I heard the testimony of Jamaal Shabazz at the Commission of Enquiry into the July 1990 attempted coup and was incensed at his remark that then Prime Minister ANR Robinson was to blame for the attempted insurrection. The fact is the NAR inherited a situation created by 30 years of PNM "squandermania," one much worse than they anticipated. It was a situation that caused the poor people of this nation to suffer as well as the rich and especially the middle class.
Robinson had his faults-he came across as autocratic and distant-and the NAR made mistakes.
But they were not helped by an entrenched PNM public service. As one former NAR minister said, people think ministers have all the power, but only on paper. The real power lies with the permanent secretaries and other public servants and the said minister found many of his instructions were either ignored or put to the bottom of the "to do" list. Robinson and the NAR became easy to hate as voters thought they would bring back the boom days. They were scapegoats for past wrongs. But their programmes helped put the country back on track, something their successors took credit for.
And I will forever remind public servants that the NAR created the National Investment Company to repay the public servants debt in full with a mixture of options including 10 per cent cash. But the opposition promised cash in full, the unions bought it, rejected the NIC and their members wound up getting a scaled down NIC offer-10 per cent of their debt, of which 10 per cent was cash, paid in "tranches." The people grumbled, butin the end they liked it so. So Shabazz, I humbly disagree with you that Robinson brought it on himself. You and your leaders brought it on us. Times were tough, but you made it worse.
Reid Moore
Woodbrook, PoS