Category Archives: PNM

General T&T, Parliament, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, UNC

Grounds Invalidating The Current Property Tax Legislation

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By Stephen Kangal
April 25, 2017

Stephen KangalTaking into account that the former late PM Manning’s 2009 Cabinet had a clear unwavering philosophy and intention that both Acts No 17 and 18 relating to the Property Tax, hurriedly passed without due consultations and proclaimed by 31st December 2009 would be strictly and rigidly implemented at the beginning of 2010, their non-implementation and associated factors have indeed now rendered the tax regime invalid, null and void and in need of re-submission to Parliament for the requisite amendments to be effected to remove the time-lines rigidities.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC, USA

The Great Betrayal – Part 2

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 18, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeDr. Rudranath Capildeo, Dr. Eric Williams’s underground companion, tried to console him when he heard about the massive giveaway of the Chaguaramas lands. Dr. Williams informed him it was his party, the United National Congress under the leadership of Kamla Persad-Bissessar that started giving away the land.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

The Great Betrayal – Part 1

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 10, 2017

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 – PART 4

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI don’t know where Keith Rowley, Colm Imbert, Stuart Young, Rohan Sinanan, Kazin Hosein, Faris Al-Rawi, Camile Regis-Robinson, Franklin Khan and Fitzgerald Hines were on April 22, 1960, but I was in Woodford Square when Dr. Eric Williams, in the presence of thousands of Trinbagonians, burned “the seven deadly sins of colonialism.” As he dropped each document (including the constitutions of Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies, the 1941 UK-US Chaguaramas Agreement, and a Democratic Labor Party statement on race) into an open fire near to the bandstand, he declared: “I consign it to the flames…to hell with it.”
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Views from a Breeze Maxi

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 05, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn Monday I attended the funeral services of Rochelle St. Louise, the granddaughter of Ulric “Buggie” Hayes, a districker, as the people of Tacarigua call themselves. The ceremony was held at the Arouca R.C. Church. At about 11:15 am I left the service, traveling in a Breeze Maxi from Arouca to Port of Spain. I am in the front seat of the maxi. I ask the driver the obvious question, “How yo’ tink de government going, man?”
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Property Tax, THA, Tobago

Curbing The Tobagonian Apetite for Governance

By Stephen Kangal
April 05, 2017

Stephen KangalWhen the The Honourable Attorney General Faris Al Rawi tabled for approval by the House the Report of the EBC/Presidential Draft Order to legalise the package of measures for the holding of the THA Elections in January 2017 citizens saw that a 48,000 THA electorate albeit many absentees were gifted with 12 seats of assemblymen. This formula was deemed a successful and equitable model for Local Government by the PNM in Tobago with 3600 to 4500 electors per seat.
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General T&T, Integrity Commission, Parliament, PNM, UNC

Oh, what a country!

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By Raffique Shah
April 01, 2017

Raffique ShahPermit me to quote from a column I wrote in June last year. It is the first time I’m taking this liberty, but I feel compelled to so do, and I think readers will understand why as I proceed.

I wrote then, “When constitutionally-independent institutions in the country seem to be collapsing…and when the law proves to be the proverbial ass, then, Trinidad and Tobago, we have a problem…a very serious problem.
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General T&T, International, PNM, Politics, USA

Will Lobbyists Now Replace TT Diplomats in the USA?

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By Stephen Kangal
March 02, 2017

Stephen KangalThe Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley in his usual unrehearsed statement made in the House on Friday 23 February during the debate of the final FATCA sitting raises a number of policy decisions the chief amongst which is whether his Government proposes to liquidate and close our foreign missions accredited to Washington and replace them with highly paid lobbyists to tell the real truths as he put it.
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General T&T, Law, Opposition Party, PNM, Politics, UNC

Guarding Our Laws

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 26, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 2011, shortly after the People’s Partnership was installed as a government, the GOPIO asked me to give a lecture on multiculturalism. I emphasized that Trinidad and Tobago will never reach its full potential unless all of us—black, white, Indian and African, protestant and Hindu—accepted our past as our national patrimony. Therefore, I was pleased when, Kamla Persad Bissessar, in her response to Faris Al-Rawi’s attempt to do away with the three-fifths requirement for the passage of certain legislation, recognized that our Independence constitution “was evolutionary and was the result of hard fought negotiations at Marlborough House by our forefathers.”
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Crime in T&T, Domestic Violence, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Violence

Beware of our Talents

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By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 12, 2017

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast Monday, Dr. Keith Rowley embarked upon a tour to converse with his constituents. Symbolically, he began his conversation in the constituency of his most tone-deaf, most unavailable minister.

Any astute observer of the political scene could have told him that crime, public safety and citizens’ distrust of their government are prime concerns. They would have told him that men’s cruelty to women has little to do with the choices they make in picking their spouses or the clothes they wear.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Murder, Parliament, PNM, UNC, Violence

Speaker: Astronomical Murders are a Routine Matter of State

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By Stephen Kangal
February 04, 2017

Stephen KangalAfter two presiding officers of the The Parliament had twice previously turned down Opposition -introduced adjournment motions classifying the current crime pandemic holding all T&T to ransom and under siege as a definite and urgent matter (DMUPI) that has evoked widespread and enormous public concern and exponentially increasing outcry, it was devastating and politically incorrect to hear The Honourable Speaker of the House, Mrs Brigid Annisette-George once again, on Friday , without convincing but artificial rhyme or reason, deny an urgent motion on the current murder rate moved by the MP for Pointe-a-Pierre, Dr. David Lee.
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