The Congress of the People
By Raffique Shah
November 20, 2019
Sometime between three and four o’clock on the afternoon of the general election of 2015,(September 7), my daughter Leila shouted from her room, “They have extended voting hours beyond 6pm!” “What?” I asked, “Who extended it? I am watching the television, and there is no such news.” “Kamla (Persad Bissessar),” she replied. “I just got an email from her.”
Continue reading Chasing a crooked shadow
By Richardson Dhalai
January 11, 2016 – newsday.co.tt
THE succesfully lobbied to “Axe the Tax” now Congress of the People political leader Prakash Ramadar is warning that the proposed Property Tax of the current People’s National Movement administration can transform an inheritance to a “debt burden.” Ramadhar was speaking at the COP’s first post-national council press conference for 2016 at the party’s Operations Centre in Charlieville.
Continue reading Prakash warns: Property tax can be a ‘debt burden’
By Raffique Shah
November 23, 2015
The battle for leadership of the UNC has ignited a discussion on leadership in a broader context, with the party’s founder, Basdeo Panday, weighing in on the issue.
According to my columnist colleague Sheila Rampersad, Panday told her that Indians tend to seek a “pahalwan”-Hindi for warrior, strongman-to lead them. Sheila cited Panday himself as an example of the phenomenon. In 1973, he succeeded Bhadase Maharaj as leader of the sugar workers’ union, and in 1977 he succeeded in transforming the only organic inter-racial party ever (my view…I was a co-founder), the ULF, into an Indian party.
Continue reading The last ‘pahalwan’
By Stephen Kangal
November 06, 2015
The reason, inter alia, advanced by the Moonilal “Go Kamla” Team including that of Dr. Tim Gopeesingh for the defeat of the PP in the 2015 elections and hence the current lobbying for rejection of Kamla for re-election to the Political Leadership of the UNC, is that the unprecedented, untried and untested Presidential style campaign strategy engineered by Campaign Manager, Rodney Charles, that made Kamla 2015 the focal point and dominated the PP election campaign strategy was flawed and did not resonate with nor did the electorate buy into it. This convenient thesis goes against the dynamics of the elections, is far off the target and would give the stamp of objectivity/ issues-based politics underpinning the final tally.
Continue reading Was Kamla 2015 the Source and the Course for the Waterloo?
By Raffique Shah
September 14, 2015
My last two columns, one titled “Rowley rising” and the other “lament for a falling leader”, were seen by many of my readers as being almost prophetic in the wake of last Monday’s election results.
Had I made public another document in which I analysed the results in all 41 constituencies from 2007 onwards, using historical data and trends, and projecting the 2015 results (which I circulated only to close friends), I might have been accused of being an “obeahman” or “seer”.
Continue reading Projections, not predictions
By Raffique Shah
July 14, 2015
WE must really be a nation of “cunumunus”, one-point-one million fools (if we believe the EBC number of registered voters, which is another story) for an array of politicians, would-be and have-been, to treat us with the contempt they do.
Continue reading The Third Force
By Raffique Shah
March 22, 2015
It’s amazing how the 2015 general elections campaign is derailed by extraneous matters that have no bearing on the real issues that should under discussion.
With oil and gas prices trending lower, hence a projected shortfall in revenue of more than $7 billion for the current fiscal year, with the national debt rising as a consequence, and with tens of thousands of public sector workers, among them police, fire and prisons officers, clamouring for increased salaries for a period that has expired, the politicians are distracting the electorate with race-herrings and talk about dog and “cyat”.
Continue reading Buying cat in bag
By Raffique Shah
February 28, 2015
A political volcano has erupted with full force, spewing rocks, ash, lava and fetid gases across Trinidad and Tobago’s landscape. But even as the explosion demolishes structures and changes the electoral topography, the political seismologists and volcanologists, seemingly in stupor, pretend that all is well.
Continue reading Political volcano erupts
By Raffique Shah
September 07, 2014
Archbishop Joseph Harris strikes me as being a “rootsy Trini”—a prelate who commands respect beyond his flock even as he exudes a tremendous sense of humour.
What I could not discern from a distance (I’ve never met the good Father) is that he is also a humorist who can put veterans such as Paul Keens-Douglas and “Sprangalang” to pale on any stage at any time.
Continue reading Politics and ethics only rhyme
Griffith to take up Sports Ministry
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Anil Roberts has resigned.
Speaking at the post Cabinet media conference at 4.45 p.m., Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that she has accepted Roberts’ resignation, in the wake of several allegations of corruption arising from the Life Sport programme.
Continue reading ANIL RESIGNS