Cox knocks smartman culture

With courageous determination, Ms Donna Cox, Minister of Social Development and Family Services, recently committed to clean up the apparent fraud, maladministration and the set of smartman tactics used to unlawfully benefit from government’s food support programme.

Facing a cost of over $220 million last year that served over 32,000 “support clients,” a preliminary Cox-driven inquiry revealed a very disturbing list of devious ways to get food cards.

Given our entrenched smartman culture, all this is really no surprise. What is surprising, and happily so, is here we have a minister brave enough to put aside the usual “vote-catching” popularity and do the right thing. The intentions of the programme are wickedly abused. There is no guilt on the part of the abusers because such practice is part of the smartman culture. Everybody does it or will do it once the opportunity is there. The smartman culture is without moral restraint.

Some recipients are living abroad, some already getting other kinds of state support, some actually failed the means test, some are currently employed, some with large bank accounts are exchanging the food card for cash, others driving luxury cars or using the food cards to buy alcohol. And, according to the report, there seems to be unlawful complicity by some internal staff as well.

“It is not only the food-card recipients. Our officers are also responsible for reviewing,” Ms Cox said. Hopefully, Dr Rowley is backing her on this.

She also announced the establishment of a well-staffed “investigation and compliance unit” to weed out the culprits and keep the genuinely poor and needy ones. Of course, the rising number of “poor and needy” and the growing dependency on government are subjects for another time.

Why are so many citizens happy with Cox? It is mainly because the country has also developed another parallel culture. That is, many elected officials, including ministers, are reluctant to correct wrongdoing or corruption where such correction may result in losing votes or favours. So we also have a “smartman” political culture at the top.

Social media praised Ms Cox as an inspiring exception. Jean-Claude Escalante enthusiastically wrote: “Donna Cox has gone where no other minister has dared to go before. Cox has proved herself to be a selfless politician, sacrificing career longevity for economic recovery.”

Don’t be surprised if she survives longer than most. For too long, government welfare and subsidies’ programmes have been subjected to recipient fraud and political corruption. Government housing is a classic case – rent-money owing, political favouritism, etc.

Look, the country has now reached a stage where citizens have an aching hunger for integrity and accountability in public affairs. That is why, too, Finance Minister Colm Imbert attracted public praise when he publicly and correctly declared he didn’t give any licence for Adrian Scoon’s boat, Ocean Pelican, to be a “floating restaurant.”

And this in the face of other ministers’ apparent sympathy for Mr Scoon’s problems. Then Energy Minister Stuart Young, as well as Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales, opposed the very liberal, scary “fireworks” laws coming from Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s office.

Of course, one swallow does not a summer make. But our taxpaying citizens have become very hungry for integrity in our politics, so much so that even small but principled positions like those taken by Ms Cox, Messrs Imbert, Young and Gonzales light up the sky.

You see, the thinkers in Dr Rowley’s PNM, Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s UNC and David Abdulah’s MSJ know, or should know, the country is at a covid19 crossroads but also a political crossroads too. All signs – from economics, politics, education, transport, public safety and health – now compel us to do what is right, otherwise.

Surprisingly, with this, popularity and votes will come. The recent election results in Tobago suggest that possibility. Doing the wrong thing for political expediency may be legal but highly immoral.

Morality in public affairs, as PNM founder Dr Eric Williams unsuccessfully advocated, is more likely to be achieved from within the political party rather than from external pressures.

And that is why the lighthouse signals given by ministers Cox, Imbert, Young and Gonzales shine so bright where there is so much darkness. But it takes courage. For this, we wish Ms Cox God’s speed.