Of 'zamies' and PNM dogs

THE EDITOR: I am in my seventies so politics really doesn't interest me anymore.

I am simply grateful to still be on this side of the earth even as I acknowledge I am well and truly in the departure lounge waiting to see if the Good Lord gives me an economy, business or first class ticket to the great beyond.

However, when my granddaughter last year asked, "Pa (she never calls me grandpa) what is a 'zamie'?" I was stumped and gobsmacked. She saw the word while reading the news on social media of the then energy minister, now prime minister, using that degrading term at the Opposition Leader, in of all places, our Parliament.

Being as honest as I could to a 13-year-old, I told her it was an insulting term directed at women and that we in the Merrick household never ever use such words, not even in joke.

Lo and behold, very recently, a former prime minister, on a political platform, described a former colleague who at one time worked with him in the cabinet, as a "dog in the PNM."

Earlier this week, in a Newsday article, the Opposition Leader slammed the PNM for running an election campaign based on insults and smears. That story got me thinking...she is right.

Don't get me wrong, I am in no way a supporter of the yellow (truth be told, I've supported the Balisier in the past) but I am a supporter of all that is right and decent.

Politicians, on all sides, cannot seem to get it through their thick, privileged skulls that after a general election, we still gotta to live with each other in these rocks called Trinidad and Tobago.

Can't they understand you can run an election without being nasty and crass?

I read another Newsday story about Udecott chairman Noel Garcia staying quiet on a social media video in which vile things were said about UNC supporters being criminals and rum drinkers. I got my daughter to show me that video and yes, the fella really resembled the udecott chairman. And oui papa, he and the other man were well carrying on.

That was so unnecessary.

Then the health minister, without giving a shred of evidence, claims a party was giving young men rum, ganja, bullets and money to vote a certain way. Really Mr Deyalsingh? This is your campaign strategy?

Contrast this conduct with the other parties. I've not heard or seen such behaviour coming from the UNC, the NTA and the PF. If I am wrong, hopefully someone could point me to tangible evidence proving my error.

The days of pandering to a political base are over. The days of pandering to the baser instincts of man are over.

People want to hear about bread and butter issues. Not about who was a dog in the PNM and who "zamieing" in the bathroom.

Issues affecting our lives such as the economy and crime, education and social security...that is what we want to hear. There are many youths including first-time voters who are too young to know about the Piarco Airport scandal and may have just been born when Calder Hart was the man calling the shots in TT. Nor would they know of O'Halloran.

So, please, in the dying days of this thankfully brief election season, I urge all parties moreso the one in government, please stick to issues. Tell us why we should vote for you. Not what other parties did or didn't do when in government.

How are you going to tackle our many problems. Give us your agenda and roadmap for TT's future. We not interested in the bacchanal and insults. Stick to the issues!

LEE MERRICK

San Fernando