Trin | Surviving life in Trinidad and Tobago

Mama Doc and Browne made Commanders in Chief of political army

‘Cabinet shift ludicrous’
Peter Balroop | 8:16 pm
Published: March 10th, 2009

Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar has labelled Prime Minister Patrick Manning's minor Cabinet shift as “ludicrous” because, she says, it has not adequately addressed several pressing national issues. She said the assigning of the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry portfolio to Minister in the Ministry of Finance Minister Senator Mariano Browne, as well as Cepep to Local Government Minister Hazel Manning, gave no hope to a “besieged and battered” nation.

Persad-Bissessar made the comment at a news conference at the Opposition’s office on Charles Street in Port-of-Spain yesterday. She said there were many more relevant issues to be addressed in the areas of crime, health care, infrastructure, corruption and massive jobs cuts. She said Manning had unleashed the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” on T&T.

The Trinidad Guardian

Manning on Motion of No Confidence - "Tell them leave me alone"

"Referring to the Opposition in a fighting mood (The Prime Minister didn't care to give any truthful contribution to the debate, instead choosing to assemble an army in the Square, deflect any questions aimed at his performance by instead referring to the UNC administration from almost 7 years ago and generally carrying on like a circus clown while perform his war speech) in Woodford Square in Port-of-Spain yesterday afternoon, Prime Minister Patrick Manning told hundreds of his supporters, “Tell them leave me alone.”

Answering the accusation of nepotism  on the basis of appointing his wife to the Cabinet, the Prime Minister pointed to the presence on the opposition side of the House of three Pandays. Incredibly, and unbecomingly, he failed to note that, unlike Mrs Hazel Manning, all three Pandays had individually contested and won election to Parliament."  - The Trinidad Guardian - September 13th, 2008.

Patrick Manning appointed his wife Hazel as Minister of Education after the 2001 election (and during the debate justified this by tallying up the last names of the opposition members, all of whom were fairly elected in a democratic manner). Nepotism in politics occurs when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications.

When Manning says "Tell them leave me alone" is he implying that we ordinary citizens have no right whatsoever to dare ask him for some accountability? Is our government turning into a dictatorship? Wait a minute, is he (or his army of supporters).... threatening us? 

 The people of Trinidad and Tobago desperately want some answers, Mr. Prime Minister, answers to a few questions about corruption in your administration, to "charges of failure to perform, maladministration, lack of transparency and questionable dealings" and maybe some information on how you plan to fix our country's inflation, crime and education problems. We are not a nation of idiots and we would like some truthful and intelligent answers.

We were aware that the motion of no confidence was not guaranteed to remove the Prime Minister because of the obvious reason that his ruling PNM party has 26 of the 41 seats in the House of Representatives (won with 299,813 votes) while the UNC-A only has 15 seats (won with 194,425 votes, while the COP won not a single seat but received 148,041 votes).