Nobody is going to expect Finance Minister Colm Imbert to suddenly change his operating style, not even after a decisive dressing down by the Prime Minister.
But it’s to be hoped that a career politician, a man with 25 years of experience in Parliament, would be sensible enough to realise not just when he’s out of his crease but has been comprehensively stumped.
“It really is a question of how he expresses himself,” Reginald Dumas, former head of the Public Service, told the Sunday Guardian.
Last week, speaking at the 2016 International Monetary Fund Caribbean forum at the Hyatt Regency, Mr Imbert made two statements that caused significant ripples of concern.
He announced that the Government’s offer for the next bargaining cycle for public servants would be 0-0-0, or no increases for the next three years and rather archly noted in a panel discussion that he had raised the price of fuel twice and citizens “haven’t rioted yet.”
Then, he noted with a chuckle, “So I might raise it again.”
Having managed to insult the patience of the nation at large with needed tax increases and to rile up the whole trade union community in one day, Mr Imbert has since steadfastly refused to apologise for speaking both out of turn and in absolutely the wrong place.
Imbert has identified himself as the point man for blunt talk in Government, speaking both for his ministry and his political party. His colourful performances in Parliament has tread a line between outrageous and deftly punishing.
This can be tremendously useful for a political party, particularly when the politician taking this position is demonstrably and consistently feisty and argumentative.
It can be invaluable when that politician, as is the case with Mr Imbert, puts in the work to ensure that his positions and statements are backed by facts, comprehensive documentation and articulate presentation.
But there is a time and a place for everything and Mr Imbert found himself staring at his carelessly tossed ball being smacked into the stands by Thursday, when his Prime Minister declared the statements to have been made “in a vacuum,” while representing a “speculative position, unfortunately made.”
Having been raked over the coals by his political leader, the Finance Minister clearly feels that he has paid the price for his mistake, but the Prime Minister’s pointed extraction of his Government and its policies from Mr Imbert’s statements does not constitute an apology to anyone.
Indeed, Dr Rowley’s description of Mr Imbert as an excellent doctor with poor bedside manners sums up the challenge that the Finance Minister must face.
Pincered between a challenged economy and an electorate accustomed to being pampered and subsidised, the challenge that the Cabinet faces generally and the Ministry of Finance faces in particular, is balancing a steady tightening of the fiscal belt and the continuous test that those contractions will place on the public.
The unions, who must understand the situation, are waiting for their apology, Mr Imbert, as are the citizens of T&T, who believe in this country and are willing to sacrifice for it, but take a dim view of your cheerful laughter at our willingness to do so.
