Disarray in opposition

Schizophrenic

The opposition is in a state of complete disarray. We could start with the stinging defeats they suffered at the hands of the Attorney General. For a group that’s jam-packed with lawyers, you’d think they’d do better in legal matters. But this is exactly the area that’s been their Waterloo – with the court’s ruling they were wrong to chop the budget, to stifle constitutional offices, and now to ‘gag’ Rohee. You have to worry about their legal bona-fides.
But their problem lies deeper and their gross legal ineptitude is only a symptom of a more fundamental crisis.
The opposition is suffering from schizophrenia – otherwise known as ‘split personality’ disorder. While all of us know them as ‘the Opposition’, they believe that they are actually the ‘Executive’! They want to have “power” so badly that they’ve gone over the edge to actually believe they can run the entire show.
Take last year’s budget fiasco. The budget is the responsibility of the executive, no? So the only reason the opposition could assume they could determine the details of that budget, is if they thought they were the executive. And being sane, the courts inevitably had to slap them down.
But it’s not just a case of having a bunch of men going over the edge because they’ve spent their entire lives fighting to be President – Granger, Greenidge, Trotman, Ramjattan, Nagamootoo, Roopnaraine, etc.
It also has to do with the fact that wanting to be President so badly, their reason has been warped by their one-seat majority in the National Assembly. They just refuse to accept that our affairs are run under the rules of the Constitution.
And the Constitution says that the PPP are the executive and they are the opposition. Each has their own powers.
They are so hung up about what they consider to be ‘the powers’ of the executive – they refuse to utilise the powers that are available to them as an opposition controlling the assembly. How many times have we not pointed out the leeway that the four sectoral committees have to scrutinise the entire gamut of governmental activities? But that’s not what the opposition want – to ensure the people get the best bang for their bucks: they want to strut around and call themselves ‘minister’ of this or that.
They want the authority – but they refuse to accept the responsibility of office. And this is why it is scary to conceive of what will happen if these schizophrenics ever actually get into office. The inmates will be running the institution.

“F” grade
Grainger is more than a bit miffed that David Hinds has given APNU an “F” grade. He shouldn’t worry too much.
Unlike what Hinds has been evidently telling some news blog sites, he’s not any “professor of political science” at Arizona State University. According to the university’s website, he’s just “an assistant professor of African and African-American Studies with a concentration on the Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies”. An ‘assistant professor’ is one who hasn’t gotten tenure – and is quite low on the academic totem pole.
But as far as ‘grading’, the university website also allows students to grade their teachers. Granger might be interested in the following comments of some students: “intolerable just because this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. His book – ridiculous, guy should join the cricket team that he talks about in every chapter. During his final exam he asks to state 3 reasons of globalization from a chapter in the book…. THE CHAPTER WAS ALL ABOUT WHY THE COACHES OF CRICKET ARENT GOOD!!” Another student: “Good luck trying to get a response from this guy, he is a deadbeat.”

Duck’s back
We’re not sure why the Speaker says he’ll be seeking legal advice on the court’s decision to remove the ‘gag’ on Rohee. Last time, he treated the advice like water on ducks’ backs.