Let them eat silk

When a young Tunisian market trader found himself humiliated by government inspectors; and had his cart, scales and produce seized, he went to the municipal town hall to complain about his treatment, but the authorities there refused to meet with him. The distraught man went away, but returned a short while later with a can of gasoline, poured it over himself, and lit a touch-paper that would burn deep into the annals of history. Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, clung to life for a little over two weeks, but his eventual death on January 4, 2011, would herald not only the advent of the Arab Spring, which saw totalitarian regimes across the Middle East swept from power one after the other, but would inspire waves of protest throughout other parts of the world, too. The myth of sovereign control and power, which had for so long kept the masses in their place, was fatally shattered. But while most in the Middle East came to realise that it were the dictators and their legions of corrupt officials who were the real enemies of the people—and not the rival tribesmen from down the road—we in Trinbago seem destined to remain in a state of ignorance; allowing ourselves to fall prey time and again to the politics of spite and division. According to the United Nations, the Rwandan genocide of 1994, which resulted in almost a million Tutsis being massacred at the hands of the Hutus—their previously peaceful neighbours—stemmed from “the conscious choice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power”. 

 

It is this same politics of “hatred and fear” that leads the black man from Morvant to believe that he is at odds with the Indian man from Couva; while the Indian man from Cedros, inherently distrusts the black man from Arima. All the while, we continue to be ruled by a cabal of elitists and sycophants from both sides of the political divide who gorge themselves silly at our stupidity; only ever throwing the occasional scrap—a Cepep job from Manning here, a toy from Kamla Claus there—for us to squabble and fight over. We may not be governed by dictators per se, but make no mistake that what passes for democracy in this country every five years or so, is simply a rearranging of the chairs on the political verandah—with real wealth and power forever staying in the hands of a privileged few. The supporting cast members may change from time to time, but the leading actors always remain the same. How many deserving students from the PNM strongholds of Morvant and Laventille managed to secure a government scholarship under the last administration? It appears that you either had to have been married to the son of a party financier, or be a general’s daughter, to have gotten one of those. The parents of the rest had to make do with a little “ten-days” every now and then, or cleaning toilets in Westmoorings to buy Atiba’s schoolbooks. How many intelligent but socially unconnected people from the UNC heartlands of Couva and Carapichaima were able to gain management-level employment under this present Government? No, for such graces one had to first adorn Tim Gopeesingh’s arm at Trotters, and it was only then, despite not having a single relevant qualification to your name, that the top national security job in the land became yours. Rahema and her mother, however, must continually get up at fore-day morning and sell bodi by the highway in order to make ends meet. 

 

The long-running saga involving former political financiers Ish Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson is proof positive of how both main political parties are nothing but two sides of the same dirty coin; going to any lengths to protect their kin. Whilst the Attorney General has not covered himself in glory as far as this, and a host of other matters are concerned, do not allow yourselves to be fooled by the Opposition’s apparent pique of rage over this issue either. The charges against Galbaransingh and Ferguson were brought many years ago whilst the PNM was still at the helm. They, too, were unwilling to confront the issue head on, and decided to kick that contentious ball deep into the bushes when they thought that no one was looking. It is highly disingenuous of Rowley and others now, to lay the blame squarely on the present administration for refusing to go into the temari to fetch it. 

The first person to confer silk upon himself was former attorney general Karl Hudson Phillips back in 1970. The fact that in his dotage, the same man can now criticise some in the current crop of recipients as having a sense of “misguided vanity”, shows just how duplicitous the political discourse tends to be. Thus, the current furore over the awarding of ‘senior counsel’ status to certain individuals—some of whom, admittedly, have probably forgotten what the inside of a court-room looks like—has only made manifest the dubious practices of political back-scratching and self-aggrandisement that have long taken place within the corridors of power in this country. Rumour has it that shortly before Marie-Antoinette and her husband King Louis XVI lost their heads to the guillotine, she was alerted by one of the courtiers that the people were on the brink of starvation; with barely enough bread to eat. Marie-Antoinette is alleged to have replied: “Let them eat cake!” We should be under no illusions, that whatever their professed affiliations, most of those in the higher echelons of Trinbagonian society regard the rest of us with similar disdain.