Noble: Political muck from all sides—is mad we mad, oui!

We are living in difficult times. We are witnessing the world, as we know it, turn topsy-turvy. But we want to be seduced into believing that there is a magic wand that will restore us to the glory days when oil and gas prices were high.

We want to be soothed by a promise put forth by the Donald Trump-led administration. Yet, we ignore the flashing signs in the verbiage of the Opposition.

We are approaching our next General Elections as though we are sleepwalking. No energy is being expended to convince the people who are in the middle. Both parties are turned inwardly to their natural base. Nothing of substance is debated. Woe is us!

What ought we to make of this lethargic approach? On the one hand, there are promises, but there is no sense of how they will be funded.

‘Pie in the sky’ economic thoughts are floated. Fool us once, fool us again? On the other side, the social media guys have awakened with multiple pictures but no definitive statement about how our lives will be better.

Wildly, we are asked to turn to a new chapter, but nobody has explained what is on the next page.

In this setting, David Rudder’s classic comes to mind:

A chant of a madman in this tale from a strange land/ It was a chant of a madman in this tale from a strange land/ Give me the chant of the madman.

We are really mad, oui!

Listen well to Rudder! First sung in 1996, the storyline still is valid.

Vote for we, and we will set you free!/ Anywhere you turn, somebody chanting to we/ Somebody promising jobs for all/ Some renting gun to make other people bawl/ But somebody promising more police car/ Somebody going to take the country far/ Somebody putting all the bandits away/

De same woman promising to go down again/ Somebody promising to run all the bread/ Somebody pushing a world-class head/ Somebody clean out the weed well fast/ But somebody letting the cocaine pass/

Somebody promise to abolish the tax/ Somebody promise to give we the facts/ Somebody promise to clean up the land/ But in this clean land, rat still killing man/

We bright little youths going to waste/ Somebody dinge the smile on dey face/ Somebody take One Love off the shelf/ Then the One Love boys start to sell out dey self/ Somebody going to end all this talk about race/ But they can’t tell me that with a straight, straight face/ Big, big men dying, the crime can’t solve.

At the risk of being repetitive, let me state that the future is rocky. Post the pandemic, we have seen the effect of rising prices each week in our supermarkets. The actions of the new US administration will not cause these prices to stabilise.

Inflation hits every household’s pocket, eroding trust in the governing administration. Remember the cost of eggs and gas was a foremost factor in the last US election? Have they come down with the new administration?

Anyone promising us to tame inflation is making fun of us. But it is a considerable hurdle for those less fortunate in our nation.

Our newspapers’ headlines are skewed to destructive negativity. In search of clicks, social media purveyors highlight every ill in society. This combination makes it difficult for any incumbent administration to survive at the polls. People are exasperated. Why should they come out to vote?

We have settled for small change since Basdeo Panday’s ‘exchange and not change’ cry. But how do we get radical change?

Probably the most significant step is campaign finance reform. As noted in an earlier column, the curtain is drawn tightly, and we do not see the puppet masters. Both parties in their yellow and red shirts play the game.

What should we make of the early signs in this election? We should ask who our Elon Musk is on both sides.

The first sign on the PNM side is the aborted ejection of Colm Imbert from a seat that he has nursed for an extended period. Who wanted him out when his constituency executive wanted him?

The potential contender arrived “stating that he understood that there would be a vacancy for the position of MP for Diego Martin North East for the upcoming election”.

Is it not odd that Rhoda Bharath got fired the first day that the new Finance Minister arrived?

Is it that Bharath was acting for Minister Imbert in his personal capacity but paid for by the Ministry? Or is it that there is a change of guards, as she hinted in her last Facebook Live?

The second sign is the meeting with the bankers to discuss our foreign exchange situation. This situation is a result of a policy decision by the Government.

What magic is Minister Vishnu Dhanpaul to create? Or is this a case of smoke and mirrors?

On the UNC side, mistaken commentaries question the longevity of the Political Leader.

