Latest update January 14th, 2025 3:35 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Trotman’s bar: Dichotomizing the human character?

Oct 18, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

 

One of the most obdurate tasks in moral philosophy is to analyse the human character to arrive at an objective value system. It is possible to argue that it cannot be done.
Those not concerned with intellectual pursuits would say that you can conclude if a person is bad, good, or indifferent by looking at that person’s character.
Those persons who say this, of course, are not bound by scholarly standards. They have no use for academic methodologies.
A common approach is to judge a boss as a good man because he treated the company well. Those who love him do not care that he was one of the worst exploiters of women through the use of resources.
Now why should society accept John Jones as a good man because he ran a productive company but ignore his support for State abuse of power?
I had a little admonishment for my friend, attorney Gino Persaud. Gino had published an analysis of the inauguration speech of President Ramotar and mentioned how successful Minister Manickchand was.
Can you judge any Minister of the Jagdeo Government to be a successful performer without contextualizing? Should we forget the context that Minister operated in?
I told Gino that when Manickchand was Minister of Social Services there were controversies of the exact number of persons receiving old age with the accusation (as documented by Christopher Ram) that the list may not be the right one.
It was Manickchand who had to give the stamp of approval for Kwame Mc Coy to sit on the Rights of the Child Commission. Surely, in arriving at the judgement of success should you ignore a holistic picture?
It appears that Speaker, Raphael Trotman has done just that. Talking to reporters on the achievements of the Tenth Parliament so far (in which Trotman egregiously confuse inconsequentialities with essence and substance), the Speaker praised Ms. Gail Teixeira for raising the standards of parliamentary behaviour. He said as Chief Whip (for her party), she set the bar. Which bar? Cadbury’s chocolate or Palmolive soap?
Here is where context comes in. Was Teixeira honest in setting the bar as Chief Whip? In doing so was she being opportunistic. Was there an ulterior motive? Or is it that Teixeira is seriously interested in uplifting the standards of Parliament? The answer is no. Only Trotman will disagree.
Ms. Teixeira is regarded among political analysts as one of Guyana’s leading Marxist hard-liners.
She has been in the Cabinet since 1992, held some of the most senior positions in the Ministerial stream and for the past two years has been governance advisor in the Office of the President.
If as Trotman believes, that Teixieira is one of those PPP leaders who believe in standards then where are the standards set by her party and government the past twenty years?
This question one hopes the media will put to Trotman. What Trotman has attempted to do is to dichotomize the human character and he has failed miserably.
If Teixeira has set the bar as Chief Whip then her failure to set the bar in other crucial areas of life calls into question, how since is she in setting high standards for her country?
And what about the appallingly low standards at UG where Teixeira is the Government’s “Chief Whip” in the Council of the University?
Can someone tell our competent Speaker of the National Assembly about Ms. Teixeira’s bar at UG? I sat less than ten feet from Ms. Teixeira in July 2011 in one of the statutory meetings of the UG Council when Ms. Teixeira shamelessly told the Chancellor she has a list of names that she wants to see removed from their lecturer position.
There was no bar in Teixeira’s hand only a big stick. UG without even a tenth of its quota of lecturers had to endure even more falling standards because Teixeira got her way. Trotman would call this raising the bar.
One wonders what Trotman’s party will call him if he continues to praise the PPP Government. Trotman of course is facing the end of his career in opposition politics so one can expect more saccharine endorsements of the main PPP actors.
This of course is going to disturb the collective psyche of APNU.
After all it was APNU that chose Trotman as the Speaker contrary to popular belief that it was his party the AFC that negotiated the job for him. At the rate Trotman is going, APNU may want to rein him in.
Then we will have a constitutional crisis on our hands because we may see Trotman’s PPP friends coming to his rescue.

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 10th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Pakistan targets West Indies’ vulnerability with spin-heavy squad for Test series

Pakistan targets West Indies’ vulnerability with spin-heavy squad...

Jan 14, 2025

SportsMax – Pakistan has unveiled a spin-dominant squad for the upcoming two-match home Test series against West Indies, aiming to exploit the visitors’ well-documented struggles against spin...
Read More
West Indies U-19 Women defeat Nepal by nine runs in first ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup Warm-up match

West Indies U-19 Women defeat Nepal by nine runs...

Jan 14, 2025

Sir Clive Lloyd to Lead Operations at proposed Cricket Academy

Sir Clive Lloyd to Lead Operations at proposed...

Jan 14, 2025

Savory, Anderson batting form a good sign for Harpy Eagles, following first practice match 

Savory, Anderson batting form a good sign for...

Jan 14, 2025

GFF/Racing Madrid partnership brings new head coach and two technical experts to Junior Jaguars U17 team

GFF/Racing Madrid partnership brings new head...

Jan 14, 2025

Chatargum, Persaud headline Senior National Indoor Barebow Archery Championships 

Chatargum, Persaud headline Senior National...

Jan 14, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]