Category Archives: Politics

General T&T, PNM, Politics

Unravelling of a nationalist party

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 19, 2022

PART II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen the People’s National Movement started its mission in 1956, its primary responsibility was to uplift all members of the society, particularly the underclass, and to ensure that each party member was treated fairly. It also held out the promise that each member could rise to the highest levels of the party.

Although the founding members understood that genuine democracy implies one-man-one-vote, they also recognised that equity (the quality of being fair and impartial) should be the base of the party’s mission rather than the ubiquitous notion of formal equality. They believed that the promulgation of formal freedoms is an empty gesture if the necessary political structures were not in place to achieve them.
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General T&T, Politics, THA, Tobago

Duke of democracy or demagoguery?

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By Raffique Shah
December 19, 2022

Raffique ShahI shall not be at all surprised if elementary Watson, the Duke of Roxborough, Tobago, fulfils his ambition to become the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago by 2025, or maybe before the due year for the next general election, should he use unconventional means to pursue power.

Duke, who has made no secret of his medium-term objective, has established offices of his Progressive Democratic Patriots party in Trinidad, even as he moves to force yet another election for the Tobago House of Assembly, which he expects will result in him being proclaimed King of Tobago.
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Africa, General T&T, Politics, South Africa

Unravelling of a nationalist party

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 12, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe advent of nationalist parties in developing countries in the late 19th and 20th centuries demonstrated the desires of the struggling masses that yearned to control their own affairs and to develop their nations. In this context, the goals of the People’s National Movement (the word “national” is important) were no different from those of the Indian National Congress in India, the African National Congress in South Africa, and the People’s National Party in Jamaica. These parties were all steeled by the impetus to empower the struggling masses and to democratise a system ruled by colonial powers.
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Flooding, General T&T, Politics

A Flood of ‘Dotish’ Talk

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By Raffique Shah
December 05, 2022

Raffique ShahIf you know the Caroni River basin fairly well, and you are familiar with the Caroni River, if you have seen it overflow its banks after, say, two days of torrential rainfall, you will have seen floods spread rapidly, inundating everything along its banks for miles. Ever since I came of age and a rode a bicycle, and later acquired a motor vehicle, I have had many encounters with the flood waters of the Caroni, starting with cycling through Madras Road when the water was maybe eighteen inches high, which was challenging, but nevertheless something of a thrill for us boys, to driving through Kelly, St Helena and Piarco villages, having to skilfully use one foot on the vehicle’s accelerator to keep the exhaust functioning, and another on the brake pedal to control its speed.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

A sacrificial lamb

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 28, 2022

“Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead…”

—William Blake, “The Lamb”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago I spoke about the incivility in our political culture and the need to refrain from making savage attacks against one another. Many people responded favourably to my article. Richard de Lima, writing from Ontario, Canada, observed: “I have been reading your columns in the Express several years, which though always informative, sometimes stimulating, and often entertaining, have not prompted me to write you before. On this occasion, I feel obliged to extend my compliments to you on the penetrating remarks made about the conduct of PNM ministers and other senior party officials in regard to challengers for various positions in the forthcoming party elections.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

No place to hide

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2022

“There’s no hidin’ place up there,
Oh, I went to the hills to hide my face,
The hills cried out, ‘No hidin’ place;
There’s no hidin’ place up here.”

—An Afro-American spiritual

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThings have been warming up (or deteriorating) lately in the political arena among those who see others as pothounds; those who consider themselves as thoroughbreds; and those who accuse challengers of the established order as possessing sinister motives.

Stuart Young, Minister of Energy, demeaned PNM members who offered themselves for leadership positions in the party’s forthcoming elections. He claimed that since 2015, some of them have done nothing but criti­cise the party leaders “like little pothounds barking at our ankles as though they are the opposition and now they want to put themselves forward and call themselves firstly PNM members and then secondly want to be PNM leaders”.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Politics

Poor and foolish always around

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By Raffique Shah
October 31, 2022

Raffique ShahNothing I wrote last week in my “Pensioner’s plight” column must be misconstrued as suggesting that chief justices, other judges, prime ministers and other Cabinet ministers—in other words, holders of the highest public offices in the country—do not deserve the levels of compensation, allowances and retirement benefits they currently receive.

Clearly, those who hold such offices must have met certain standards in their respective disciplines, maybe even excelled at them. Judges, for example, must win the confidence of their peers and litigants or the accused in criminal matters over which they preside. And while there are no minimal standards that politicians must meet to qualify to run for office, ultimately they are answerable to the public, to electors, if they are to win elections and form governments.
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COVID-19, General T&T, Health, Politics

Pensioner’s Plight

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By Raffique Shah
October 24, 2022

Raffique ShahOne significantly large and growing demographic of the population that is feeling the brunt of the multiple negatives that are impacting the economy and every day consumers, is the aged and the infirm. They are dying like proverbial flies, often ‘parked aside’ and ignored, or worse, left to suffer sub-human conditions, large numbers of them choosing to make their exit as quietly and quickly as they can, not wanting to subject their surviving families and friends to lingering social fallout.
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General T&T, Politics

Out of the cane fields of Tacarigua

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 17, 2022

PART III

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOn May 8, 1982, I delivered a lecture, “The Village Council as an Organ of Popular Democracy”, at the Tacarigua Village Council on the eve of its 350-year anniversary, the village having entered its name into the island’s vocabulary in 1634 when it was identified as one of the four encomiendas at the foothills of the Northern Range.

Most of the Amerindians in the village came from around Lake Tacarigua in Venezuela, which explains the origin of the village name. Years earlier, I had visited Lake Tacarigua in search of origins even though I spoke little Spanish.
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