Tag Archives: Kamla Persad-Bissessar

General T&T, Politics, UNC

No mess, this is madness

Leave a comment

By Raffique Shah
February 07, 2026

Raffique ShahThe first dire warning I issued on this threat to the stability of the nation was so far back that I hardly recall the date and circumstances on which I had spoken.

It was definitely before the 2025 general election. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had triggered the alarm system in my head which raised serious concerns of something close to a race war about to erupt. Sticking with her violent solutions to the runaway crime problem, not for the first time, she simulated a pistol being fired by her hand, with a mischievous look on her face; she squeezed the trigger a few times, shouting empty the clip.
Continue reading No mess, this is madness →

General T&T, International, USA, Venezuela

Aunty Kams, the bad-Jane

By Raffique Shah
September 06, 2025

Raffique ShahI have remained fascinated for 50 years and more by how the story (or stories) of my exploits, whenever I’ve had cause to recall details, might help people who were born long after the Mutiny at Teteron Barracks to understand what it looked like.

I had that experience again last week when I was putting together some notes; memoirs to prepare my manuscript for publication. People who listen to the story of how two 24-year-young lieutenants trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst joined with their soldiers, leading the latter as we seized control of the barracks.
Continue reading Aunty Kams, the bad-Jane →

General T&T, Law, UNC, USA, Venezuela

US has no right off Venezuelan coast

By Stephen Kangal, Caroni
August 26, 2025

Stephen KangalTHE right of the United States to deploy its naval vessels in international and territorial waters located across the globe is exercising the freedom of navigation/right of innocent/transit passage in the territorial seas/international straits of other nations.

It is not an aspect/expression/enactment of its sovereignty the exercise of which is limited to, inter alia, its land space, air space above and its territorial sea, Minister Sobers.
Continue reading US has no right off Venezuelan coast →

Agriculture, General T&T

I Commend PM Kamla

By Raffique Shah
August 16, 2025

Raffique ShahI hope I am mistaken, that I have purged myself of the spirit of the sugar industry that came with the first colonisers and all but strangled Trinidad and Tobago’s economy for many years. I am not ungrateful, mark you, for what sugar has given us by way of revenues and opportunities and “solid, liquid cash”, according to Mastana Bahar’s hosts. But its contribution to the wealth of the nation may well have been close to zilch when one considers the number of times it lost money, wrecked people’s savings, and left the country in a state of disaster.
Continue reading I Commend PM Kamla →

General T&T, PNM, Politics, UNC

Crocodile tears

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.
Continue reading Crocodile tears →

General T&T, UNC

Kamla’s place in T&T’s political landscape

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
June 07, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeLast week’s column, “Kamla’s second coming: a blessing”, elicited the following response from my dear friend Oscar D (not his real name): “Dear Pandit Cudjoe: This article has only elicited ambivalence. Your continued provocation by calling Kamla the mother of the nation is superfluous and disrespectful at best. I agree that we must learn about each other’s culture, but is it that Kamla’s ‘progression’ cannot be analysed within any other religious context? [Perhaps in] the context of African religious thought and philosophy?”
Continue reading Kamla’s place in T&T’s political landscape →

General T&T, UNC, Venezuela

PM playing with fire

By Raffique Shah
June 07, 2025

Raffique ShahI hope and expect those in authority who have the powers, to act, if the need arises, to remove a sitting prime minister and government by whatever means it takes to save our country from what appears to be a spark of madness which is threatening to engulf us even as I write (Friday night). Because after I listened to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar a few nights ago, when I heard what she said, I scrutinised her image on television to see if I could discern any signs of insanity or dementia. I leave that for the experts to work on.
Continue reading PM playing with fire →

General T&T, Politics, UNC

Kamla’s second coming: a blessing

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 31, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSOMETHING extraordinary happened two Fridays ago. Kamla Persad-Bissessar—the Mother of our Nation, as I call her—went to Woodford Square to thank her supporters. Her supporters from Tobago chanted: “Thank you, Kamla, the Mother of our Nation. We love you, Mother.”

Such adulation signalled that Trinidad and Tobago is evolving to another stage of social development. It reminds me of “The Chambered Nautilus”, a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Snr, that explores themes of growth and change. The last stanza reads: “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul /As the swift seasons roll! / Leave thy low-vaulted past! / Let each new temple, nobler than the last, / Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, / Till thou at length art free, / Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!”
Continue reading Kamla’s second coming: a blessing →

Elections, General T&T, UNC

Madam PM, the hard work starts now

By Raffique Shah
May 10, 2025

Raffique ShahI do not know if the UNC-led coalition that came to power two weeks ago by spectacularly defeating the PNM government in the general election believes it has the luxury of time and incumbency on its side, and the victory assures it of ten years in government. I focus on this continuous campaign mode that has taken hold of, it seems, the majority of the electorate. Having changed governments, disposing of the PNM from power in seven elections since 1956, it could be that the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, those who are actively involved in elections, believe that’s the way to go.
Continue reading Madam PM, the hard work starts now →

Elections, General T&T, UNC

Magnanimity in victory

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 03, 2025

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe United National Congress’ (UNC) overwhelming victory last Monday was nothing short of spectacular. One of my colleagues called it an Eric Williams moment, meaning that Trinibagonians had inaugurated an important turning point in our social and political history: the decimation of an old stultifying order as they ushered in a new social and political era.
Continue reading Magnanimity in victory →