Friday, March 29, 2024

BLP COLUMN: CLICO to haunt DLP forever

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There are increasing signs that despite the deliberate, desperate and deceptive manipulations of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and its “friends and pals”, not only has the “shelf life” of the outrageous scandal that is CLICO not “expired”, but it has even begun to “speak from the political grave” to the severe discomfort of a Government that should be feeling ashamed, had it still got even the slightest sense of embarrassment and guilt within it.
For it is now clear that the Dems have all along been prepared to ignore the legitimate, heart-rending and livelihood-ruining concerns of the thousands upon thousands of people suffering at the hands of both CLICO and BAICO (British American Insurance Company). And for the sake of naked political expediency they have been brutally abandoning the sacred responsibility of making the public’s interests their concern number one, two and three.
As it has consistently been in the case of CLICO, so too has it been with the stealthy move to amend the law that governs the appointment of the Chief Justice. A stubborn determination to rely upon the size of its numbers in Parliament to enforce the tyranny of the majority, callously rejecting the fundamental principles involved. Now we have the DLP’s former loud proclamation of “Families First” being replaced by the repeated practice of “Friends First”.
 But when consideration is given to the vast number of individuals, households and families whose future stability has been devastated by the mismanagement of DLP “friends” at CLICO, together with this Government’s refusal and failure to take timely and proactive steps to lessen if not relieve them from their financial and emotional misery and distress like the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana have done.
Only then can it be fully understood and appreciated how deeply the display of insensitivity by the Dems has wounded and offended the public at large, including thousands who are not themselves investors or policyholders, but who humanely sympathize with the victims and their dependents.
 It is felt that the DLP has been hoping that its CLICO mess would by now have fallen away, if not disappeared completely, due to the so-called “short memory” of the public, and that the party would thereby get away with its “don’t-carish” attitude. On the contrary, it has now been shown that far from CLICO dying a natural death in keeping with the DLP’s wishes, those directly affected have felt their trust in the Government so badly and depressingly betrayed that they have had to take responsibility into their own hands by calling a group meeting of CLICO and BAICO policyholders on Wednesday night at the St Gabriel’s School.
These citizens are to be commended for their initiative, and our Government forever condemned for its inaction. For while the Dems could find the time, human, financial and other resources to provide for 30 Constituency Councils, the DLP did not think it important enough to mount a single town hall meeting to inform and advise the public, despite assuring them of the soundness of CLICO and backing it up with $10 million of taxpayers’ money.
Never before has such a large and wide-ranging public been so viciously neglected by a cliquish Government to protect its own above all else.

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