What if a game is afoot to satisfy a commercial or legal objective? Remember the longstanding case of the Estate Management and Business Development Company Limited (EMBD)?

After the Privy Council dismissal of the appeal by the contractors and Dr Roodal Moonilal, there was a new development: an amended statement of claim. Unless the reader took time to examine, the reason would be missed.

The February 14 allegation is:

“The amended claim states that Moonilal instructed this EMBD official to deliver cheques payable to certain EMBD contractors to him for onward transmission to them. Additionally, it is claimed that Moonilal conveyed instructions for the payment of certain contractors on the eve of the 2015 general election.

“The amended case includes a schedule of individuals and entities that were purportedly associated with Moonilal or the UNC, either because they provided election campaign or other services to the UNC.

“It stated that between August and September 2015, a payment of $12.9 million was made to an individual through 19 payments from four EMBD contractors.

“The court document states that this person indicated he understood the payments were made by the relevant EMBD contractors for sums owed by the UNC for production services (including the creation of television advertisements) provided during its election campaign and that he did not know the basis upon which the payments were made.”

These allegations would need to be substantiated in court.

The point is that ‘big money’ on both sides is at play. How much of this money is used to determine the candidates selected?

It is almost as though we forget that there is a need to govern upon winning an election. To govern, the members of the House of Representatives have to navigate the shoals of legislating. How candidates are (or are being) selected makes a reasonable man wonder about this aspect.

As if this was not a sufficient mess, consider the jaw-dropping Editorial of the Trinidad Guardian on 28 March 2025:

“[…] THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is fully cognizant of the determining role he and his Tobago People’s Party can potentially play in the election if it were to win the two parliamentary seats on the island and if the electoral scores in Trinidad are very close, which he expects will place him in a position to decide which party will become the next Government.

“On this possibility, Augustine has made known his intention that to the ‘highest bidder’, much like in an auction sale, is where his hammer will fall.

“His former colleague, Watson Duke, has indicated he will only settle in exchange for his support, what he considers the four most important ministerial positions in the cabinet.”

Is this not madness?

Yet, the Guardian goes on:

“Thankfully, with the odd number of seats in the national Parliament, one party will have a majority in Trinidad; whether it will be a working majority is a different issue.”

We gone through!

We act like we are in a J’ouvert band. We throw paint (muck) at each other. We enjoy ourselves but fail to recognise that others are making the money.

Look at the debacle of Marcia Ayers-Caesar. Many lawyers will chime in on the case’s merits, but the reality is that the poor people in jail had to make noise to be heard. Total disrespect from her and the over-eager Chief Justice.

The stream of unfortunate events flows from the Chief Justice’s lack of due diligence. We may remember his beleaguered situation at that time. Now, the taxpayer pays.

We are witnessing the spectacle of MP Adrian Leonce, who unexpectedly failed to turn up at his screening for nomination in the upcoming General Elections, being rewarded with a promotion. The Express then breaks a story that appears connected to his business dealings in the UK.

Prime Minister Stuart Young assures the population that there is nothing to worry about. Just take his word. But the UNC should be careful in discussing this matter because several of their leaders are before the courts. Poor T&T.

The same problem applies to the UNC’s decision to file two complaints with the Integrity Commission, asking for probes of alleged misuse of public funds by the Point Lisas Industrial Development Company (Plipdeco) board in the purchase of People’s National Movement (PNM) Red Fete tickets and alleged “misuse of state resources, public sector employees, and taxpayer funds to support the PNM’s election campaign.”

The sum involved is $20,400.

But they forgot about their spending at the National Gas Company: “Corporate social responsibility spending, such as buying tickets for all-inclusive, fund-raising Carnival fetes, by the NGC amounted to just two cents in the dollar…as if to assuage public outrage over the wasteful spending of over $1 million on fete tickets.”

Like Mercutio in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, many voters may say, ‘a plague o’ both your houses’.

Or maybe I am the madman that Rudder was singing about.

This place is extraordinary. We, the people, got to wake up. Our elites must be held accountable. Don’t take chain-up!