I have not been following the Flag at the National Stadium issue very closely; however, I know enough to know that from henceforth Minister Hunt will be known as the $2M flag man. I also know that his political enemies see this as manna from heaven and will do anything to position this as a symbol of the ruling party’s squander mania.
Letters to the editor have started to list what could have been done instead with $2M. People are doing research on the internet on what the pole should have cost. Someone has asked if Fire One’s forte is engineering fireworks or engineering works.
I would like to add my voice to the discussions from the point of view of what could Mr Hunt have done differently when this ‘crisis’ broke. The first thing I would say is that he and all Ministers must acknowledge that they are first and foremost accountable to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
So they should be prepared that information on their actions will reach the public arena by whatever means. If Mr Hunt knew that people would find out what the flag at the stadium cost; would he have still put it up? And if the answer is yes, did he have a clear rationale for his decision?
Make sure you have a crisis plan
Recently, in the USA, there was a scandal involving South Carolina Governor Sanford, who had an extra-marital affair with an Argentinean woman. Referring to his staff, Angie Andresen of Story Teller Media, a crisis management advisor, said: “They didn’t appear to have a plan and they didn’t appear to tell us the truth.”
She said the Sanford staff missed these two key components: there was no plan when the Governor went missing, and then there was the lie that he was out hiking. “In the absence of truth, people will come up with their own stories,” said Andresen, “And they’ll dig and they’ll find out other things, and what they can come up with can often times be worse than what the truth is.”
Be Prepared
At that first post-cabinet press briefing Minister Hunt needed to come with all his artillery and even if he did not have it there, he should have dealt with it the next day. He needed to say the flag cost $2 million. He needed to say the buck stops with him. He needed to say why his Ministry chose a bidder with a price tag double that of another. Instead he let people come up with their own stories.
People can deal with the truth. Even if it’s not pretty.
