By Raffique Shah
October 26, 2013
Type the name “Kamla” on the Google search engine and see what comes up. That “Kamla”, a very common Hindu name, instantly yields Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, suggests that she is the number one “Kamla” in the world—something we should all be proud of.
Continue reading Kamla croaks away
By Stephen Kangal
October 23, 2013
As the politician-in-chief of the centrifugal forces that dominated the recent LGE, the Honourable Prime Minister has conducted herself in a most apolitical manner that can only parachute her PP and the UNC into disaster survival mode. Having scuttled twice publicly and prematurely the rapprochement of Jack Warner in the period prior to July 29 for membership of the PP that paved the way for the emergence of the ILP that in fact served to weaken the PP/UNC/COP electoral appeal and performance on the October 21 LGE, she now is negating any remaining attempts geared to salvage the recent retrograde political debacle. Are the wounds too fresh?
Continue reading PNM did not win only the UNC Lost
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 23, 2013
The paucity of votes (62,000) Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal Party (ILP) mustered at the 21 October 2013 local government elections sent a very loud and clear signal/message to the extent that the electorate wanted more than just fanfare, entertainment, elaborate promises and jerseys (money was good too).
Indeed, Uncle Jack must now ask himself these serious, ex post election introspective questions: Where did all my putative green supporters go and did not do, according to plan, on election day?; Were the pre- election day numbers a mere illusion of popular support?; Did my putative green supporters just went with the green flow/ride with no previous intention of so voting?—“Is party time.”
Continue reading Why Jack Warner-ILP Lost
By Raffique Shah
October 20, 2013
This local government elections campaign was the nastiest ever in the history of this country.
And three man-rats, abetted by their respective executives, can take credit for having reduced electioneering to a level so low, anything worse will be burrowing the sewer mains. Dip your heads Jack Warner, Anand Ramlogan and Roodal Moonilal.
Continue reading Nastiest campaign ever
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 17, 2013
The decision by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar not to participate in the Trinidad and Tobago Debates Commission’s (TTDC) leaders’ debate on 15 October 2013 speaks volumes as to her overt, detrimental/self-destructive tit-for-tat myopic politics.
Continue reading Kamla not ready for prime time
By Raffique Shah
October 13, 2013
Over the past 40 years, since the first oil boom began in 1973, allegations of corruption against government ministers, other politicians and senior public officials must have exceeded the one-thousand mark. I refer to alleged acts of corruption involving tens of millions of dollars and more, not to petty sums below, say, five million.
Since each corrupt transaction of this magnitude necessarily involves several persons—politicians, contractors, corporations, bankers, public officers—we could easily say that at least 5,000 persons of high standing in the society were involved.
Continue reading Corruption and deception
By Andre Bagoo
October 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt
THE MOST crucial exercise in any democracy is an election. Therefore, the rules governing the electoral process take on a particular significance. Yet the elections rules, as currently formulated, appear to have crucial gaps which make them arguably inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution, the Supreme Law.
Continue reading Unruly election rules
By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
Continue reading Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations
By Stephen Kangal
September 20, 2013
The critical factor underlying the growth, continuing relevance and survival of all political organizations especially in diverse democratic societies is the priority accorded to developing, adapting and embellishing an open-ended, politically-dominated and all-embracing strategic framework. It is against this standard that all challenges to the status quo/ existence are assessed and a politically correct and objectively determined response to external stimuli brain-stormed, conceptualized and implemented.
Continue reading UNC Has Dollars But Little Political Sense
By Raffique Shah
September 14, 2013
When House Speaker Wade Mark invoked the contentious constitutional provision that an elected MP, Herbert Volney in this instance, must vacate his seat upon resigning or being expelled from the party on whose slate he was elected to Parliament, it piqued my interest. You see, I was a principal player in the events that led to the passage of that amendment to the Constitution in 1978, and I am intimate with its genesis.
Continue reading Donkey with a kick