Category: Keith Rowley

Transcending ATM

July 15, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

When I caught the headline, Rowley Slams Kamla for 'ATM' remark, I couldn't help but note that this was largely a style issue. And Dr. Rowley does have a point - the remark to CARICOM could be seen as flippant.

The reality, though, is that Trinidad and Tobago has to see about itself first - something that other CARICOM nations have said in various ways within their own sovereign contexts. Barbados's stance on immigration was not too different, and while it caused an uproar everyone knew that Barbados was well within its rights to assure that immigration laws were enforced. Would that Trinidad and Tobago did the same.

But the ATM issue brings to mind a review I had to do on a junior software developer at one time: 'To be a better team member, Mr. X needs to become more self sufficient.'

CARICOM nations, individually, should practice that. And many of the smaller islands have at least moved in that direction, probably because money doesn't come free from anyone.

As it is, with the global economy as it has been and will be for the forseeable future, it's quite possible that CARICOM will go the way of the West Indies Federation... which is sad because if member states actually came up with and acted on regional plans as diligently as the elected political representation at CARICOM did for their elections, the region might actually move forward.

But they don't.

Bubbles in the pot keep rising

July 1, 2010 by Edmund Gall

Like many of you, I'm quite distracted lately by the FIFA World Cup 2010 tournament in South Africa, so I haven't been as prolific in my writing as before. Here are some brief thoughts on issues that crossed the online forums I've browsed over the past two weeks.

Local Government Elections

• Official claims are that it was scheduled for July to halt the damage to our democracy that the annual postponement over the past 4 years has caused.
• Some analysts have welcomed the snap Local Government Elections, while one person has warned it's too soon.
• The average citizen can't help but admire how convenient it is to host this while the People's Partnership is basking in the glow of its General Election success before the bad news of their first National Budget is delivered; healing democracy may be a fringe benefit.

SAPA and potential disconnect? {Read more}

• The Hon. Multiculturalism Minister Winston Peters complained that SAPA is too small for the money spent: 'If you have a show in Trinidad and Tobago and you have 810 people, then you have a buss show.'
• However, the artists themselves, through ACTT, complained that the NAPA in Port of Spain didn't have enough smaller auditoriums with maximum seating capacity for 400 patrons.

Re-Branding the PNM

May 29, 2010 by Christian Khabay

Where does the PNM go from here?

May 29, 2010 by Edmund Gall

What a week!  Before 24 May 2010, T&T was experiencing a drought in water and cricketing terms, and was racked in this weakened state by election fever.  After 25 May 2010, we got both rain and cricket, following a general election result that no professional pundit predicted.  So despite the WI senior men's cricket team snatched another defeat from the jaws of victory, the world seems to be unfolding as it should.

The People's Partnership's startling 29-12 election win means the scenario of T&T getting its first unelected Prime Minister has been postponed.  Taran Rampersad and BC Pires have each, in their unique ways, already recommended that we manage our expectations.  After such a stinging defeat, though, what are the options facing the People's National Movement? {Read more}

Is T&T ready for an unelected Prime Minister?

May 13, 2010 by Edmund Gall

Every so often, politicians like to paint their actions in the good light of 'Westminster traditions.'  However, there are some Westminster shadows that I haven't heard anyone mention.  I wish to highlight one which T&T may face soon, depending on the upcoming General Election results.

In the 2005 UK General Elections, the incumbent Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, led his Labour Party back into government with a reduced majority.  The result fed growing internal conflict, the seeds of which may have been sown in the 1990s, and eventually caused Mr Blair to step down.  Mr Gordon Brown was elected Labour Leader at their Party Conference in 2007 and became Prime Minister as he commanded the support of the majority of the MPs.

This is the dark side of Westminster: Mr Brown became the UK Prime Minister based, primarily, on the results of an internal political party election.  The British electorate did not get an opportunity to decide whether they wanted Mr Brown as Prime Minister until this year's General Elections, and they voted him out.  Many of his opponents used this to attack him, calling him Britain's unelected Prime Minister even though no law was broken.

Lets examine T&T.  A number of PNM supporters, from leadership to ground levels, have publicly declared their displeasure with Mr Patrick Manning as PNM Leader.  Suppose the PNM were to win the General Elections on 24 May 2010, but with a reduced majority, i.e. less than the 26 seats they won in 2007.  In the immediate aftermath, in keeping with our constitution, Mr Manning would become Prime Minister of T&T.

