Tag Archives: Keith Rowley

Get in Whose Section?

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This morning I know most of us are coming to terms with the details of the Budget for 2012/2013. We are trying to figure out how exactly this was a budget that targets the rich when both middle and lower income persons will face the brunt of the reduced fuel subsidy and all its fall out in the areas of increased taxi fares and prices for anything that requires fuel. The business community here has never impressed the population with scruples; so, I imagine plenty belly banding start already. And then there is the illusion of lower food prices because of VAT removal. As of the time of writing the government is yet to release this list of 7000 new items that are now non-Vatable. I do know that she listed Ovaltine and Milo as some of the new items that are zero-rated, when in truth and fact Ovaltine and Milo were zero-rated under the previous regime…but she was advised!

But my focus this morning is still the Pre-Budget Rally, not for its uselessness and vulgar display of a government addicted to its own PR. Rather for the implications of the Prime Minister’s speech.

Our politics has always been riddled with ethnic tension. Political scientist Kirk Meighoo notes that “Indian-Negro tensions manifested themselves as early as Jamuary 1961…” as a result of PNM supporters breaking up DLP meetings. The DLP complained that they were not receiving adequate protection by the “Negro-dominated police”. Meighoo goes on to say that the elections of 1961 “have been considered the most tense in the country’s history, with race seeming to dominate the campaigns.” Fed up of PNM attacks on his meetings, DLP leader Rudranath Capildeo lost his temper at a meeting one evening and called on his supporters to take action. He said to them, “You will be called to arms. Wherever the PNM holds a meeting you will have to break it up.” And violence did break out during that election, causing limited States of Emergency in political seats like St. Augustine, Barataria, Caroni East and Chaguanas.

Flash forward to the present. On Saturday Mrs Persad-Bissessar made several statements that caused me some alarm. She advised the crowd to, “get in yuh section”, “an election is coming”, “we know who the enemy is”. Sections? Enemies? If this was a pre-Budget rally, why was it sounding like an election campaign? Why was the Prime Minister, at a meeting she claims the people called for, making comments that indicated it was “We versus Them”? In a country of Trinbagonians, who precisely are the “enemies” that the PM is speaking of? And why such divisive and attacking language? The election she referred to was the THA election. And the mood of the crowd at the time of her speech was drunkenly aggressive. I was standing in the midst of it looking on and wondering what madness was being incited at the Mid-Centre Mall car park. In a country where people’s tempers are stretched thin by any number of daily issues, the Prime Minister was being extremely imprudent.

Prior to the PM’s speech there were many subtle and overt comments to attack the PNM, at what was billed as a pre-Budget Rally. The fiercest attacks came from Ramlogan, Roberts and Moonilal. Their speeches were delivered early in the event, so by the end of the first 45 minutes of an event to announce the Budget, the predominantly UNC crowd was whipped into an anti-PNM frenzy. It was in stark contrast to their rallies of 2010. At those rallies then Opposition Leader Persad-Bissessar had stated to all her her audiences that she was running a clean campaign. There would be no slurring or mudslinging on her platform. She insisted that she was running a campaign focused on sober discussion of issues. The façade of being a principled coalition fell on Saturday.

The woman who is brought onstage to Celine Dion songs, dressed very femininely in demure and muted shades of yellow; the woman who routinely reminds us that her decision-making is informed by her status as both a mother and a grandmother revealed her claws. And she can scratch. At the helm of a party and government responsible for a multi-ethnic population phrases like “get in yuh section” and “we know who the enemy is” sound an alarum.

This in the wake of Warner openly casting aspersions on Asha Javeed, and we start seeing a trend with this government: attack the media, treat citizens of the country that are not Pro-UNC as the enemy and use both subtle and overt references to race and ethnicity as the determining factor.

