{"id":56244,"date":"2025-02-16T06:11:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T10:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56244"},"modified":"2025-02-16T06:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T10:11:52","slug":"intentional-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56244","title":{"rendered":"Intentional distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nFebruary 08, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>Nostalgia led me to the People\u2019s National Movement Mani\u00adfesto of 1991, the year it defeated the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The PNM returned to government in 1991 but lost power to the United National Congress in 1995. A year later, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow challenged Patrick Manning\u2019s leadership and lost. His rise to national prominence began at that point. The Leader will leave the political scene in a few weeks but will retain his influence on his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Stuart Young.
\n
\nPNM\u2019s 1991 manifesto read: \u201cDuring the last five years, our beloved country experienced the trauma of an unprecedented degree of Government insensitivity and incompetence. The result has been the virtual collapse of many of our support systems, the devastation of thousands of lives and the marginalisation and pauperisation of the majority of the population.\u201d The UNC should incorporate these words into its 2025 manifesto.<\/p>\n

Recently, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher was arrested for an alleged crime for which Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard refused to order that she be charged. He instead ordered that she be released without charge. The PNM did a lot to advance her career after 2016.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday an acting CoP was selected although Ms Harewood-Christopher retains the right to fight her suspension. Her lawyers challenged her suspension, saying \u201cthere was no evidence that our client may have committed the offence of misbehaviour in public office or any other office\u201d. (Express, February 5.)<\/p>\n

The Leader said his Government had nothing to do with this bizarre incident. Yet it comes on the heels of the shameful performance of Douglas Mendes, who represented the Minister of Finance in the recent Privy Council case against the Auditor General, and who, as the British lords contended, was unable to land a \u201cknockout blow\u201d against the latter.<\/p>\n

The CoP fiasco occurred when Jamaica was celebrating Petrojam\u2019s capture of its US$90 million fuel deal with T&T. The Jamaica Observer announced triumphantly: \u201cPetrojam Limited, Jamaica\u2019s State-owned refinery, has resumed fuel exports to Trinidad and Tobago, securing a lucrative deal worth around US$90 million in 2025 as the Caribbean nation seeks to expand its energy exports.\u201d (February 2.)<\/p>\n

Telroy Morgan, general manager of Petrojam Ltd, declared: \u201cWhat is the ground-breaking aspect of this is the volume, the frequency, and certainly, the sort of revenue and foreign exchange income to the company and Jamaica.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daryl Vaz, Jamaica\u2019s Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunication and Transport, added: \u201cThis is a moment all of us should be proud of. Once again Jamaica has secured greater competitive advantage in the global economy by ideally positioning itself as a regional leader when it comes to non-traditional exports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young, co-chairman of the Government Empowered Negotiating Team for Energy before he became Energy Minister in 2021, is proud of his fuel deal with Jamaica. He described those who objected to it as \u201cnaysayers\u201d and \u201cmischief makers\u201d. He postulated that this deal would foster better \u201cbilateral relations with Jamaica\u201d. No one ever makes such a deal to foster better \u201cbilateral relations\u201d.<\/p>\n

When his government closed Petrotrin in 2018, the Oilfields Workers\u2019 Trade Union (OWTU) warned the Government of the devastating effects it would have on our domestic situation and that T&T faced the possibility of losing our leadership position in the region\u2019s energy system. The Government refused to listen.<\/p>\n

Today Jamaica is rejoicing. Morgan says: \u201cPetrojam\u2019s export deal with Trinidad and Tobago is a notable irony, given Jamaica\u2019s status as a non-oil-producing nation…Despite the presence of Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s Pitch Lake, a major source of asphalt, Petrojam is still able to export bitumen to Trinidad and Tobago.\u201d<\/p>\n

OWTU\u2019s chief education and research officer, Ozzi Warwick, sums up the union\u2019s response to our predicament: \u201cThe refinery that we operated for over 100 years to ensure our energy independence is now closed. The government abandoned our energy sovereignty when it closed the refinery. As a result, it has returned us to the old colonial structure where we export our natural resources to import refined products.\u201d<\/p>\n

OWTU president Ancel Roget predicted that \u201cvery soon we will be importing fuel from Jamaica. We\u2019ve become the laughing stock of the Caribbean\u201d. Miss Lou (Louise Bennett), late Jamaican folklorist, might be saying laughingly: \u201cJamaica people colonisin\u2019\/ [Trinidad] in Reverse.\/…An turn history upside dung! \u201d<\/p>\n

Each day the Government\u2019s weaknesses become more obvious. Therefore, it welcomes any distraction that takes our gaze away from its woefully inept performances.<\/p>\n

Now we face the prospect of a political neophyte whose pretensions are larger than his abilities leading us to darker times. He should listen to the \u201cnaysayers\u201d and \u201cmischief makers\u201d whose critiques might save the Government from itself.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how Young navigates his political inheritance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe February 08, 2025 Nostalgia led me to the People\u2019s National Movement Mani\u00adfesto of 1991, the year it defeated the National Alliance for Reconstruction. The PNM returned to government in 1991 but lost power to the United National Congress in 1995. A year later, the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow … Continue reading Intentional distraction<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[171,49],"class_list":["post-56244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-politics","tag-selwyn-r-cudjoe","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56245,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56244\/revisions\/56245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}