Can the Opposition Abuse Government Privilege?

As the nation celebrated the news that Dr. Keith Rowley is now at home recovering from a series of successful heart procedures, it is disappointing that so many would attempt to politicize an emergency illness that the Prime Minister would have no control in managing. Truth be told, while I might often share the view that government officials do a disservice to the state of the public healthcare when they opt to visit private institutions for their routine procedures, with the state of the current health system in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, it should be considered thoughtful for the Prime Minister to not put extra burden on those facilities who are dealing with the quarantine of so many infected with the virus. In any case, I do wish Dr. Rowley both a speedy and full recovery from his ailments for the sake of his family and the country at large. Because whatever his political allegiances may be, Keith Rowley is still a human being and a son of the soil, and he deserves the same level of respect and empathy as any one of us.

Now I have no way of knowing whether the thought had entered his mind at the time, but I suspect that he might have considered how fortunate he might have been to have spent the Christmas with his family, including his daughter who flew into the country for just the occasion, should something have gone awry on the operating table. None of us know when the fated moment may arrive, when we draw our last breath, and as such, these moments that we spend with our families become even more precious as we begin to suspect that the moment is drawing ever closer. One only needs to imagine a scenario wherein Dr. Rowley might have passed away over this weekend without having seen his daughter in months due to the current lockdown to understand the tragedy for both individuals and those around them. 

That being said, I do also recognize that there are many other citizens of this country who might have found themselves in a similar situation without the salvo of holding a high ranking government office with the power to expedite certain documentation. For their sake, I hope that Dr. Rowley might have also come to this epiphany and might now hold a greater regard for the plight of these individuals and the struggles they have been made to bear for so many months. Of course, chief among those persons who have been clamouring for the reopening of the borders are members of the United National Congress, who claim to be acting in the best interest of their electors and other supporters who may have found themselves stranded outside of our shores. This is not only strange, but also hypocritical, when you consider that one of their MP's was able to immigrate his daughter to our shores months before Keith Rowley thought to do so, and not a single UNC politician raised any objections, or even commented on the matter since. 

In March 2020, on the night prior to the closure of the borders as part of the COVID-19 lockdown procedures, Barry Padarath left Trinidad and Tobago in order to provide care and comfort for his young daughter who, at the time, resided in her home country of the United States of America. Now I want to be clear that I am in no way imparting negative connotations to the actions of Mr. Padarath in this matter, as a first time father, I am sure that his actions were driven by a strong paternal instinct that is in fact quite admirable. HOWEVER, it is peculiar that while Mr. Padarath had initially dismissed suggestions that he should have instead made arrangements for his daughter to travel to T&T instead, having cited the state of healthcare in the US compared to T&T as one of his misgivings; he had no hesitation in abandoning that line of reasoning and returning to T&T, with his daughter in tow, the instant that the election bell had been rung. As such, in July 2020, both Barry and young Sejal Padarath were given clearance by the government to enter our borders, which is even more noteworthy if you recall that his daughter is an American citizen. 

While the leadership of the UNC had no objection or criticism for such a thing to take place at that time, there was no shortage of words to be spared in criticizing Dr. Rowley for doing the same some five months later. And I bring this up because over the past week they once again singled out PNM officials who were granted permission to leave and enter our borders without mentioning that one of their Members of Parliament engaged in the same activity. It was a disgrace to hear Shamfa Cudjoe explain that Dr. Rai Ragbir was on the same flight as the one that she was being criticized and berated for boarding, and the fact that anyone from the UNC has yet to address it means that they were either unaware or undeterred by their insincerity. In either case, it is clear that the UNC officials share some, if not the same amount of privilege that they condemn their PNM counterparts for exploiting, while pretending all the while that they are just as downtrodden as those they claim to represent. 

Best regards,

Ravi Balgobin Maharaj

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