We already have a situation whereby instead of promoting people who have genuinely achieved, regardless of their ethnicity, this government has been hellbent on reinventing political, social and cultural history to suit itself. Roodal Moonilal, introduced by Anil Roberts, as a man with more degrees than Rowley, announced to the crowd that Adrian Cola Rienzi founded the OWTU. He didn’t. He was the first sitting President of the union because Butler had to go into hiding from the authorities. But he can’t be called the union’s founder. But this is the kind of politics to be expected from this regime. Twisted, menacing and corrupt.

Three months away from THA elections, I still looking for a section. Please advise, Madam PM?

 

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Is TEAM UNC COP worried about COP Walking?

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Last night the media blitz to distract from section 34 began with the Panchayat announcing the Pre-Budget rally or Budget Matikor. Online they began boasting that Rowley brought out 5000, but they would bring out 40,000. This morning they posted a list of all the corruption under the PNM…perhaps forgetting conveniently that in 2010 they were hired to root out and put an end to corrupt politics.

The Oppposition Leader’s Office also put out a corresponding list with 63 items that has since been added to by the public.

The intriguing thing is that on Public Walls they are being proud, boastful and unrepentent over the fiasco that is Section 34, but behind closed doors there is fear that the COP will walk and possibly TOP and Errol McLeod.

Take a read. I’ve deleted names and e-mail addresses:

teamunccop@yahoo.com
  • Oh gord man COP man, doh go nah.
    I remember when I was small and the fellows in my village used to come home after drinking their rum in the rumshops.
    It is then they would look for fight among their fellow-villagers.
    We used to be so amused to hear them say even as they brandished their cutlasses.
    “Hold mih back! Allyuh hold mih back before I kill the so-and-so today.”
    Those drunkards did not mean it then, and the COP does not mean their threats today. 
    They just looking for some verbal support. 
    If they could only understand that they are important to the coalition, not as an opposition party, but as support for the government of mainly UNC members.
    Comparatively speaking, they are a small proportion of the coalition, but they act like dictators of the pace.
    I guess that is because of their percieved heights of academic achievements have made their heads too large for their bodies. 
    And that is a pity, because this attitude of theirs can ruin all that this government has set out to do. 

     

    To: JahajeeDesi

    Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:50:30 -0400
    Subject: [FREE SPEECH] _ Re: [So COP leaves the PP, then what?]_ Open Letter To The COP

    There are more things under heaven and earth TEAM UNC-COP than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

    Only the wicked and the blind ask what’s next when the decision is one of morality.

    On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:40 PM, TEAM UNC-COP wrote:

     

    OK, so let’s say COP leaves the PP government. TEAM UNC-COP & CCDSJintl organization – all our online groups and Facebook pages – are absolutely against this; we are for stronger and more forceful demands by COP to the PP leadership so that we can have better governance,  but totally against COP leaving the PP govt. 
    BUT, since so many are asking or implying COP to leave, let’s come to that situation where COP leaves, on Tuesday Sep 25th 2012. THEN WHAT? COP does what? what next for COP? There is no point asking COP to leave the PP without telling us where does COP go from there?  
    - COP Ministers out of govt so PP appoints others as Ministers. OK. We don’t know how many Ministers will resign from the Govt and COP can’t force anyone to resign from the govt. Anil stays with PP. Who else stays? who leaves? 
    - COP MPs remain as MP. OK.  All of them?
    - COP councilors remain as councilors. OK. Local elections coming up in 2013, will COP field candidates in this election, for a 3-way race, line in 2007?
    - COP is now Opposition B in Parliament. OK. So what?
    - PP govt continues, still with a majority in Parliament. So now what does COP do?

    It wasn’t going to be easy, this amalgam or coalition of parties and people in the PP; and few expected the PP to be so damn bad! But, more expected COP to say more, do more, and demand more. COP can still do that, for the next 30 months.  A major problem facing COP is the MATH: they don’t have the numbers and PP can still remain in govt without COP. Another major problem is a human behavior one: COP people who have positions in the govt will not leave jsut to satisfy the urgings of others who want them to leave, why should they? People behave in that way, whether we like it or not. 

