…in Parliament
Your Eyewitness thought it was not only the height of foolishness for the PNC Opposition to bring in the National Assembly motions to censure (NOT “motions of no confidence!) against the Ministers of Home Affairs and Health. What’s their point? With the PNC a minority in Parliament can they get the Ministers voted out? It’s all a gimmick to criticize the two ministers on their portfolios just to get sound bites for the evening news and social media. The regular press should have more sense than waste time sending reporters to cover such frivolities!
But some may say there’s nothing wrong with the Opposition criticizing the government. In fact it’s their duty! But that makes a mockery of the changes made to our Constitution – at the cost of a helluva lot of beatings, looting, burnings against the PPP and their (perceived) supporters. These constitutional changes were instituted to bring “inclusive governance” into our country so the PNC/Opposition wouldn’t just criticize but scrutinize policy in real time.
Remember those FOUR Parliamentary Sectoral Committees formed after 2000? They covered the ENTIRE gamut of governmental activities and were chaired on a rotating basis by the Opposition and the government. So let’s say – as the PNC has SAID – that the Ministers of Health and Home Affairs have failed at their jobs. Rather than just posturing, skin teething and pampesetting, in the National Assembly – with nothing substantively achieved – the PNC committees could’ve held hearings on specific issues being claimed on such as Covid 19 or crime. They could summon Ministers and other officials and have information produced that could actually lead to policy changes!
But this…as should be obvious…takes work – which unfortunately, the PNC avoids with the same frenzied palpitations like vampires to light!! The PNC MPs would have to do their research and home work on the issues and show up for meetings that could run into weeks. And that’s why they’d rather lay pointless, otiose and fatuous motions in the National Assembly that only cost the taxpayers more than $8million just for the food that’s served at every sitting!!
What can the PPP do about this waste of time and money by the PNC? Well, it seems they’ve decided to use the reductio ad absurdum (reduction to absurdity) ploy – to show the PNC how ridiculous such motions are. They’re laying a motion for removing the Leader of the Opposition (LOO)!! They know it’s the Opposition MPs who chose their leader – just as it’s the govt that retains or dismisses its Ministers! So in the local parlance, their move seems to be “If you want to play “schupit” then yuh gon get schupit!!
Or “do fuh do na obeah”!!
…in crime?
Well…in this interconnected world, change inside our dear Mudland is increasingly being engendered from outside. We saw the moves by the govt to finally remove custodial sentencing for possession of small quantities of ganja. Then there’s the relaxation of societal and legal strictures against same sex relationships and cross dressing. The provenance for both is external.
And this week we were introduced by one official from the UN system to a new approach to “law and order” and the criminal justice system. The “expert” advised, “A strictly security-focused approach to crime prevention is costly, ineffective and paves the way for human rights violations.”
Now this is just another formulation of the old argument about fighting the SOURCES of crime rather than the SYMPTOMS of crime.
Has the Human Rights focus worked anywhere? Well Cuba moved in this direction and their murder rate is 1/4 of ours, 1/6 of TT and 1/9 of Jamaica!!
Can we get the that Social Services Committee to examine the mechanics?
…but Haiti?
What exactly have the ordinary folks of Haiti – who’re the overwhelming majority of its 11 million citizens – done to be subjected to such horrors for over 200 years?
When will the arc of justice bend towards them?
