Pot calling kettle a gangster lover

I ONCE visited the zoo as a child with my father. On that day the incarcerated apes in the primate section were particularly animated. Chimpanzees in one cage were throwing projectiles at chimps in a neighbouring enclosure. There were lots of whooping and hollering, rival clans aggressively postured while vigorously shaking their posterior protuberances.

I was so caught up in this noisy display of primate politics I hadn’t paid much attention to what they were throwing at each other. It was only when the chimpanzees turned on me, the hapless onlooker, with flying fists of fecal fury that I understood what their weapons of conflict were.

This memory came to mind as I read newspaper reports of the laughable back and forth between the Government and Opposition centred on who out-ganged who. National Security Minister Stuart Young attacked the Opposition for what he claims is their courtship of criminals. Mr Young referred specifically to the appearance, at a Monday night UNC forum, of a man whom he claimed has a long criminal rap sheet.

Confronted with the irony of Cedric “Upstanding Citizen” Burke in attendance at a swearing-in ceremony of his cabinet colleague Marlene McDonald, Young deferred to the Port of Spain South MP. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley swiftly swore out McDonald. At the time, he saw the glaring impropriety of the newly refurbished minister appearing at President’s House with Cedric “Shining Light” Burke. No explanation has been offered by the PM of why what was improper then has become proper now given that McDonald was subsequently rehired.

But back to Stuart “Tie up Mehself” Young. He admitted (according to a newspaper report) he couldn’t definitively state the PNM isn’t guilty of the same activities of which the UNC has been accused. He went on to add, however, neither Burke nor anyone with a criminal record has appeared on a PNM platform.

In the fine tradition of splitting hairs, Mr Young makes a distinction between people with a criminal record appearing on a political platform and Cedric “the best of east Port of Spain” Burke appearing shoulder to shoulder with a PNM minister at President’s House.

Despite Mr Young’s (and the PM’s) insistence that the PNM is not of that, history is unkind to the unlearned and the dishonest. It was former prime minister Patrick Manning who met with known “community leaders,” presumably with the objective of brokering peace among warring gangs. Anyone with half a brain understood this peace would have to be purchased.

Mark Guerra, a known “community leader,” was appointed as national adviser to the Unemployment Relief Programme, then rife with gangland infiltration and turf killings. Guerra, as national adviser to what was ostensibly a state welfare programme, reportedly owned several luxury vehicles and properties.

Not to be outdone, MP for Oropouche East Roodal Moonilal has jumped into the fray, accusing the PNM of supporting the criminal element in society. Dr Moonilal has conveniently forgotten that a Morvant community activist, Sean “Bill” Francis, with established ties to the criminal underworld, ran on a UNC ticket in a general election. Francis, who was also a government contractor, was eventually liquidated along with several other gang leaders involved in the so-called peace initiative supported by ex-PM Manning.

The holier-than-thou posturing of both political parties is offensive to objective thinkers in society, limited in number though they may be. Politicians have always courted criminal elements in their desperation to cobble and hold together a power base and bolster support in areas where support is thin.

The URP, as well as state contracts, has historically been apportioned to “community leaders,” often resulting in gangland clashes over state resources. Individuals with no demonstrable competencies in civil engineering are handed contracts to build community centres and refurbish state buildings.

In reference to reports about gang leaders receiving state contracts, PM Rowley stated it would be unfair for the Government to deny anyone not convicted of a crime an opportunity to bid for state employment. Fair enough. I recently tried to open a bank account and was told I would have to provide a certificate of good character from the police. Are banks more discriminating than the Government?

As the futility of a general election looms, the Government and Opposition are ramping up the “who’s worse than whom” rhetoric. There are enough people still blind to the reality that they’re the same. For the rest of us, it’s flying fistfuls of fecal fury.