    So, what is the role of a post-PP COP? and why is this better than COP in the PP now? And, how does this benefit COP, how does this benefit T&T?
     

    Subject: Re: Open Letter To The COP

    Am I hearing the bugles of Rowley calling the flock home?????
    J :)

    Activist KBA wrote:
    >
    > Dear Executive and Members Of the COP,
    > 
    > It is my view that the Congress of the People has become a major part of the problem of governance in Trinidad and Tobago and can no longer offer any solutions to the people. We are at a juncture in our history where we need a strong voice emerging pointing to leadership that we can support and trust. Leadership that offers sincere committment to national development; to bringing harmony and balance to the four races of man that co-exist in this space; to assisting this nation to understand the time and align itself with the awakening to the new reality that is emerging in the earth out of the debris of collapsed systems; to practical and comprehensive programs and policies that would facilitate us to overcome ignorance and prejudice and conquer the mountains of culture, society, economy, politics, religion, media and education.
    > 
    > From its inception the COP has spoken disparagingly about the nature of the UNC. I find it very unfortunate that having decided to join with the UNC to attain government, the COP can still find nothing good to say about the UNC two and almost a half years later. What is most disturbing is that the COP expects to stay in a partnership with the UNC, convey to all and sundry how rotten they think that they( the UNC) are and expect the electorate to not recognize the COP as vulgar hypocritical parasites. The COP is turning out to be worse than the UNC. The whole nation knows where it stands with the UNC. For the COP to stay in the Partnership and pretend that it is superior and different to the UNC is tantamount to taking the nation for fools. Marriage is the act of becoming one. Therefore this continuing political marriage makes the COP one with the UNC.
    > 
    > Imagine the COP now claiming that the Prime Minister’s Childrens’ Life Fund and the laptop distribution plan originated with the COP. So what is the point here? Why the confusion? Is it that we can no longer even expect a proper interpretation of the Constitution from the COP. The Constitiution establishes the Opposition as the watchdogs of the government for and on behalf of the people. I am hearing the COP claiming that status. Everybody with sense knows that the implementers are not supposed to be the evaluators. It is an obvious conflict of interest. The COP wants to be the government and the Opposition too. How gauche. This is schizophrenia if you ask me.The COP has to make up its mind whether it is part of a desirable government or an undesirable one. No part of a rotten egg is edible.
    > 
    > It is very sad to see how the COP has so easily abandoned its principles, prograammes and even its pretense at sincerety in exchange for the trappings of power and prestige. The argument has been put forward by the COP that you cannot do anything if you are outside of government. Well that is true, especially if you have not been able to do anything inside the government. Not even own and lay claim to your own projects. I have lost all respect for this sad spectacle that is parading as the COP.
    > 
    > We the people of Trinidad and Tobago are suffering through the agony of an attack against our constitution from within the Parliament itself; we are suffering through the spectre of every watchdog of our democracy sleeping while our democracy was being vandalized; we are suffering through the terror of a great void in leadership and governance; our trust in all our institutions has been eroded as we look at partners, presiding over those institutions, who neither respect nor trust each other.
    > 
    > Our one hope was that the real COP, the one that we thought we voted for in 2010 would emerge and reclaim its brand, its fire , its principles and most importantly, its own identity. Alas, this is not to be.The PNM has lost its way too a long time ago.What will we do now? The people must make the next move. Organize! Organize! Organize!
    > 
    > 

    >

The Clause 34 Timeline (Updated)

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TIME LINE & ISSUES (This Time Line continues to be a work in progress as new info offers itself up)

 

RELATIVE TO THE SECTION 34 FIASCO

 

 

The following is materially relevant for National consideration:

 

 

 

1.                 Ramlogan was appointed by the Prime Minister as the Attorney General on May 26th 2010 and after he and the Prime Minister were sworn in, the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago was fully constituted.  Volney was sworn in as Minister of Justice thereafter.  Warner is the Minister of National Security.  Ramadhar is the Minister of Legal Affairs, acts as the Minister of Justice and is Head of the Legislative Review Committee.  Singh is the Minister of the Environment and Water Resources and acts as the Attorney General and is the leader of Government business in the Senate.

 

 

 

2.                 In the second half of 2010, the Attorney General replaced the team of Attorneys which to that date had successfully resisted all approaches to the Court intended to stall the extradition to the United States of America of Messrs. Galbaransingh and Ferguson to face criminal prosecution there.

 

 

 

3.                 In or around June 15th 2010 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council dismissed applications for Habeas Corpus filed by Galbarsingh and Ferguson rendering them liable to be placed into custody pending extradition.  In light of the decision of the Privy Council it was Ramlogan’s responsibility to instruct that Galbaransingh and Ferguson be placed into custody to await extradition. He failed to do so with alacrity.  It was only after the insistence of the Director of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were they placed into custody pending extradition.

 

 

 

4.                 Contrary to extradition practice and procedure which prescribes that the requested state should resist bail applications, the Attorney General adopted the position that the State should not support nor oppose the application for bail for Galbaransingh and Ferguson, but merely assist the court.

 

 

 

5.                 According to various press releases and news reports, the Legislative Review Committee (LRC), the DPP, the Law Association and the Criminal Bar Association were all consulted with respect to the Administration of Justice (Preliminary Inquiry) Bill but the controversial section 34 and Sixth Schedule were not in the Bill and therefore were not considered by these public authorities and bodies.

 

 

 

6.                 Mr. Justice Boodoosingh’s judgment in Judicial Review proceedings HCA No. CV 2010-04144 filed by Galbaransingh and Ferguson against the Attorney General’s decision to extradite them was delivered on 7th November 2011. By this judgment, it was held that it would be “unjust, oppressive and unlawful” to extradite Galbaransingh and Ferguson to the United States because they could be tried for their offences in Trinidad and Tobago and indeed Trinidad and Tobago was the appropriate forum for such trial.

 

 

 

7.                 The Administration of Justice (Preliminary Inquiry) Bill was laid in the House of Representatives for its 1st reading on November 11th 2011;

 

 

 

8.                 Debate in the House of Representatives on the Bill began on November 18th 2011.   In this version of the Bill, section 34 and the Sixth Schedule provided for the “amnesty” to begin to run from the date of charge.  On this version, the charges against Galbaransingh and Ferguson in what is called the Piarco #2 criminal proceedings would not have been affected, but the charges in Piarco #1 would have been subject to dismissal.

 

 

 

9.                 The Administration of Justice (Preliminary Inquiry) Bill was laid in the Senate for its 1streading on November 22nd 2011;

 

 

 

10.            On November 29th 2011 debate on the Bill began in the Senate.  The Bill from the House of Representatives contained section 34 in same terms as debated and passed in the House of Representatives.  Independent Senator Prescott SC alluded to the possible impact on fraud and bid-rigging cases. He said (vide pp. 115-116 of Hansard):

 

 

 

“If you have been brought to court and 10 years have passed since the proceedings have been instituted, a judge is bound to discharge the accused. 

 

Mr. President, if you are charged in this country with fraud, with currency infringement, with bidrigging and you have enough money to take the matter to the Privy Council at each stage, 10 years later you are bound to find—you may well find, that you are  still at the initial hearing or the sufficiency hearing.  

 

In short, current events tell us that it may take 10 years to get out of the masters’ court in a sufficiency hearing.  And then all you have to do when you cross the 10 years deadline, go before the judge and say dismiss this case; discharge me here.  I do not know, because there used to be a doubt in my mind whether discharge means that there are not going to be any further criminal proceedings, but it would certainly lead to further constitutional proceedings if you try to charge him again.”

 

 

 

11.            Immediately thereafter Ramlogan made his contribution.  Ramlogan himself made a transparent reference to the Piarco cases.  He said: (vide p. 124 of the Hansard):

 

 

 

“In highly complex and technical matters, in particular, in relation to financial crimes, fraud matters, this abolition of preliminary inquiries will serve us well because we have known that matters have taken a meandering, endless path through the labyrinth of our criminal justice system for quite some time now, with no end in sight.  The endemic backlog that presently exists, this will hopefully dynamite the log-jam and it is going to free up the system and have knock-on benefits down the road.“

 

 

 

12.            An Amendment to Section 34 providing that the ‘amnesty’ would commence 10 years from the occurrence of the offence, instead of from the laying of the charge, was introduced by Volney at the Committee Stage in the Senate after the debate had ended.  On this version, the charges in Piarco #2 would now be subject to dismissal.  At no time during his contribution did Volney explain the difference between the version of section 34 as brought from the House of Representatives and the amendment that he now proposed.

 

 

 

13.            Before the Committee Stage of the Senate was concluded discussions took place (as they say behind the President’s chair) between an independent Senator, Senator Al-Rawi and Ramlogan about the impact of the proposed amendment to section 34 on the pending Piarco cases.   The Senators all agreed that once section 34 came into force Galbaransingh and Ferguson would be entitled to apply to have the cases against them dismissed.  Ramlogan assured the Senators that before the Act was proclaimed there would be full consideration of all issues, that all conditions requested in the debates in the House of Representatives and the Senate would be met and that a further review would be had, including an amendment of the Sixth Schedule to the Act to make the offences with which Galbaransingh and Ferguson were charged exempt from the application of section 34.  He pointed out that the amendment to the Sixth Schedule could be done under section 27(3) by a Minister’s Order or by way of amendments to the Act prior to proclamation.

 

 

 

14.            By the end of November 2011, therefore, it is clear that Ramlogan knew (or ought to have known) that section 34 would free UNC financiers Galbaransingh and Ferguson.

 

 

 

15.            Indeed, on September 13th 2012 the Senators with whom Ramlogan held discussions behind the President’s Chair reminded him of those discussions.  Further, during the course of the debate on September 13th 2012 on the Bill to repeal section 34, Senator Prescott re-read his contributions quoted above reminding the Senate of his cautions with respect to the impact of section 34.  For his part, Al-Rawi reminded the Senate during the same debate of what he described as the “side-bar” discussions with Ramlogan on November 29th 2011.  Ramlogan did not deny any of this in his windup.

 

 

 

16.            With this knowledge, it was incumbent on the Attorney General to take immediate steps to effect an appropriate amendment to section 34 or the Sixth Schedule to ensure that Galbarabsingh and Ferguson were not the beneficiaries of the amnesty.  He was obliged to do so because this is what he had undertaken to do in his discussions behind the President’s chair in the Senate.  He was obliged to do so because the State had expended substantial resources in prosecuting the cases against them in relation to serious charges of fraud and bidrigging.  It was also imperative that he do so because it was obvious that the discharge of Galbarabsingh and Ferguson would cause grave public disquiet and embarrassment to his government.  It was therefore expected that he would take it upon himself to initiate appropriate amendments to the Act, unless of course he already knew that it was his government’s intention to allow Galbaransingh and Ferguson to go free.

 

 

 

17.            On December 16th 2011 the President of the Republic assented to the Administration of Justice (Preliminary Enquiry) Bill as Act No. 20 of 2011

 

 

 

18.            On December 17th 2011 James Lewis QC gave his opinion to Ramlogan on a possible appeal against the judgment of Boodoosingh J.  He stated at page 18, paragraph 5.10:

 

 

 

“On the other hand I am informed that the Claimants can be tried in Trinidad and Tobago almost immediately on the same conduct”.

 

 

 

Given that Mr Lewis was advising the Attorney General, one must assume that he got that information from the Attorney General himself.  But after the passage section 34, it was clear that, upon proclamation, Galbarabsingh and Ferguson could not be tried at all.  It was equally clear therefore that Lewis’ advice was based upon false or incomplete information.

