During my down time, some random PNM fan on the rant demanded to know why I hadn’t aimed my arrows at MP Vernella of hyphenated surname for her off-coloured comments in the Parliament about someone assumed to be the Opposition Leader.
“I’m not in the business of defending sexists,” I countered.
No doubt Vernella’s slimy attack was carefully orchestrated, cleverly so because the woman pulling the bow has a track record for eccentricity and hails from Tobago, the latter meant to give credibility to the story. And in the case of public outcry, everyone would dismiss it as a Vernella.
But when you think about it, you can’t be half outraged as many non Indo Trini men conveniently were. This was tit for cat. Keith Rowley hit at the PḾs private parts and he got clouted back. Extreme what Vernella said, but how is one attack on one woman worse than the other? When you descend into the gutter, you get covered in muck. And Rowley did. He is the one who brought the fire and brimstone down on his kin.
Why must I defend Rowley anyway when he has the ever faithful Colm Imbert to shield him? I don’t support people who will not sit and take licks in the very Parliament whose privilege they have used to accuse and abuse. You know, for someone who regularly speaks of testicular fortitude, Rowley is forever on the run. But then again bravery comes from the heart and soul and is not to be found in the trousers, as a man who speaks of cats and nipples would assume. In five years, the PM has stood up like a woman. I guess cats and nipples beat out testes every time.
And poor Imbert has to read a prepared text that is way below his intellect.
“Come and say it outside Parliament,” he dares.
His boss spends five years using parliamentary privilege to attack, attack, attack, often baselessly, but the PNM wants to deprive its fellow representatives of the same right.
Rowley deserved to be booted out. This is justice. This is karma. Here we have an Opposition Leader who should exercise judgment and restraint running into the legislature with a scrap of paper, sullying everyone’s name, levelling accusations of a massive conspiracy which like the man so desperate for power that he is, he also took to the house of the Integrity Commission chairman, in the process compromising the integrity of the commission. Imagine if he were the DPP. Everyman would be charged without cause. Imagine if he is PM. Run for cover.
Rowley says the PP Government is using these motions to prevent the PNM from getting into power. So he expects to be handed the post just so? He has to fight for it. That́s politics. He has been campaigning for five years to remove the PP. He wanted them gone on May 25, 2010. So they must not battle to keep him out?
These emails, patently and proven false, became a means of keeping section 34 (for which he voted) on the front burner.
Take a look at a statement Rowley made back in June 2013.
“Somebody who had access to where those e-mails were, in one form or the other, that person put them all together on two pages. I received that…it was a compilation of these conversations.”
How does he know that? Did the clandestine sender say so?
He further stated: “I received no e-mail transmitted from one machine to my machine. I received two pages prepared by somebody.” You know what the key word in that sentence is? “Prepared.”
These emails were a concoction as Google has shown. And the Opposition Leader will not admit he was wrong. That’s why he has to scamper from the House.
My media colleagues may not like to hear this, but we have been reckless and unfair. The TT press loves a label and has been judge and jury for the past few years, tritely tagging accusations so these become scandals without a scintilla of proof. Email gate, prison gate. No gate, but PNM gate.
And disappointing really when you think of journalists of the calibre of Woodward and Bernstein and their months and months of painstaking and exhaustive investigations to break the Watergate story. We need to watch or read “All the President’s Men.” That is investigative journalism. Watergate became Watergate after the fact/s, not before. The press here hears a rumour and it becomes a gate.
The bottom line is that the Opposition Leader will not face the music but he loves to wine. And if he is unaccountable now, just wait. People say Kamla Persad-Bissessar is this country’s worst PM. They’ve seen nothing yet. Rowley will be dictatorial and arrogant. I am putting that on the record on this Mother’s Day. Mark my word and remember what I have said. I know he will.
Call it steups gate
Suzanne Mills
During my down time, some random PNM fan on the rant demanded to know why I hadn’t aimed my arrows at MP Vernella of hyphenated surname for her off-coloured comments in the Parliament about someone assumed to be the Opposition Leader.
“I’m not in the business of defending sexists,” I countered.
No doubt Vernella’s slimy attack was carefully orchestrated, cleverly so because the woman pulling the bow has a track record for eccentricity and hails from Tobago, the latter meant to give credibility to the story. And in the case of public outcry, everyone would dismiss it as a Vernella.
But when you think about it, you can’t be half outraged as many non Indo Trini men conveniently were. This was tit for cat. Keith Rowley hit at the PḾs private parts and he got clouted back. Extreme what Vernella said, but how is one attack on one woman worse than the other? When you descend into the gutter, you get covered in muck. And Rowley did. He is the one who brought the fire and brimstone down on his kin.
Why must I defend Rowley anyway when he has the ever faithful Colm Imbert to shield him? I don’t support people who will not sit and take licks in the very Parliament whose privilege they have used to accuse and abuse. You know, for someone who regularly speaks of testicular fortitude, Rowley is forever on the run. But then again bravery comes from the heart and soul and is not to be found in the trousers, as a man who speaks of cats and nipples would assume. In five years, the PM has stood up like a woman. I guess cats and nipples beat out testes every time.
And poor Imbert has to read a prepared text that is way below his intellect.
“Come and say it outside Parliament,” he dares.
His boss spends five years using parliamentary privilege to attack, attack, attack, often baselessly, but the PNM wants to deprive its fellow representatives of the same right.
Rowley deserved to be booted out. This is justice. This is karma. Here we have an Opposition Leader who should exercise judgment and restraint running into the legislature with a scrap of paper, sullying everyone’s name, levelling accusations of a massive conspiracy which like the man so desperate for power that he is, he also took to the house of the Integrity Commission chairman, in the process compromising the integrity of the commission. Imagine if he were the DPP. Everyman would be charged without cause. Imagine if he is PM. Run for cover.
Rowley says the PP Government is using these motions to prevent the PNM from getting into power. So he expects to be handed the post just so? He has to fight for it. That́s politics. He has been campaigning for five years to remove the PP. He wanted them gone on May 25, 2010. So they must not battle to keep him out?
These emails, patently and proven false, became a means of keeping section 34 (for which he voted) on the front burner.
Take a look at a statement Rowley made back in June 2013.
“Somebody who had access to where those e-mails were, in one form or the other, that person put them all together on two pages. I received that…it was a compilation of these conversations.”
How does he know that? Did the clandestine sender say so?
He further stated: “I received no e-mail transmitted from one machine to my machine. I received two pages prepared by somebody.” You know what the key word in that sentence is? “Prepared.”
These emails were a concoction as Google has shown. And the Opposition Leader will not admit he was wrong. That’s why he has to scamper from the House.
My media colleagues may not like to hear this, but we have been reckless and unfair. The TT press loves a label and has been judge and jury for the past few years, tritely tagging accusations so these become scandals without a scintilla of proof. Email gate, prison gate. No gate, but PNM gate.
And disappointing really when you think of journalists of the calibre of Woodward and Bernstein and their months and months of painstaking and exhaustive investigations to break the Watergate story. We need to watch or read “All the President’s Men.” That is investigative journalism. Watergate became Watergate after the fact/s, not before. The press here hears a rumour and it becomes a gate.
The bottom line is that the Opposition Leader will not face the music but he loves to wine. And if he is unaccountable now, just wait. People say Kamla Persad-Bissessar is this country’s worst PM. They’ve seen nothing yet. Rowley will be dictatorial and arrogant. I am putting that on the record on this Mother’s Day. Mark my word and remember what I have said. I know he will.
NEWSDAY
www.suzannemills.net
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