A new trend full of foreboding?

THE EDITOR: Of late some head-turning events to the good of the country have been taking place, like the return of the AV case and the government/opposition unity on the bail bill, but this unprecedented investigation into a Cabinet minister takes the cake.

Is there something in the air? The public perception is that it would have taken just one phone call from the top to call off the latter for it seems the accepted pattern for governments to protect their own, irrespective, and for personnel and institutions to cower under the prospect of administrative censure, and the inevitable disfavour.

But is the new kid on the block setting a new pace? Already the contradictory vibes between the CoP and the Government would have been evident over the issue of police insufficiency as far as crime goes. Is this spilling over onto incidents like the continuing investigation of a now former Cabinet minister? We wait with bated breath over the outcome.

But there is an interesting precedent being set in this new development. So many politicians, from top to bottom, on both sides of the divide, have suspicions of corrupt behaviour hanging over their heads, but no investigations of consequence have taken place to date.

Is this investigation of a now former Cabinet minister the beginning of a new trend that is full of foreboding for those under suspicion? The reaction of the public to this situation is equally interesting.

The issue of subterfuge in the politics is so much a mindset of the public that there is a sense that there may be a hidden agenda to this investigation which seems to set the stage for a possible crusade against other politicians, especially from the Opposition, with the possible justification being, “If we can prosecute one of our own, why not others?”

Is McDonald the fall guy for a more insidious plot to tarnish opposition politicians with the 2020 election on our doorstep? Who knows? Can she be reappointed a fourth time if that master plan succeeds? Al things are possible in our brand of politics.

Such thinking as the above is not so improbable for Opposition politicians from the top to the bottom have been unusually magnanimous towards the plight of McDonald, so willing to commiserate with her and chiding those who would gloat over her suffering, when the pattern would have been to exploit such a situation to the fullest to their own political advantage.

Is this a kind of reverse psychology, knowing that soon it will be their turn to be on the receiving end and they will need some commiseration also?

“Like dey smell a rat,” as they would say in local parlance. But rat or no rat, and without overreaching ourselves as to where all this would lead, the CoP and the officers spearheading this investigation deserve the highest commendation in giving the population some hope – that all may not be lost as it seems now, that a new dawn bringing justice and fair play is upon us.

DR ERROL N BENJAMIN

via e-mail

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"A new trend full of foreboding?"

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