A bison's roar

Believe me, it's even harder than this sometimes!

Writing a blog can be a hard task, even for someone to whom words come fairly easily. Topics of interest don't always come by when needed and it is hard, if your wish is to have meaningful posts of good length and adequate substance. Then, sometimes, people like Dr. Roodal Moonilal, the UNC MP for Oropouche East, come along and make my job very easy indeed.

Dr. Roodal Moonilal - MP Oropouche East

In my last blog post, I spoke about the language use (and abuse) by Moonilal's political leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. If it can be considered a compliment by comparison, at least I would consider her utterances as scalpel-like in delivery. However, our goodly Dr Moonilal aka #BabyBison (due to his portly dimensions) is always a man known to swing a cutlass where a razor blade would suffice.

During the contribution of Attorney General and MP for San Fernando West Faris Al-Rawi during the Budget debate, #BabyBison was engaged in some annoying crosstalk, which the microphones were picking up quite clearly. Very loudly came the following outburst from Moonilal, "Hush your stink mouth!"

Always a paragon of virtue and class, this Moonilal.

The remark caught Al-Rawi's attention and without missing a beat he immediately responded with shock and open disapproval of Moonilal's behaviour. The situation was severe enough to cause the Speaker of The House Bridgid Annisette-George to rise to her feet to issue an open reprimand to all MPs who were engaging in cross talk on both sides. I have a video link of the exchange that you can take in for yourselves. To Al-Rawi's credit, he never lost his poise during the incident and continued with his contribution. The outburst can be heard three seconds into the clip.

Faris Al-Rawi looks in Moonilal's direction immediately after the comment.

Later in the day, in an apology as rich in contrition as the Caribbean Sea is rich in penguins, Moonilal said he was sorry for the comments he may have made during cross-talk in the House. Note he wasn't sorry that his comments may have been offensive (which they were) to viewers, listeners and/or his intended target (which may not have been Al-Rawi); he seemed to suggest that there could be some doubt as to the comments existence as well. And, cheekily too, he seemed to also imply that comments made in cross talk could be as rude and disgusting as possible, since the person uttering same was not making an official contribution at the time. Wow!

That apology requires its own apology!

Again, this goes to show the mindset of some people for whom, you'd think, because of their education and status in society, should be exemplars in thought, word and deed. Instead, we get these classless displays that again show that the people's business - the stuff they were elected to carry out on our behalf - becomes secondary as pettiness and immaturity reign. Some might think I'm expecting way too much from persons whose track records in this area are overwhelmingly negative but that will not deter me in demanding better from them. And you should too!

Between the lines

I'm pretty sure that "Grace under Fire" is one of her least favourite shows, based on its title alone.

I am a firm believer that the language a person uses can tell a whole lot about the person using it. This is very true of our parliamentarians, particularly Kamla Persad-Bissessar, former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader. And I’m not just speaking about her faux-Oxonian accent that does not set right with the plethora of green verbs and dropped syllables (“Mister” of Finance, People’s “Parship” “Guvmunt”). Those are hilarious enough by themselves and speak to one facet of her character.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in this regard.

However, I want to deal with another issue. During her concession speech after the PP's electoral defeat was confirmed, her omission of any congratulations to Dr. Keith Rowley was so glaring that even the UNC's Apologist-Prime, Ralph Maraj, was visibly shocked that she had, without obvious effort, contrived to limbo under the minimum protocols of courtesy and decency. With that there was an implied petty-mindedness that was plain to everyone who heard it.

The Pied Piper of R&B has made you out!

Her maiden speech as Opposition Leader, as part of the Budget Debate, further reaffirms to me that the electorate was justified in ensuring she was unsuccessful in gaining a second term as Prime Minister. The proliferation of “gyas”, “cyabinet”, “knee-poe-tism”, “cyampaign” and “cyampus” from “Kyamla” had me alternating between laughter and shaking my head in shame and disgust. But, more importantly, in her response to the budget presentation, she stated that there were supposed to be some cash inflows at the end of September that "would" have brought in revenues that would help alleviate the national deficit.

Speed Demon's deviantart rendition of KPB.

All well and good, I think. But I must draw attention to her distinct choice of words and their implications. Anyone listening to her speak during her involvement on politics over the last 20 years would realise that she barely 'misspeaks'; she firmly believes in the spirit and meaning of what she says despite how awful it actually sounds to the listener. "Would" implies some sort of conditionality as to the collection of such revenues. Had she said "should", it would then leave the impression that these revenues were due to the government regardless of whom the ruling party was when the payments became due.

ScottyPedia does this very often.

As it stands, the ‪#‎SippaRiaSwaggBoss (as a friend of mine has so aptly dubbed her) left us with the impression that there are people/businesses out there owing us - citizens of T&T - billions of dollars but would only have willingly repaid it if the PP had retained office. That is very frightening in itself. But there is a further twist in this that belies the unabashed classlessness with which the PP members drape themselves like a second skin.

Looks like some of them have taken this to higher heights. Or, more accurately, lower lows and deeper depths

She also implied that the new Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, had somehow been negligent in not collecting and/or accounting for said revenues at the end of September. The smugness of her statements was akin to someone with inside, undisclosed information dropping a live grenade of knowledge in an unsuspecting and otherwise unaware victim’s lap, then gleefully awaiting the havoc and chaos that the explosion causes. If that assessment is accurate, then what kind of handover did Imbert receive from the outgoing Finance Minister Larry Howai? Did any kind of true handover take place? Considering that the portfolio at stake is not the private accounts of some corner parlour but those of a nation, were all the pertinent disclosures made in this handover?

Let me drop this on Colm and watch him squirm in discomfort! Hahahahaha! Who cares about taxpayers' money?

For Kamla to treat the repayment of public funds like it was something that only they alone were privileged to know about or could possibly bring to fruition (had many more of us chosen to vote for them, of course) reeks of arrogance, immaturity and selfishness. For so-called servants of the people, Kamla and her cronies continue to do us a public disservice by their petty, self-serving words and actions.