August 25, 2000
By Kurt Garcia

Mr. Patrick Manning's recent statement that the confrontational behavior of the San Juan/Barataria constituents outside Balisier house was akin to mob rule if it was allowed to be successful or influence the selection process. This incident took place at the screening of Nafeesa Mohammed, where the protesters angrily confronted the party officials as to the wisdom of their decision.

The question to Mr. Manning and all those who think like him is, what else can ordinary citizens be left to do when they see actions of deceit and hypocrisy from politicians going on all around them? For example the loud calls some made for the changing of the Trinity Cross award prior to 1995. These constituents are the same people who supported the Mohammed clan for decades and accepted their leadership in the area without question.

They are now seeing some members of that said family without shame or remorse switching sides on the eve of a major general elections battle, for reasons best known to themselves, but which we all know is connected to the opposition status of their former party.

In the circumstances ordinary people should be suspicious of these politicians and their motives, as the actions of MP's Griffith, Lasse and their accomodators have shown. They have every right not to be blind followers of any politician, and to intervene as they see fit and let their voices be heard loud and clear, and should not be faulted or deterred from making an analysis and an intervention in the politics being played before their very eyes.

What Manning calls mob rule, others may call street smart, and for me personally I go with the instincts of the everyday people who think and act in their own interest, and not those of the politicans.

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