Don’t play to cheap seats, talk show hosts

THE EDITOR: On Monday I was listening to a very popular talk radio show and the conversation was focused on the election of a president and the cost of food in the supermarkets.

The hosts of the show put forward the position that in the presidential election, all PNM members would vote along party lines and that all UNC members would do likewise.

What struck me was that this was said while dismissing the Prime Minister’s stated position that the vote is secret and that he had voted against party position on a previous occasion because he believed it to be the best decision.

The hosts then switched focus and called on the Minister of Trade and Industry to answer for the current prices in the supermarkets against the background of container shipping rates dropping by as much as 80 per cent globally.

Nowhere in the conversation was their finger pointing at importers, at retailers, at the Supermarket Association and the other bodies that represent the interest of those businesses.

I mention all of this to say that it all too easy to throw every act of irresponsibility, of greed, of polarisation along the lines of race, religion or geographic location at the collective feet of the Government. But when are we as citizens going to hold each other accountable for decisions that we make?

The Ministry of Trade does not import anything and does not exercise the types of controls that would give it the power to dictate profit margins, even when it is clear to consumers that they are being fleeced. I would not want to live in that version of our country and thankfully I don’t.

The hosts of that radio show knew that but instead chose to make it a government-made problem that only had a government-made solution and I can only assume that it was intentional. What the intention was is up to the individual to figure out.

Likewise, the Electoral College has a job to do and all elected and appointed members have their duty to fulfil. History will show that the secret ballot has allowed members to vote with their conscience and not along party lines. To dismiss that reality is to begin the process of undermining the eventual outcome as well as the process itself.

We are seeing a global trend of aggressive polarisation and the undermining of all branches of authority in countries. One only has to look north to the US and the circus that came to town when they tried to elect a Speaker or look south to Brazil and the unrest which has escalated to acts of violence after its recent election.

Sweet TT is not immune to these changes. We are seeing people every day who are sowing the seeds of division, polarisation, lack of respect for authority in all its forms and promotion of self over country.

Against that background we need the voices that are generally accepted as being rational and to whom people turn to get information about complex issues that they may not necessarily understand (like the Electoral College and international trade) to understand the responsibility of their role beyond the traction generated by supporting bacchanal and partisan positions.

They need to inform themselves so that they can better inform their listeners. And if they are informed, then don’t play to the cheap seats. Their role in the development of our country is a critical one.

DANIEL P WILLIAM

Diego Martin