PNM continues to be a law unto itself

It is equally disheartening to accept the Government’s implicit position that a few of us are “first among equals” and are effectively exempt from the rule of law.

The Government clearly seems to hold members of its party, its financiers and ministers as being “more important” than the rest of us in regard to the potential impact of violent crime.

We often pay only token attention to the violence that pervades our society until it touches us personally — like reports of “death threats” against Faris Al-Rawi.

The Government uses every opportunity in Parliament to denigrate in the most vicious way, using the vilest language and with utter disregard for truth, members of the Opposition.

Each time a PNM minister speaks in the Parliament, that presentation is always prefaced by “reminders” to the population that the last government did this or that. The constant repetition of a litany of untruths and excuses is becoming nauseating.

Despite the repeated and scandalous allegations, no one has been successfully prosecuted. In fact, if anything, it has been that those who have been doing the accusing have been the ones so far proven wrong and have been asked to pay those whom they have slandered.

I have said it before and will continue to insist that a government that is thoroughly corrupt can never succeed in government.

The PNM has a history of indiscretions outside the law: Patrick Solomon walking into a police station and demanding his son be released; Patrick Manning walking into a police station to “inquire” after his driver — a man with prior convictions; and lately allegations that the teenage children of the Attorney General are being trained by this country’s military in the use of sophisticated weaponry.

No local law allows for this military-civilian-executive interaction.

No law allows minors to hold or use a firearm, much less to be trained in their use — threat or no threat. What utter rubbish.

And this was reportedly done in November 2015.

How could a sitting government convince itself or anyone else that it will rid the country of graft and corruption and reduce lawlessness when those in charge are themselves undisciplined? The PNM continues to be a law unto itself. It applies one set of rules to itself and another to ordinary citizens.

STEVE SMITH via email