By Stephen Kangal
November 25, 2016
Both Public Service Reform as well as Local Government Reform has been the political football of PNM governments past and present with nothing of substance to show during years of issuing all colours of Paper and holding consultations galore the last being the year-long political façade conducted by former Local Government Minister Franklin Khan.
Continue reading PNM Has No Credibility on LG Reform
By Raffique Shah
November 23, 2016
The campaign for next Monday’s local government elections has degenerated into a dogfight that is dominated by fluff, innuendoes, outright lies and a teaspoon of violence which the main combatants, PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley and UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, hope will generate a large voter turnout and salvage their respective political careers.
Continue reading The corbeaux are circling
By Stephen Kangal
November 16, 2016
When beleaguered and now politically isolated Finance Minister, Colm Imbert introduces on Friday a Gaming/Betting Control Bill 2016 in the House designed to regulate and bring under strict legislative jurisdiction a mushrooming and widespread but illegal Gaming Industry he must abandon his penchant for flaunting his boyish political immaturity. He must give due credit to former PM, Kamla-Persad-Bissessar for all the hard work invested on the comprehensive and insightful law- creating process that commenced with the 2013 Budget Statement of intent announcing the new regime. These are the firm building blocks of the new gambling and betting shops regime.
Continue reading Imbert Must Credit Kamla for the Gaming Bill
By Raffique Shah
November 08, 2016
Today is a big day in American politics. In fact, the battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the presidency of the most powerful nation on earth has excited probably half the world’s population, who will have monitored the bruising election campaign and who will follow the count tonight until a winner is declared.
Continue reading No interest in US elections
By Raffique Shah
October 19, 2016
Trinidadians, as they would themselves say, “like too much confusion”.
The latest bacchanal began when Opposition MP Roodal Moonilal displayed and tendered in Parliament two photographs that purportedly show the teenage children of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi “gallerying” (Moonilal’s word) with what appears to be a short-barrel rifle or a sub-machine gun.
Continue reading Baying for Al-Rawi’s blood
By Renuka Singh
Oxctober 14, 2016 – trinidadexpress.com
Acting Police Commissioner Harold Phillip has ordered an investigation into how the children of Attorney General Faris al-Rawi came to be holding high-powered military weapons.
Continue reading Police probe ordered on AG’s children gun issue
By Sean Douglas
October 12, 2016 – newsday.co.tt
AMIDST Opposition claims that photos exist of persons resembling children of top Government officials holding firearms resembling those commonly used by the Defence Force, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi could not ascertain if those featured in these photos are his children, but admitted members of his family have undergone “threat assessment” training at Cumuto Army Base as part of security protocols for families of State officials deemed to be at high risk.
Continue reading AG: Leave My Family Alone
By Raffique Shah
October 04, 2016
The unseemly public spat between President Anthony Carmona and Prime Minister Keith Rowley, if it gets any nastier, could bring both offices and office-holders into further disrepute, and add to the list of public offices, officials and institutions in which citizens have lost or are losing confidence.
We can take it as fact that based on the structural political divide in the country, at least half the adult population believes that Dr Rowley is wrong, that he is lying. We should not be ashamed to admit that most people judge politicians not on facts or evidence adduced, but on partisan politics, whatever the issue or whoever happens to be under scrutiny.
Continue reading Powers he does not have
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 03, 2016
This year’s US presidential election is perhaps the strangest of them all. In 1964, I witnessed my first US election when Barry Goldwater of Arizona challenged President Lyndon Johnson in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. As a Southerner, he realized the difficult tasks that faced the nation. His challenge was to insure that black citizens enjoyed the same rights as white citizens which he achieved when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color or religion. In 1965, he signed the Voting Rights Act that removed the legal barriers that prevented blacks from voting.
Continue reading Extremisms in the Defense of Liberty
TAXMAN COMETH
IN rolling out a series of money-making measures in the 2016/2017 National Budget, both the rich and poor were touched by yesterday’s Budget presentation.
Continue reading Budget Presentation for Fiscal Year 2017 – Friday September 30, 2016