However, one can then argue that, by winning a reduced public mandate over two years early, Mr Manning's position as PNM Leader would become untenable.  Suppose that Dr Keith Rowley also won his seat. {Read more}

Dazzle them with bull!

May 8, 2010 by Edmund Gall

Dr Keith Rowley, the Hon. MP for Diego Martin West, finally spoke at the launch of his campaign in his constituency last Thursday night.  You can read about it here, and view the video here.

Dr Rowley delivered a speech that was as fiery as folks expected.  Prior to his launch, I had a number of questions I wanted him to answer publicly.  His speech, unfortunately, only answered one of them: why did he become a PNM candidate in this general election when he was so spectacularly demoted from Cabinet - and subsequently vindicated by the evidence uncovered in the Uff Commission of Enquiry?

His answer, which became the event's leading sound-bite, was:

"When a ship goes into battle that is no time to throw the captain overboard.  I am a sailor on PNM’s ship!  I know what my duty is!  It doesn’t matter what shape the ship is in.  The battle cry is: 'don’t give up the ship!'" {Read more}

What's up with the PNM and sheep farms?

April 4, 2010 by Bertrand Bhikarry

I'm not a big believer in things Bible, but I must say I collect them. Among my favourites is a huge old leather-bound one delivered   to me by a good friend. He used read from it to the then bedridden owner - a septuagenarian now sadly passed on.

I hold it dear for various reasons; at times to check up on biblically derived outbursts from the good old George Umbala Joseph,  and also to pray for others who may be in places of power and Party. I also fully intend to use it for bringing comeuppance against any who write mean comments at the end of this post.

At first it was my fascination with the book of Solomon, but then the parables drew me in as I lost the testosterone and garnered the brain cells back, in a manner of speaking.

The parable which holds my attention now, on this Holy Weekend are the ones about the wolves in sheep's clothing, and the leading of the lambs to the slaughter. Eh? Well it had to do with Environment Tobago taking the good Dr. Keith Rowley, a PNM stalwart, to task for an infringement of the EMA's CEC process for his urgency in leaping a few fences to get his sheep farm going in Moriah, Tobago. {Read more}

Saying Nothing With Mouths Moving

October 21, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

When I blogged yesterday about Keith Rowley's offensive, I expected someone else from the PNM would go on the defensive - and I knew it wouldn't be the person presently occupying the institution of Prime Minister. Not to be disappointed, Colm Imbert rose to the level of the gauntlet thrown... and no further. The Trinidad and Tobago Newsday's article, This is not the Calder Hart Inquiry, has some quotes that are ambiguous at best.

For example:

...the Government could have taken advantage of a legal loophole which could have derailed the inquiry when it was discovered that notice of the proceedings was never published in the Gazette even though hearings had gone on for months...

True. The Government could also have screwed up on that count - it isn't as if the Government has a stunning track record. Thus, this is ambiguous and simply demonstrates that either the Government is incompetent or stupid. Consider this other quote:  {Read more}

Politics, Corruption, Cookies and Trinidad and Tobago

October 20, 2009 by Taran Rampersad

Normally I avoid the topic of politics. People who know me know why; I consider politics to be an abstraction of the actual issues - and in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as everywhere else in the world, the level of abstraction related to issues is too high. We need to get back to the issues.

Everyone has been abuzz with Calder Hart, UDECOTT, corruption Chinese workers and... well, the Beetham Gardens incident is largely forgotten. It's all rather amusing when viewed from a distance, but some interesting things have happened.

Keith Rowley's gone on the offensive in a large way. UDECOTT Worse than Piarco tells that story well, and Mr. Rowley's been pressing the point home on Facebook - where he's got 366 people presently following him; a small figure yet respectable in its own way. That few people seems more real than the many renditions of Patrick Manning on Facebook. And Rowley's allegations, spoken from a soapbox of his own personal vindication, is damning in its own way.

For better or worse, that splits the PNM base between the blind followers and those who are paying attention. And this is good for a number of reasons: {Read more}

• The moral basis against corruption should trump law. Trinidad and Tobago has a poor track record when it comes to that, and while it might be nice to say that it's as bad in other nations one should wonder whether mediocrity is a worthwhile goal. Of course, celebrating a football team that scores one goal - against itself - in the World Cup speaks volumes...
• That people are being encouraged to think critically by Rowley.
• COP and UNC supporters feel as though they've won something (though they, too, have lost ).