Gordon Robinson | Truth or polytricks?

Political leaders embrace a mindset akin to Jack Nicholson’s in 1992’s A Few Good Men so believe that we can’t handle truth.

Often when caught in misdirection, deflection, obfuscation, or prevarication, it’s not because they intend to lie. Their anxiety to retain political popularity and their fear that truth, no matter how consistent with national interest, might endanger that ultimate objective leads them to prefer economising with an already rare commodity.

The basis for their fear is knowledge that over decades, they have provided a static system of education non-responsive to evolving social and economic needs. In their blinkered brains, this means that we can’t grasp policymaking nuances so could misunderstand all the way to the next election and vote them out.

As usual, nothing in this world is as it appears. As Lieutenant Colombo learned, and so perfectly used to his advantage, fear of exposure leads to an overanxiety to cover up that eventually converts fear to reality. But polytricksters are inoculated against logic, contemptuous of common sense, and programmed to avoid complete truth at all costs.

For example, in 2020, when an obvious case for a State of Public Emergency (SOE) to combat a once-per-century global pandemic presented itself, polytricksters had a problem. The Government had already misapplied constitutional SOE provisions by using them as regular crime-fighting tools.

It seemed the Government feared that imposition of a justifiable SOE would expose the panic-stricken, knee-jerk, unconstitutional status of crime-fighting SOEs. So instead, it proceeded to fight a REAL emergency with pandering, pampering, and platitudes until Jamaica’s already shambolic public-health infrastructure entered a downward spiral that threatens us all and could end in a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

hedge taX

Then there’s the controversial petrol “hedge tax” that is a huge contributor to that essential commodity’s rising cost affecting every citizen. That reminds me to again beg media practitioners to stop using the noun “impact” as a verb and a substitute for “affect”. Any dentist can tell you “impacted” (an adjective) means blocked development.

Back to petrol! The hedge tax has been unnecessary for years as we haven’t attempted any “hedging”. But Government refuses to abolish it. Seems senseless until somebody in government decides to tell the truth, which is that the Consolidated Fund has been so adversely affected (NOT “impacted”) by pre-pandemic fiscal strictures and then ravaged by COVID that if the hedge tax is abolished, Government wouldn’t be able to pay its bills. It’s. That. Simple!

Government could have admitted that the tax has nothing to do with “hedging” (none of the specialty taxes, including “education” tax, has anything to do with any specialty), and that governments, over time, converted a taxi system (for persons able to afford commercial transportation) into a bus system (taxis now as crowded as buses but individual fares lowered) to cover up their choice to abort their obligation to provide affordable public transport. Instead, finding itself caught between a taxi operators’ rock and Consolidated Fund hard place, transport ministry offers, without consultation, a take-it-or-leave-it 15 per cent increase to taxi operators after nine years. Yet again, polytricks over truth makes polytricksters’ fears real. Commuters can’t absorb any increase. EVERYBODY vex wid Government.

Melodians led by the great Brent Dowe:

Everywhere you go it’s the same thing all around

No one will tell you anything that is straight.

Their hands on their heads

Not a penny in their pockets

Nothing they do

Can change this life of living,

Because everybody bawling;

Bawling for love.

Everybody asking;

Asking for love.

THE AL DRAMA

Finally, the crème de la crème: Rev Al is shockingly awarded a national honour despite his rap sheet including two convictions. He appealed neither and has shown zero remorse. Al was convicted of perverting the course of justice by helping confessed drug don, gun trafficker, and racketeer Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke elude police (in a high-speed chase with Al driving the getaway car) AND was found by a judge to have been “less than candid” with his account of what happened.

After his extradition, New York prosecutors said Dudus “moved drugs and guns between Jamaica and USA with impunity” and was guilty of hundreds of murders. They said, in one notorious case, Coke killed a man who stole from him with a chainsaw. Maybe he inspired the character ‘Junior’ in HBO’s excellent series Jett.

Why do polytricksters order us to call Rev Al ‘Honourable’? They say services to Jamaica. Why not just tell the likely truth that this is the Government’s way of telling Al “Sorry for the unholy mess we put you in”.

Peace and Love!

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com