Category Archives: PNM

General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

The Rottweiler’s Revenge

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 19, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOne wonders if Penny Beckles, her happy band of warriors, and Marvin Gonzales, her re-engineered rottweiler, understand the essence of democracy and the implications of an anticipated redistribution of our country’s population numbers in 2030. They promise to wage a gallant battle on behalf of the CEPEP workers, but all I see is “hate, bitterness, acrimony, animosity,…[people] out of control …[and] acting as raging bulls”. (Express, October 21, 2009).
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Permanent poverty

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By Raffique Shah
July 12, 2025

Raffique ShahAfter researching the Internet extracting information that would lead me to a possible exit from the suffering that poverty imposes on people, I concluded that the way out of poverty is to ignore those who are stricken by its malafides.

Poverty spares not one country. Even the wealthy countries have vagrants. Some of the brightest minds, backed by generous funding for university and other research agencies, have attempted to peer behind the tattered curtains that shroud poverty. Their conclusions and possible solutions are jokes. When calypsonian the Mighty Shadow (Winston Bailey) belted out his thought-provoking theories in song, he achieved nothing. Not the money earned from the sale of the song, mark you.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Crocodile tears

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 05, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe tears flowed copiously. A United National Congress Government had broken its key promise, “When UNC wins everybody wins”; some people, it seems, have lost. In the seven weeks of its administration the Government suspended CEPEP contractors, and by extension 10,000 workers who made $120 a day or $28,000 working 48 weeks a year.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Vaulting ambition & PNM’s reincarnation

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 24, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe cracks in the PNM’s hegemony became more prominent after its defeat in the last general election. Power and cowardice hid these fissures for a long time. All one sees within the PNM now is “vaulting ambition, which o’er-leaps itself/ And falls on th’ other”. (Macbeth) This reckless ambition will lead the party into an abyss.

After the PNM’s political disaster, the former Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow accused Dr Amery Browne of ingratitude after Browne suggested they could “rig the game but can’t fake authenticity”. Robert Le Hunte says of the Leader’s imposition of Stuart Young on the party: “It wasn’t just cynical. It was obscene. It was perverse.” (Express, May 10.)
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Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Why I will vote UNC

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 12, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBy 1959, party politics had taken hold on the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Michael Kangalee (he now calls himself Krishna, his middle name), my schoolmate at Tacarigua EC, supported the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that was led by Bhadase Sagan Maraj. I supported PNM, which was led by Eric Williams. Neither of us could vote but we followed our parents and villagers’ preference in expressing our party allegiances. Undoubtedly, our political position was shaped in part by our racial (not racist) affiliation. Years later, I went to the United States, and Krishna went on to live in Canada via England.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

PNM leaps ahead

By Raffique Shah
March 22, 2025

Raffique ShahWhen the history of politics in Trinidad and Tobago is written, those who are shaping our future and those who are making our history will be alarmed at how easily an epoch was erased, how a new era almost slid past the hands of historians, with hardly a note written about it. Not even the men and women who were reshaping our history were aware of this momentous change, focused as they were on winning an election.
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Elections, General T&T, PNM

A new-faced PNM?

By Raffique Shah
March 15, 2025

Raffique ShahI imagine by the time readers get through today’s column, the People’s National Movement (PNM) will have completed its processes and revealed its full slate of candidates minus Dr Keith Rowley, who, as far as I can translate what is happening, will not be prime minister but will remain political leader of the party.

Yeah, I know: I’ve just burdened you with a long-winded sentence; bear in mind that the narrative reflects what is actually happening on the ground. So, if people are confused by what is happening, hopefully they will not be confused by my writing.
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Elections, General T&T, Oil and Gas, PNM

PNM’s obtuse rationalisations

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 08, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBlissfully, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow will soon relieve us of our miseries. Unfortunately, he leaves his clones behind who know not what they say or do. Chief among them are Faris Al-Rawi, a former attorney general, and Stuart Young, our first unelected prime minister.

Al-Rawi complimented the Leader recently for “his policy initiatives and actions, which he said were critical in stabilising the oil and gas sector in Trinidad and Tobago. He also complimented Young for his measured approach to the imminent change in leadership”. (Express, February 27.) I am not sure what that last sentence means.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Absolute foolishness

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 01, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe“Absolute foolishness.” Those were the words the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow used when he described “the heavy foreign exchange spending on Carnival costumes…He insists that costumes are not investments” (Guardian, February 26). Such statements are “absolute nonsense” and “absolute foolishness” combined in one.
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