Hubris goes before the fall

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 12, 2024

It was November 2016; the PNM had just won an election, and it was riding high. At a conference hosted by the Government and the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Colm Imbert explained why he had raised the price of fuel. He boasted: "I increased the price of fuel by 15% and then realised that was not enough. I came back again in April and raised it by another 15% and I came back again just a few weeks ago and raised it by another 15%. They haven’t rioted yet." (Loop News, November 9, 2016.)

A day or so later, Imbert backtracked from his insult. Speaking on a Motion to Confirm the Provisional Collection of Taxes Order, he said: "Having looked at the tape of the comments that I made and the manner in which I made them, I realise that this would have upset a lot of people and therefore I take the opportunity to unreservedly apologise to all affected." (Express, November. 8, 2016.) The Express reporter called it "a rare act of contrition".

Last week, "A crowd of angry survivors of Spain floods tossed mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials when they made their first visit to one of the hardest hit towns yesterday. Government officials accompanied the monarch who tried to talk to locals while others shouted at him in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated...

"Police had to step in with officers on horseback to keep back the crowd of several dozens.

"‘Get out! Get out!’ and ‘Killers!’ rang out among other insults. Bodyguards opened umbrellas to protect the royals and officials as protesters launched their way." (Guardian, October 4.)

The message was clear: "Down with the King."

Related events are taking place in Africa where the parties that led the fight for independence away from Europe have been feeling the wrath of its people. In May 2024 the African National Congress, the national liberation group that led South Africa to independence, lost the parliamentary majority it held since 1994. It received 40% of the vote. As a result of this development it formed a coalition government with the white-led Democratic Alliance (DA) which received 21.63%.

John Steenhuisen, the leader of the DA, declared: "The DA will no longer only be an opposition party at a national level; instead, the DA now becomes the second biggest party inside a multi-party national government" (VOA News, June 14, 2024.)

In 2015, Trinbagonians voted into government a party it thought respected the rights of individual citizens. The first thing it did was to disrespect its citizens. The inverse of Imbert’s statement that I quoted above could have read: "If you had any belly (he could have used another word that began with ‘b’), you would have rioted from the first time that I raised your fuel prices." He got away with that.

Eight years later, he insulted the Auditor General, an office created by the Constitution. Anyone who followed the livestream of the case ("Dhoray v The AG") via the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, saw the contempt with which the lords held Douglas Mendes, SC, who represented the Government.

Lady Simler, a member of the court, asked Mendes, who represented the Minister of Finance and the Government, the following question: "If the investigation is benign why isn’t the other party [the Minister of Finance] being investigated?" The Express put it this way: "Why is the conduct of Finance Minister Colm Imbert not also being investigated over a $2.5 billion understatement in this country’s 2023 public financial records?" The Auditor General didn’t even have to present her case. She had no case to defend.

Mendes, in his opening submission to the Privy Court, stressed that he needed to land a "knockout blow" against the decision of the T&T Court of Appeal. The last words of Lord Hodge, the presiding judge of the Privy Council, were: "You said you needed to land a knockout blow. That has not been done. The order of the Court of Appeal stands."

Here were five white people, sitting down in London, as the final court of appeal for black and brown people in T&T, overextending themselves to be polite to a Government which shows little concern for its black and brown citizens or its officers. The court refused to grant the knockout blow against one of the constitutional officers of our Government.

One distinguished member of the Bar said to me: "It’s a bad day for the Government; a shameful day for its citizens."

I reminded him: "Pride goes before the fall."

This case and Imbert’s 2016 outburst suggest that hubris, rather than pride, might be one of the causes why this Government may collapse eventually.

—Prof Cudjoe's e-mail address is scudjoe@wellesley.edu. He can be reached @ProfessorCudjoe.

Share your views here...

The Slave Master of Trinidad by Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe