Highway Standoff A Governance Issue

Without venturing into whether Dr. Kublalsingh is right or wrong in his position regarding the issue of the Point Fortin highway a particular position of the Government has intrigued me. Dr. Rambachan along with Jack Warner and others have accused Dr. Kublalsingh's actions as being "political". My question to the members of the People's Partnership Government is "so what?" What is wrong with Dr. Kublalsingh being political? Does this government not understand that for it to even grace the halls of power it required citizens of this country to be political and engage in a political process of electing them? 

Why is it that the People's Partnership Government seems so afraid of citizens becoming enlightened and engaging the government on a civil level? If it's one thing this present group belonging to the People's Partnership Government has demonstrated to the citizens of this country is that as a nation we seem to have a breed of politicians who are quite contented with having citizens exercise their democratic rights just once every four years and then simply granting absolute unquestionable power to them so they can rule over us like Lords and Serfs without question or accountability. 

This latest stand off between Dr. Kublalsingh and government goes deeper than the need for a highway by some, it goes deeper than economic and social consequences albeit very relevant. This stand off between a lone civilian and a government ever eager to display it's arrogance and contempt for the citizenry strikes at the very heart of our democracy and the type of governance that exist in our Republic. The question is are Trinbagonians satisfied with being mere spectators in the affairs of their nation or are they prepared to grow up and take charge of their destiny and tell the politicians who have no regard for their voice exactly where to get off?

Red Card That Jack

Prior to the 2010 General Election I was a very vocal voice against the People’s National Movement and their way of governance. I wrote many blogs which are still circulating in cyber space because I never took them down, I wrote many letters to the Express editor all of which I have copies. I attended political meetings of the United National Congress, the signing of the Fyzabad accord between the Partnership Parties and I voted for the Congress of the People. The interesting thing is, despite being well in my 20’s, 2010 was the first time I have ever voted or have been so actively involved in politics and as a consequence the first vote I have ever cast in Trinidad and Tobago went to the Congress of the People, a member of the People’s Partnership Government. I say the above in light of the nasty, vicious, divisive and hateful comments made by Minister of National Security Jack Warner concerning the march last week Friday regarding Sec 34, that seem to indirectly accuse people of African descent in this country of having a racist agenda against the shadowy government of which he is a member. Jack Warner claimed that he only saw Africans marching on Friday. Firstly this could not be so because I marched alongside my co-worker who is predominantly of Chinese descent, I saw persons of East Indian descent and I also saw few Caucasians and many persons who were patently of mixed ethnicity.

In Trinidad and Tobago politics has always been predominantly along the lines of ethnicity. When I attended the UNC political meetings back in 2010, despite there being a few other persons who “seemed” to be of African descent, I was engulfed in scores of East Indian supporters of the United National Congress, and it has always been that way just as the People’s National Movement crowds have always largely been of people who seem to be of “African” descent. Jack Warner as Chairman of a political party whose core supporters comprise 90% of East Indians is in no position to speak about the ethnic composition of any other political party in Trinidad and Tobago. Furthermore the COP is the party which gave the People’s Partnership the appearance of a multi-ethnic political party not the UNC, the UNC is still by and large a party supported predominantly by persons of East Indian descent. But to further analyse the illiteracy of Jack Warner’s statements, where does someone like me fit in to Trinidad and Tobago’s society? I am dark skinned like Dr. Rowley but my mother has a fair complexion like the wonderful Denyse Plumber and I have a Hebrew Surname. If I am an African according to Jack Warner because I took part in Friday’s march, notwithstanding the fact that I voted for Jack’s Government, Jack Warner needs to tell me from which African nation I came. There are 57 recognised countries on the African content so Jack Warner need to tell myself and the other Africans from Friday which country is our mother land. Are we South Africans? Zimbabweans? Angolan? Ethiopian? Somalian? Am I a Hutu or Tutsi? Which one of these African countries will take me in, and would they consider me African especially if they see my mother?!

While T&T’s politics has traditionally been along the lines of ethnicity, as a people we have historically come together to vote out a government that we perceive to be a threat to all of us as happened in 2010, and which I suspect will happen in 2015. Many young individuals like myself are no longer falling for the racial divisiveness of people like Jack Warner and as Political analysts Derek Ramsamooj has pointed out, asinine statements like the one made by Jack Warner only serves to anger persons like myself who know exactly who and what we are i.e. TRINBAGONIAN! Jack Warner has some gall to level such an ugly accusation against persons in this country who may have some measure of African ethnicity in their DNA make up. Who does Jack Warner think helped give his government a Parliamentary majority in the 2010 general election? One would think that it was only Jack’s core supporters of East Indian descent and some race from another planet in the universe voted in the 2010 general election because his ridiculous utterances and vulgar conduct as a government minister are pretty much out of this world. 

By his statements Jack Warner has only confirmed to me as a citizen that he still harbours racist beliefs that belong to an era before I was born. He has also confirmed to me that he thinks he can drum up support for his government by playing on the ethnic sentiments of his core supporters. Rather than denigrate persons of African descent, Jack has simply exposed the policy that still exist amongst some in the United National Congress, a policy of playing on the ethnic sentiments of my fellow East Indian brothers and sisters to support his government even when his government is engaging in gross miss-governance. That Jack Warner should find support from this country’s most controversial figure regarding race relations I can only say mission accomplished Jack, you have successfully roused the support of those who would blindly follow you in your anarchist quest for unbridled power. But make no mistake, Jack’s racial card is a two edge sword as he has earned himself a political red card from many like myself and we have already disqualified him and his government from the next election world cup in 2015!

Poor COP, they are drowning in the cesspool of incompetence and ethnic division of the UNC that is being bandied about as good governance. Leader of the COP Prakash Ramadhar has speedily distanced himself from Jack’s comments and rightly so, but I say to Mr. Ramdhar that you are guilty by association. Despite the many missteps of this government including the Reshmi Ramnarine fiasco, Section 34, nepotism in the distribution of legal briefs and now Jack Warner’s racial comments the COP has remained a steadfast member of the PP Government. The COP is now tainted with the rot of the UNC and has lost all credibility. I assure all parties concerned that no matter what name they call me, they could call me African, Martian, Alien, Cling-on, whatever they choose to call me, as a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago irrespective of whether they got my vote or not in the past I shall continue to demand good governance and transparency! Sticks and stones may break my bones your words can never harm me, however your poor governance will destroy my country!

Kamla being more than dishonest with Statistics

With regard the poll conducted by the Ansa Mcal Institute of Psychology published last Sunday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisessar was quoted in Express April 11 as stating that if one "Adds the excellent , good, fair ratings - its almost 80%, so the government is doing fine." Now it is either the Prime Minister thinks the citizens she presides over are complete idiots or she was being deliberately misleading and having no compunction about it whatsoever. A standard five pupil can discern that the Prime Minister's pronouncements makes absolutely no sense and it is a deliberate attempt at polluting the poll results. The following were the Ansa Mcal Poll results:-

Ratings

Overall, how do you rate the performance of the Government to date?

Excellent 4%

Good 30%

Fair 47%

Poor 15%

Extremely Poor 4%

Ratings

If a general election was held today, which political party would you vote for?

UNC 5%

COP 3%

NAR 1%

PP 34%

MSJ 1%

PNM 13%

NONE 25%

DON’T KNOW 19%

NEW PARTY 1%

Ratings

How do you rate the performance of the Prime Minister to date?

Excellent 11%

Good 31%

Fair 42%

Poor 13%

Extremely Poor 3%

If by the Prime Minister's logic we are to add the good and fair ratings of two of the three questions, it would show that the government got almost an 80% rating and thus is doing well, then it stands to reason that if one is adding the good and fair ratings one must deduct the poor and extremely poor ratings to get a more objective view. This would show that the ratings according to the Prime Minister's logic were in fact (30+47-15-4) = 58% and (31+42-13-3) = 57%. Clearly as one further analyses the stats using the Prime Minister's logic it is blatantly clear that the PP Government barely made a passing grade. Out of the 512 people questioned, it would mean that only 296.96 and 291.84 persons gave the PP Government a fair to good rating. 512/2 = 256, one must therefore ask the question what exactly is Mrs. Persad Bisessar boasting about.

It is also instructive to note that the Prime Minister totally ignored the excellent ratings of 4% and 11% respectively, is this an indication that the Prime Minister is quite contented with mediocrity and does not concern herself with exceeding expectations? Of 512 respondents 4% would be 20.48 and 11% would be 56.32 persons, if I remember correctly in primary school when one's report card said "Good" or "Fair" for the term one usually went home with a B, B- or a C. And the most glaring omission of the Prime Minister was the ratings related to the question "If a general election was held today, which political party would you vote for?" Out of 512 respondents a whopping 5% (25.6 persons) said they will vote for the UNC, the party to which the Prime Minister belongs, and 13% (66.56 persons) said they will vote for the opposition PNM. Granted the PP got 34% one must beg the question if the Prime Minister is contented with the fact that the only way the party to which she belongs can win an election is by currying favour with other political parties for the sole purpose of defeating the PNM, because as a stand alone political party the PNM is the only party that got the highest rating.

I would therefore caution the Prime Minister, that the next time she opts to play with statistics to fool the population she should do so with a bit more cunning, as you can fool some of the people some of the time, you can't fool all of the people all the time.

Labour betrayed by an 'Independent Judas'

As someone who is keenly interested in the labour movement, for the life of me I cannot understand how a man like Michael Annisette could be President of NATUC. Ever his appointment as an ‘Independent Senator’ Mr. Annisette’s credibility has been persistently questioned by various parties as he performs his duties in this country’s senate not as an Independent senator but as a perceived PNM Senator! As someone who is supposed to be the ‘voice of labour’ in the senate Mr. Annisette has done nothing to suggest that he is a representative of the working class, on the contrary he has been pro-government 99% of his sitting time.

How can the President of NATUC openly criticise a member union for legitimately defending the rights of workers? Mr. Annisette was quoted in the Daily Express as saying “nobody can be against the upgrading of a state institution. We need to modernise the system if we are to attain first world status”. Well I’ll be damned if Michael’s words weren’t pulled in verbatim from the PNM’s manifesto of ‘Vision 2020’! Funny how Mr. Annisette didn’t give any evidence of knowing what was wrong with the system to begin with, but I will give him a hint. The problem started and stems from the inefficient, mediocre corrupt managers of the system, i.e. the government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Therefore Mr. Annisette seems to not know what he speaks of because if an organisation is corrupt and inefficient and a management team presides over such organisation for decades then simply changing the workforce is not going to help because you will also need to revamp, modernise and purge the managers of the corrupt system which Mr. Anisette claims needs modernising. And to demonstrate how much I agree with him I suggest we begin revamping this management team by first having President George Maxwell Richards revoke the appointment of Independent ‘PNM’ Senator Mr. Michael Annissette!

If Mr. Annisette is so concerned about the manner in which the Government of Trinidad and Tobago is going about in treating the public servants of this country why doesn’t he as an Independent Senator and Labour Representative go into the Senate and demand that this anti-worker PNM government treat with workers in this country with dignity just as how it is done in the countries with ‘first world status’ such as Canada? When the Canadian government undertook a similar project with its tax bodies not only did it rehire the staff, staff were given a two year employment guarantee, their union was granted automatic successor ship and only two officials of the new body are appointed by the government. The other members are appointed by independent bodies and by independent bodies I mean “independent,” not independent where the Prime Minister has a veto over who is appointed!

Mr. Annisette’s talk about ‘first world status’ and the need for a ‘roundtable approach’ is nothing but hogwash when one compares it to the archaic, dogmatic manner in which this PNM government is treating with the employees of Customs and BIR. Retrenching workers (now euphemistically referred to as VSEP), attempting to derail the PSA by not granting it successor ship and creating a tax collecting special purpose company controlled by the ruling party outside the oversight of Parliament is not ‘first world status’! That is taking us back to the Stone Age! Just look at what is happening with special purpose companies like UDECOTT using state funds to sabotage a Commission of Enquiry and big honchos in UDECOTT awarding contracts to their families in Malaysia. Not surprisingly this same ‘Independent PNM Senator’ is also a director of UDECOTT. Well as the saying goes if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then guess what, it’s a duck! At least this sort of financial espionage and nepotism was contained to a much greater extent under the watchful eyes of the now maligned service commissions!

It is no wonder then why the labour movement in this country is not only perceived as weak, politically tainted and manipulated by politics when you have the President of the National Trade Union Centre treating lightly with a politically violent and blatant attack on workers’ rights and in the same vein heaping scorn upon the leader of the PSA who is going all out to preserve the dignity of his union’s members. If the labour movement in this country does not soon wake up and remove forthwith the obvious Judas who is also working part time as the anti-Christ in our senate and strip him from the Presidency of NATUC, an organisation whose interests he clearly isn’t serving then there is no point saying we have a labour movement in this country. Labour in Trinidad and Tobago is dead! ©

Of Race, Politics and Perpetual Opposition

"The attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of persons belonging to particular ethnic groups. Ethnic cleansing sometimes involves the removal of all physical vestiges of the targeted group through the destruction of monuments, cemeteries, and houses of worship." The preceding paragraph was quoted in verbatim from the Encyclopedia Britannica as the definition for the term ethnic cleansing. One can imagine my utter confusion upon hearing Dr. Tim Goopeesingh's claim that Indo doctors in Trinidad and Tobago were victims of ethnic cleansing at the hands of the PNM government. I had to take a double take the following day when I saw it emblazoned on the front page of the Express and I asked myself, does Dr. Goopeesingh really know the meaning of the term ethnic cleansing?

And why ethnic cleansing of Indo doctors? Why would the PNM commit such an act against Indo doctors and not against Indo teachers, or Indo doubles vendors or Indo police officers? Is it that Indo doctors are a different type of Indian to the others of different professions in this country? And since when does ethnic cleansing focus on a person's profession? If this is the case then shouldn't there be a new definition, 'ethnic profession cleansing' perhaps? But I digress, the fact remains that Dr. Goopesingh is only reminding the voting population in this country why he and by extension the UNC is and will continue to be in Opposition. It's as if the UNC is always trying to compete with itself on making the most irresponsible and stupid statements. How can this man stand up in our country's highest office, the Parliament and utter this foolishness? After reading his claim and watching his charade on the evening news I envisioned a foreigner coming across these news headlines on the internet, and out of curosity as these things often generate I could imagine the foreigner reading further to find out how many millions of Indo doctors were displaced and violently chased out of Trinidad and Tobago due to this ethnic cleansing, only to realise that no such thing exist in Trinidad and Tobago and what we do in fact need is an idiot cleansing of our Parliament!

It is truly amazing how the UNC sees race in everything, the most uttered word by UNC representatives is the diminutive "Indo". So as someone of Non-Indo background I ask myself, do these people seriously expect me to vote for them come election time when they, by their own deeds, actions and utterances are doing the very same thing they accuse the PNM of i.e. as the Opposition they simply ignore the other ethnic groups in this country and are not concerned about us or what bothers us as citizens of this multi-ethnic country! You would swear the UNC is an Opposition party in the Republic of India and not the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago! How come the UNC does not see ethnic cleansing in the granting of billion dollar contracts by the PNM government to Indos like Hafeez Karamath, contracts which were the subject of a commission of inquiry? How come they don't see ethnic cleansing in the granting of billion dollar contracts to people like Emille Elias granted he is not an Indo, or is it that anytime the PNM government does not hire or grant an Indo a contract it is automatically construed as being ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination?

Would I be guilty of ethnic cleansing if I do not vote for an Indo centric political party in a multi-ethnic society? And now certain members of certain Indo groups are calling for a Commission of Enquiry into Dr. Goopesingh's claim. Well I buckled with laughter at the folly of these people, tears in my eyes. Don't they know that a Commission of Enquiry does not have the authority to prosecute? Ethnic-Cleansing is a war 'crime' and as such it has to be investigated by an International Body such as the United Nations and the perpetrators are to be tried by International Courts. In addition the first thing to quelling an act of ethnic cleansing is the deployment of international troops to the affected area, so my question to good ole Tim is, are you also going to request the presence of the "boys in blue helmets"? Can I look forward to relaxing by the fountain at the Hyatt whilst watching a UN armoured tank roll by languidly on Wrightson Road? Do these jokers really think a Commission of Enquiry can do all of this? And who is going to appoint the Commission of Enquiry, the same PNM Government that they are accusing of the ethnic cleansing? Clearly some people's ignorance knows no bounds! The UNC is a dead weight to itself and that is why it will forever rot in perpetual Opposition because instead of presenting themselves as a viable alternative for governance, they're only concerned about dividing this country and spreading racial hatred. ©