 

 

 

19.            On December 19th 2011 Ramlogan announced his decision not to appeal Justice Boodoosingh’s ruling on the basis that the “ends of justice” will be served by foregoing the Appeal and allowing the criminal prosecution currently before the local courts to proceed.  See Newsday Article by Jada Loutoo appearing on December 20th 2011.

 

 

 

20.            Ramlogan’s decision not to appeal effectively gave Galbaransingh and Ferguson their first victory against the State with respect to their extradition proceedings and meant that they would not be tried in the United States.  And the reason for this dramatic event, according to the Attorney General, was that they would be tried in Trinidad and Tobago.

 

 

 

21.            It must have been clear to the Attorney General that once section 34 was proclaimed Galbaransingh and Ferguson would be entitled to apply to the court to be discharged of all offences. He could therefore have done two things.  He could have appealed the Judge’s decision and introduce fresh evidence before the Court of Appeal that section 34 once proclaimed would undercut the foundation of Justice Boodoosingh’s decision.  Or, as he had promised, he could have taken steps to ensure that section 34 was amended so that there would in fact be a trial.  He did neither!  It is either that he never intended to take steps to amend section 34 because it was his government’s or his own personal intention that Galbarabsingh and Ferguson should escape justice, in which case he deliberately misrepresented to the public that there would be a local trial.  Or he was grossly negligent in not taking steps to ensure that there would be a trial.

 

 

 

22.            It is probably not surprising that on December 21st 2011 the United States Embassy in Trinidad by way of a press release expressed disappointment as to the outcome of the Galbaransingh and Ferguson extradition case.

 

 

 

23.            On July 24th 2012 Volney, Warner and others attended a meeting with the DPP, the Chief Justice and others held by the Judiciary and Justice Sector Committee at the Chief Justice’s Conference room at the Hall of Justice.  According to a press release by the DPP, the item on the agenda was the “Implementation Process for the Regime under the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011”.  See the DPP’s Press Release dated 11th September 2011.  The DPP specifically stated in this release:

 

 

 

“During this meeting, the effect and to some extent, the import of section 34 of the Act were raised.  This prompted a response by Minister of Justice that Cabinet had made a decision”.

 

 

 

24.            In relation to that very same meeting, Warner stated in an interview appearing on television on or around September 20th 2012 that it was agreed at the meeting of July 24th 2012 that Act No. 20 of 2011 was to be proclaimed in its entirety.

 

 

 

25.            The Prime Minister in her Address to the Nation of September 20th 2012 said that Ramlogan was out of the country during the period July 20th 2012 to August 4th 2012.  During that period Singh acted as Attorney General.

 

 

 

26.            Volney prepared the Cabinet Note which supposedly led to his dismissal on August 6th2012.  Ramlogan returned to Trinidad on August 4th 2012.  Volney stated in his televised press conference on September 21st 2012 that he was out of the country when the Cabinet note came up for confirmation and that Ramadhar acted as Minister of Justice in his absence.

 

 

 

27.            It is important to note that Ramlogan (who knew of the effect of section 34 on the prosecution of the Galbaransingh and Ferguson matters), Warner and Singh (who would both have been aware of the undertaking to proclaim the Act in its entirety) were all present at the relevant Cabinet meetings.  One can only conclude, based on the Address to the Nation by the Prime Minister on September 20th 2012, that Ramlogan said nothing at the said Cabinet meetings in relation to the impact of section 34 and that Warner and Singh said nothing in relation to the meeting of July 24th2012, where according to Warner, the undertaking was given to proclaim the Act in its entirety. This must be emphasized: Ramlogan apparently did not advise his Cabinet colleagues that the early proclamation of section 34 would have entitled Galbaransingh and Ferguson to apply immediately to have their charges dismissed!

 

 

 

28.            The Cabinet Note of August 6th 2012 states:

 

 

 

(i)                At paragraph 5 – “The Minister of Justice has consulted with the Honourable Chief Justice on a date for the coming into effect of the measures introduced in the act and it has been agreed that the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Enquiry) Act be repealed and that the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011 shall come into effect in its entirety on January 2nd 2013.”

