In the rest of the world, life imitates art; in Trinidad, life imitates parody; but not well. On Sunday, with much fanfare ("fanfare" being a kinder description than, "with much blowing of its own trumpet"), AIMtt was launched. The realist might say that the so-called Association of Independent Media of T&T was not so much "launched" as "immediately dead in the water;" the cynic might call it stillborn; the smart aleck might say AIMtt puts the "ass" in "association;" the jaded idealist would see it for what it is: another rotten carcass poisoning the water of civil society. The group can trace its roots back to (what we will probably find out, after extensive and expensive litigation, was) the illegal firing of broadcaster Fazeer Mohammed from the state-owned media group, CNMG. Mohammed was dismissed from-or, as the State's lawyers will be forced to argue, "offered alternative employment in"-CNMG's morning show in the same week that that he had (and, seemingly/allegedly, as the direct result of) an on-air run-in with a Cabinet minister.
MATT, the (legitimate) Media Association of T&T, properly and responsibly at once called for an explanation of what, on its face, seemed to be the firing of an otherwise competent presenter for his disagreement with a politician. CNMG compounded its error by bringing in to replace Mohammed my pardner, Andy Johnson, the former journalist and until recently Trinidad's best television morning show presenter who, unfortunately for CNMG, is now a political appointee connected to the Government of the day. It speaks well of Andy that he held the job for as short as possible a time before relinquishing it; I don't think it would have spoken better of him if he had not taken it up at all, since he is now openly aligned to the ruling People's Partnership and his professional decisions are dictated, not by the ethics of journalism, but by such ethics as may exist within Trinidadian politics; by that measure, he is free to do as he pleases. The call for a "new" media association came directly after the MATT press release and began, as far as I can trace it, within an e-mail round robin of an Internet group that everyone (except perhaps AIMtt) would immediately recognise as nakedly supportive of the People's Partnership Government.
The groundwork of AIMtt was laid by a man long aligned with a faction of the PP and a current political appointee to a state board. The "interim president" is a businessman whose strongest qualification as a journalist would seem to be a single letter to the Guardian published as an opinion piece last month; further, he has identified some of his posts on the Internet with the name of a political party. The vice president was a Congress of the People candidate in last July's local government elections. The Tobago representative has defined himself by opposition to the PNM. The committee includes at least one open People's Partnership supporter. So you couldn't blame anyone for responding to the AIMtt executive as, "Independent, my association!" For purely propaganda reasons, the more biased an organisation is, the more important it seems (to its members) that it should have a name far removed from its character. The Soviet newspaper, which filled its pages with lies and "official" versions-ie, distortions-of reality, was called "Pravda," or "Truth." For the same reason, a media association set up by a group of people aligned with the Government of the day calls itself "independent."
The only thing that could make AIMtt more blatantly pro-People's Partnership now would be for Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar to offer it office space at the palace. It would have been better-and would have had far more entertainment value, the only value this group of jokers can have-for AIMtt to call itself what it was: the Government's ABM-Association of Biased Media. Of course, to accommodate its president, it should properly have been called the ABMtt Plus COP Brian. The worst thing about AIMlessTT, though, is not its shameless bias towards the Government of the day-the absolute last bias a free press would display-but its complete misunderstanding of the role of the media in the challenge facing the country. If we recognise AIMlessTT for what it is-the Media Association of the People's Partnership-it is the most glaring illustration so far that the Government has failed to discern its real challenge. The work of the Partnership is not to create its own biased bodies to oppose those who do not support it; the work of the Partnership is to help T&T out of the crisis it faces.
And the greatest threat to T&T is the split within the body politic, not the split within the political parties. If a media association loyal to the Government is a good idea, what's next? A Partnership police force that will defeat crime? A Partnership Highway Code that will magically change Trinidad's dreadful driving habits? If all the Partnership is going to do is what Mr Manning would have done, we might as well have left Mr Manning in the palace and resented only him. T&T will collapse as surely in the future as it might have in the past and for the same reason: because different factions take care of their own, not the country. To do its work, the Partnership must manage all of T&T, not just the bits that agree with it. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar should thank AIMtt for its flattery and immediately ask it to disband itself and cease embarrassing her and frustrating national recovery; or at least to change its name to what it is in fact: the Media Association of the Government of T&T; or MAGOTT.
BC Pires realises you don't need to aim at a barn wall. Read more of his writing at www.BCraw.com