‘Fool me twice, shame on me’

If it’s one thing I admire about Mr Manning, it is he helps his people. Just look at CEPEP. I would never forget the public fight displayed by Ramesh and Panday. Speculation has it that it was a personal matter. Whatever it was, these two men brought this country to its knees. Imagine a fight between two people caused an entire Government to fall, causing the impotent PNM to plunder the treasury.

Now, just like a soap opera on cable, two of them have come together again hoping against hope. Ramesh is talking about Panday being the only person to lead the UNC. A quote made famous by Mr Spock of Star Trek comes to mind. Mr Spock once told Captain Kirk referring to a second bogus distress call from some enemy warship: “fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me.” Up till now, these two goodly gentlemen never explained to the people the cause of the breakup, not that it would matter. Suppose they form the next Government, what assurances do we have it will never happen again? Ramesh and Kamla are now calling for Bas to come out of retirement to lead. Didn’t Ramesh have a party once? Kamla, are you not able to lead the party again? Panday coming back to the party is analagous to Muhammad Ali trying for a fourth title against Holmes. Ali couldn’t go the distance, couldn’t even throw a punch. But he was a great fighter once.

Steve Austin

Marabella