To sink or to save?

PETER O’CONNOR

MANY YEARS ago I had rented a house on Monos Island to take my family on vacation. A friend kindly lent me a small motor launch so that I could go fishing and travel between Monos and the newly developing marinas in Chaguaramas.

I went fishing, out through the First Bocas, a couple of times without incident, but one morning, heading toward Chaguaramas to collect friends who were coming to visit, the boat sprang a leak. A seal around the propeller shaft had failed and water was coming in through this opening and I was in deep water, still crossing the First Bocas.

If I stopped and tried to fix this, the inflow of water would continue. Increasing the speed helped as this tended to pull the water out. So I accelerated (this was no speedboat, just a small launch) and headed for what was then open space in Alcan Bay (formerly Hart’s Cut) and ran the boat aground.

Fortunately it was high tide, so I tied the boat to a small tree and watched it settle until it rested, half filled with water now, on the shore.

I then walked to the nearby marina and called my friend to report what had happened, slightly nervous at what his reaction might be. “Are you OK?” was his first comment. Then he thanked me – for saving the ship, for not letting it sink to the bottom of the Bocas, to be lost forever.

He retrieved the boat, pumped out the water, changed the defective seal, and then sold the vessel, largely because he was not really knowledgeable about boats and the sea.

So why did this incident come to my mind on this unhappy 56th anniversary of our allegedly being an “independent nation?” An anniversary clouded by the sinking of our flagship state-owned corporation, Petrotrin?

While I do not support this Government, nor any current contenders for replacing it, I do support, from all that I have seen and read, the decision to “beach” Petrotrin and the refinery rather than allow it to sink in deep water and carry our struggling nation to the deep seabed as well. I accept that “beaching” the company is fraught with problems, but I cannot see that any internal tinkering is going to save it, or indeed us.

If we continue to pour money like water into Petrotrin, we are all going under. It is as simple as that. And all the shouting and blaming and pointing fingers of accusation, that is all irrelevant now. But that is what we are doing. That is where our talent truly lies, and that is why we are deep in this (and indeed other) dilemma.

I felt sorry for Prime Minister Rowley on Sunday night. The strain showed clearly on his face as he described where successive governments (and compliant citizenry) had taken us over the past 56 years, ruining the country while enriching a few. With “massa day done” we ruined a once vibrant economy by crookedness, crime, indifference and laziness.

And this was not just a PNM rape. The UNC, in its 1995- 2003 and 2010- 2015 innings, lived up to of mantra of “we turn now” in orgies of corruption and enrichment. Only NAR (1986-1991) remained relatively unscathed, and that was largely due to the fact that there was nothing more to thief.

Rowley and his Government were left holding a bucket of septic filth which could no longer be ignored; it was about to spill over and poison us all. He did not have the comfort, as George Chambers had in 1986, of a pending general election where he could “hand over the problem” to someone else (see “The great PNM strategy” by this writer on September 6, 1987).

He could not even call a sudden general election, like Manning did in 2010, when the Opposition UNC called for a vote of no confidence against him; a debate in which Rowley was widely expected to speak and vote against the PNM. For now Rowley can no longer be sure he would lose, and will therefore still be responsible for Petrotrin’s fate.

The sooner we get our government (regardless of who “government” is) out of competitive commercial enterprise, the better for all of us, including those who are drawing salaries for doing nothing, while getting money from failing ventures.

Petrotrin needs to be divested and shut down. All who believe that it can earn its own way should join together and purchase the company and retain the current workforce and work ethic. The money we currently waste on Petrotrin for no returns can then be used to support our health, education and infrastructure needs.

And by all means, all of you who remain convinced that Petrotrin can be saved, its debts paid off, and its profitability assured, put your money, and encourage your friends to do the same, into the rescue and save Petrotrin, and the country, while you become rich on your investment.

But leave me out, thank you!