Independent - October 4, 2000
By Raffique Shah
IF the platform exchange between Public Utilities Minister Ganga Singh and Education Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is going to be standard fare at public meetings in the run-up to the general election, then I fear politics has degenerated to an “X”-rated level that is unacceptable in any decent society. This, coming from someone who is no prude, should alert these (and other) politicians that while an election campaign is “open season”, we expect them to maintain certain standards below which vulgarity overtakes “picong”. Anyone who knows me well also knows not to engage me in a “cussout” or “talking dirty”. So it’s not that I am being hypocritical, that I do not accept some light banter or even the odd risque remark on a political platform.
But what I heard at St Augustine had me wondering whether the two ministers involved in the exchange had plied themselves with alcohol or some other mind-altering substance before their “sex play” on the stage. For those who did not hear Ganga and Kamla, let me try to precis the Jean-and-Dinah behaviour that was criticised by so many when a local play so titled ran into problems over the language used by the actresses. Boasting of his achievements as Public Utilities Minister, Ganga told the UNC faithful that he was the first minister with that portfolio who “dropped pipe all over the country”. To capitalise on the sexual connotation, he added that he “dropped pipe in Kamla’s constituency, plenty pipe”. He invited the audience to ask Kamla if he was not correct.
When she came to the microphone, Kamla took Ganga’s lewd suggestions several steps further. Yes, she said, Ganga did “drop pipe in Siparia”. But she couldn’t tell “the size of the pipe” although the “pressure of the water” was good. And to underscore the lewdness while attempting to preserve her character, she added that the “only pipe I know about is Dr Bissessar’s pipe”, referring to her husband. So now there was no question as to what kind of “pipe” was being discussed as a main item on the UNC platform.
Really, for a woman who is held in high esteem by supporters and non-supporters of the UNC, Kamla has disappointed, big time too. Critics of the UNC Government will not have been surprised at Ganga’s crudeness, that being the least of his sins since he came to office almost five years ago. Having been elevated from an obscure ex-NARite activist to Prime Minister Basdeo Panday’s “Inner Cabinet”, he has been responsible for negotiating controversial deals like the Innercob/InnCogen estate and the desalination plant. He has also become quite wealthy, thanks to his ministerial job and his wife’s high-level income at Point Lisas (as he himself explained sometime ago).
Money talks, as we all know, and with wealth comes the kind of mouth-muscle one may not have physically. So that pipsqueak Ganga, wearing state of the art stilts (gilded, no less) clearly feels he can defecate on anyone: we have seen this trait among ministers in previous PNM and NAR governments who believed that power was a lifetime legacy. Ganga is clearly of that mould, so for him, “dropping pipe” on anyone, even his Cabinet colleagues, cannot be ruled out. Obviously he wallows in wealth and power, so, logically, the masses will have to be contented with “pipe” from the platform or anywhere else.
But Kamla? Really, listening to this affable lady publicly pronouncing on the “size of pipe” Ganga “dropped”, to compound that with the “water pressure”, and end up confessing that she only knew about her husband’s “pipe”, was so nauseating. I couldn’t believe she would have jumped into the gutter with Ganga—except, of course, if she were looking for more “pipe”. If, following her graphic descriptions on the platform (which many students may have listened to via radio) some students were to question her on the dimensions of “pipe” they need in order to be successful, she would have to have to elaborate, to educate them, since she’s the “pipe” expert.
Jokes aside, I wonder what the normally vocal women’s groups will have to say about the minister’s conduct in St Augustine. When Iwer George put an Indian girl’s “bottom on de road” a few years ago, he was subjected to assaults from all quarters, none moreso than the Hindu Women’s Organisation, which called for the song to be banned. Cafra, another women’s NGO, has been harsh on calypsonians who have debased women in song, as has Prime Minister Panday, who was most offended when Sugar Aloes sang about his wife. Indeed, Carlos John was part of the NCC that banned Aloes from the Dimanche Gras show because of his “disrespect for women”.
Last week Wednesday, Carlos and Panday sat on the platform and applauded Ganga and Kamla. I suppose it’s okay for one from among them to assault people’s sensitivities with crude and rude behaviour. But should anything similar come from calypsonians (or journalists) it would be deemed a cardinal sin. That’s a clear case of the double standards that we have come to expect from politicians. And when the supporters of political parties endorse such crudeness, they, too, are guilty of “taking pipe” from Ganga or any other minister who dishes it out to them.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this column, I am no prude, so I am not offended by risque comments or jokes, depending on when and where they are made. I have heard comments in Parliament from several Speakers as well as members that could be deemed double entendre. Mostly, they were not in poor taste and people laughed at them. Too, when you are in private, there is nothing wrong with adults engaging in such “X-rated” talk. Such talk may be offensive to the very religious (although I’ve known some priests whose wit was...let’s say rated-R) and the very hypocritical.
A political platform, though, is not an adults-only theatre or a calypso tent or a comedy festival. Sure, it would be boring if the speakers can’t get their audiences to erupt in laughter from time to time. But there must be limits to what is acceptable language politics. The UNC in particular seems not to recognise these limits, what with the Prime Minister endorsing Dhanraj Singh’s “neck wine” at official functions and now the lewdness of Ganga and Kamla. I guess the next step will be for both ministers to “get down” on the stage and simulate how “Ganga drop pipe on Kamla”. That, accompanied by Gypsy singing Sparrow’s “Elaine, Harry and Mama” (I know he’s too much of a gentleman to debase himself) would be sure to draw huge crowds..and possibly the Moral Ethics Squad.
Please, let us not descend into the cesspit of vulgarity in order to capture a few votes. It’s disgusting behaviour from people who are meant to be exemplars in the society, especially in the case of the Education Minister, who our young, impressionable minds are influenced by in no small measure.
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Copyright © Raffique Shah
