Why we must get rid of lawyers, politicians

Dear Editor: What are the solutions to the problems facing this country? Prayer? A revamped police service? A limited state of emergency? The solution itself lies in the attitudes of the citizens of this country. Travellers to these shores will tell you of the freedom which we enjoy here. We are not The Sudan, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. We are the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The main problem I see here is a lack of accountability and the blame for this lies not in those elected or selected into political office but within ourselves. We have become a society where we feel that we are answerable to no man. It is analogous to us becoming a country of little gods.

The hapless Minister of National Security made a statement giving some statistics pertaining to crime in this country. My question to him however is if he can identify the problem areas within Trinidad and Tobago then why can’t he or won’t he do something about it? Who are these district commanders accountable to? What are they doing about it? Reading the riot act to people is useless unless someone is to be held accountable. In this day and age, it sickens me to think that the national attitude towards problem-solving is to bury our heads in the sand. The following are some of the solutions to our national problem with accountability, the first being geography. If I were the manager of a company and I were to fire an employee, there would be a slight chance that I would meet this same employee in a public place where I am liable to be insulted or assaulted. I therefore suggest that we annex some Venezuelan islands such as Margarita since we have the extra money with oil being at US$48.00 per barrel. We already seem to be wasting the money anyway.

They are already assumed to be killers of our defenceless fisher folk. I think that if we were to have a larger landmass then fired employees could be relocated there where they can plot their revenge against their former employers. They should, at the same time, remember why they were fired in the first place. I would then get rid of those constitutional lawyers who see it as their constitutional right to sue everyone. I get bypassed for a promotion at my job for reasons unknown to me. I get a lawyer. I fall asleep at the job while driving a 15-ton truck and kill people on the roadway. I get a lawyer. I was caught stealing from my employer and was fired for this reason. I get a lawyer. I would prefer to make this profession extinct altogether.

My other solution would be to simply get rid of political parties. Yes, as sung by The Mighty Sparrow, “both of them.” They both seem not to know what they are doing. You see if I get rid of the political parties then the problem of political patronage and the fear of political victimisation will disappear. Regardless of your academic qualifications in this country, political patronage still gets you the job here. We all know of the special contracts and jobs that are handed out to the party supporters after their political party comes into or returns to power. To guard against not being repaid, the wealthy often fund both parties just in case. You can consider it to be a form of portfolio divestment since your eggs are never in the two hands of one incompetent political party leader at a time.

Once the political parties are removed, I would and should have no fear to fire an incompetent employee without fear of reprisal by letter or phone call from a constituency office. The political parties would not have to spend money paid by me and the other members of the national community as taxes to support these people who know nothing about running the departments which they manage. You see intimidation works in both ways: I have to fear that the political parties remain in power so that I can continue to live high on the hog and the political parties must also cater to my every capricious whim and fancy since in my field and community, I am a person of influence. Thus I can goad the masses into voting like me so that we can all get in on what is in the treasury.

Recapping the solutions for the problems affecting accountability in this country, we get a larger country, we get rid of the lawyers and/or we get rid of the political parties. None of these are forthcoming so to lobby for this would be an exercise in futility. Tuesday August 31 2004, we celebrate our 42nd anniversary of independence but in reality, what are we really celebrating? To even go to the fireworks display is a risk now. We behave in his country like little children running all over the place with scissors. Our actions are often irresponsible for example the high incidence if HIV/AIDS and the failure of sensible judgment when engaging in sexual activity.

We are the law unto ourselves and as the NWRHA board, we are accountable to nobody in particular. We can do what we want. That is laudable but I guess that low literacy, an increase in teenage pregnancies, domestic violence and incest, an aging population, high migration, increasing levels of white and blue collar crime, a near-extinct middle class, rising costs of living and production and rising corruption are the fruits of our inherent lack of accountability. The question I now ask is who is accountable for all of this.

Gregory Cooper
Moruga