, the other day: "the object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." Thinking about the political situation here in Trinidad & Tobago, I felt that this particular saying was most appropriate. This country is dominated by two distinct political tribes. If you are Indian you must vote for the UNC and if you are African you are a traitor to your race if you don't vote for the PNM. And that's it! Punto final!!

There is no discernible philosophical difference between either of the two parties. You can't say that one is better than the other in anything - except perhaps on the issue of corruption, and even there you will find members of both tribes saying that "they" are more corrupt than "mine". But I challenge anybody to lay out clearly and concisely exactly how the two parties differ from each other in policy. Both say that they are better at governance than the other and both cite all kinds of statistics, whether true or false, to justify whatever issue they might be on at the moment.

But in the meantime, the average citizen is suffering. Crime has reached unprecedented levels of violence and our economy is crashing. Haiti has shown that there is no "bottoming" out for a country, The descent is unending and things simply get worse. Put another way, there is no brighter tomorrow on the horizon.

Why do I say this? Take, for example, the latest imbroglio for the as yet to be announced Local Government election. (And take note that the Privy Council ruling on this matter was more than 10 days ago at the time of writing this post.) In other words, it is not unreasonable to assume that "things" are being put in place to ensure a certain result at the polls before the election is called. The Leader of the Opposition has called for international observers for the upcoming poll. Isn't it reasonable to assume that a Government committed to the Rule of Law would have reacted and obeyed immediately?  The Prime Minister says that it is insulting to us as an independent nation to have independent international observers, despite the fact that HE made a similar call at the 2015 general elections, which, incidentally, his party won. So? Why is the call insulting today when he is in power but it wasn't yesterday when he was not? Because he would never cheat at elections and the UNC would?

As we like to say in this country, you can't play mas' and  'fraid powder. And if the Leader of the Opposition really believes that there is a real possibility that there might be cheating, then SHE can invite international observers here. But she hasn't done that  - at least, not yet - and she hasn't threatened to do so. Why not?

And finally, the media is simply avoiding calling these two leaders to account. Why not? Isn't this something of importance to the country? And we are quietly putting up with all of it! And you say that we are not finding ourselves in the ranks of the insane?