It was the newspaper photograph last week of the Prime Minister flanked by her National Security Minister Jack Warner, and her acting Attorney General, Ganga Singh, that immediately prompted me to search for my copy of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.

The PM was at the time announcing that she had been "advised" of the resignations of the two Canadians, Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs and his Deputy, Jack Ewatski, and, most significantly, making her appeal to the nation "to support" Warner's coming crime plan.

A Tale of Two Cities, published in 1859, was part of my childhood reading and I carry the chilling images from Dickens' depiction of both the "Reign of Terror" during the French Revolution, and the injustices that pervaded the England social fabric at that time.

Dickens wrote: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we all going direct the other way…"

Generations later, his graphic narratives have sharpened our understanding of the brutality the English aristocracy institutionally imposed on the poor and working class, and the true savagery of revolutionary France in the 1790s.

Last February, as the world commemorated the 200th anniversary of Dickens' birth, examinations of those words proved that they were strikingly prophetic.

"Words exchanged in the past are projected into the future, and given a fresh import once they are understood in a proper context," Prof Andrew Sanders, a former editor of The Dickensian wrote.

Last week, those opening words of A Tale of Two Cities seemed to have crossed centuries to summarise the political situation of a nation about to celebrate its 50th year of independence. I was struck at how Dickens appeared to be talking to us in the Trinbago of 2012, when he wrote of "wisdom" and "foolishness".

Our contradiction was the PM, a newly-elevated Senior Counsel, asking our nation to support her National Security Minister, whom the International Court of Arbitration for Sport revealed, inter alia (a) held a secret US-dollar bank account in which he co-mingled his personal funds with those of the Caribbean Football Union (b) was "an unreliable witness" (c) "appears to be prone to economy with the truth".

Previously, in the PM's obvious "wisdom", she allowed Warner the licence to publicly humiliate Police Commissioner Gibbs, with the threat that "who doh hear go feel".

Further, Mr Warner is likely to be summoned before the US investigator appointed by FIFA's Ethics Committee to investigate allegations surrounding the bids for World Cup 2018 and 2022 of which he was a part.

Yet in our on 50th independence anniversary Mr Warner is required to produce a national crime plan — and the PM asks the nation to support him.

The "foolishness" of the matter is further obvious. It appears that the Government gave no consideration to the possible reaction from the historically friendly Canadian government when it allowed Mr Warner to publicly humiliate Messrs Gibbs and Ewatski.

It should be remembered that Mr Warner, as vice president of FIFA, has already created kinks in our relations with both the US and British governments because of promises allegedly made to them in the same FIFA World Cup bidding matter.

Our relations with the US were complicated earlier this year when the US Ambassador expressed Washington's concerns over the selection of the Saudi Arabian company, Sabic, for the multi-million dollar methanol project over US interests.

The British government is also said to have expressed its dissatisfaction over cancellation of the multi-million dollar OPV contract with one of Britain's major ship-builders.

This Government's diplomatic "missteps" have not been limited to those. Sources pointed to the "diplomatic concerns" of the Brazilian, Venezuelan and Chinese governments over the cancellation of contracts with companies from those countries for the construction of the aluminum smelter. And, of course, there are the PM's two "mis-statements" which continue to offend our Caricom neighbours.

I also went in search of the phrase, "state banditry" — a term coined by Lenin, whose other line, "parasitic oligarchy" Basdeo Panday popularised — after I read of the Government's plans for a Constituency Development Fund in which $10 million will be allocated to each Member of Parliament.

I kept hoping that the Government would seek to distance itself from the daily allegations of nepotism, cronyism and corruption, rather than create another system in which there will be charges of "state banditry".

Please be reminded, Prime Minister, that Dickens also wrote: "Sow the same seed of rapacious licence and oppression ever again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind".

• Keith Subero, a former Express news editor, has since followed a career in communication

and management