Min­is­ter of Works Jack Warn­er has bro­ken his si­lence about the FI­FA is­sue that has been caus­ing him a great deal of po­lit­i­cal dis­com­fort. In his in­ter­view he sug­gest­ed that cit­i­zens of T&T "have a pen­chant" for ru­mours and the likes. I agree with the min­is­ter, who, de­spite the bar­rage of at­tacks against him from his po­lit­i­cal op­po­nents and oth­ers with­in his own Gov­ern­ment, con­tin­ues to take care of the peo­ple's busi­ness in his con­stituen­cy and through­out T&T. Warn­er takes his job se­ri­ous­ly and re­minds me of for­mer US Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton whose job per­for­mance dur­ing the Mon­i­ca Lewin­sky scan­dal was a ster­ling demon­stra­tion of his abil­i­ty to deal with his de­trac­tors and at the same time take care of the na­tion's busi­ness. The cul­ture of ru­mour and slan­der that pre­vails in T&T pol­i­tics is of­ten fu­elled by the di­a­tribe of failed politi­cians and those who are on­ly con­cerned about their own po­lit­i­cal for­tunes.

Warn­er suc­cinct­ly re­it­er­at­ed that the facts will all be re­vealed in time. Whether or not he is guilty of any wrong­do­ing is a mat­ter for the FI­FA gov­ern­ing body to de­cide. In the in­ter­im it is my view that he be giv­en the ben­e­fit of the doubt by his col­leagues in Gov­ern­ment and the wider com­mu­ni­ty. De­spite the rhetoric of op­po­si­tion politi­cians, the court of pub­lic opin­ion ap­pears to have giv­en Warn­er a pass­ing grade for his job per­for­mance in the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship. In T&T we eas­i­ly for­get the many good things that many of our lead­ers have done for the coun­try and good ethics in­sist that we ho­n­our their work and hold up their hands so that they can con­tin­ue to serve all the peo­ple of the coun­try.

Sel­wyn Sama­roo

Ten­nessee, USA