 

 

 

(ii)              At paragraph 6 – “In order to facilitate a seamless operational transition it is necessary for the Act to be proclaimed in part on August 31st 2012 in order to inform the need inter alia for the creation of eight (8) new positions of Masters by an Amendment to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act.  This will give authority for the recruitment and appointment of Masters of the High Court by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in order that the Act may be operationalized on its effective date of January 2nd 2013.”

 

 

 

29.             According to the Cabinet minute dated August 9th 2012, the said note was considered and Cabinet agreed that:

 

 

 

“(a)           In accordance with the provision of 1(ii) of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011 the President by proclamation:

 

 

 

(i)                fix August 31st 2012 as the date on which the Act, with the exception of section 3(2) and (3), 4 to 31, 33, 35 Schedules 1 to 5 and Schedules 7 and 8 shall come into operation.

 

 

 

(ii)              fix January 2nd 2013 as the date on which Sections 3(2) and (3), 4 to 31, 33, 35 Schedules 1 to 5 and Schedules 7 and 8 of the said Act  shall come into operation.

 

 

 

(b)                         The Attorney General cause to be prepared the necessary Proclamation(s) to give legal effect to (a) above.”

 

 

 

30.            The President of Republic signed the Proclamation of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011 on August 28th 2012 which was published in the Gazette on 10thSeptember 2012 as Legal Notice No. 348 (No. 8 of 2012).

 

 

 

31.            The House of Representatives was convened to debate a bill to repeal section 34 retroactively on September 12th 2012.  Ramlogan, Warner, Roberts and Volney spoke in the debate.  None of them spoke to any of the matters raised by the Prime Minister in her Address to the Nation on September 20th 2012 nor to any of the matters set out above.

 

 

 

32.            The Senate was convened to debate the bill to repeal section 34 retroactively on September 12th 2012 as passed in the House of Representatives.  Ramlogan was the only person of all 15 Government Senators present, to contribute to the Bill.  He spoke to none of the matters raised by the Prime Minister in her Address to the Nation on September 20th 2012.

 

 

 

33.            The Attorney General is the titular head of bar and is the 2nd person to be appointed after the Prime Minister to comprise a Cabinet.  It is his duty and responsibility to vet all Cabinet Notes presented to the Cabinet and to advise on all legal issues arising.  The office of the Attorney General is directly­ involved in the Galbaransingh and Ferguson matters through the extradition request.  He was in the country and in Cabinet on August 6th 2012 and in the Cabinet confirmation meeting thereafter when the aforementioned Note and Minute were discussed and when the Prime Minister examined Volney on whether the Chief Justice and the DPP had been consulted.

 

 

 

34.            In light of the above, Ramlogan owed the public answers to the following questions:

 

 

 

(i)                Why did he not appeal Justice Boodoosingh’s decision and apply to put fresh evidence before the Court of Appeal that section 34 now rendered a local trial impossible and that accordingly the basis on which Justice Boodoosingh decided that it was unjust and oppressive to extradite Galbaransingh and Ferguson no longer existed?

 

 

 

(ii)             Why did he tell the public that he decided not to appeal because there was to be a local trial when he knew that once section 34 was proclaimed Galbaranbsingh and Ferguson would be discharged?

 

 

 

(iii)           Why did he not take steps to amend the Sixth Schedule or section 34 to make sure that Galbaransingh and Ferguson could not rely on section 34?

 

 

 

(iv)           Why did he not advise Cabinet on August 6th that the proclamation of section 34 would mean that Galbaransingh and Ferguson would be entitled to be discharged?

 

 

 

(v)              Did he fail to do all of these obvious things because it was his government’s intention that Galbarabsingh and Ferguson should go free? Or was that result his own private intention?

 

 

 

 

 

35.            At the very least, Ramlogan knew that when section 34 was proclaimed Galbaransingh and Ferguson would be freed.  His failure to do anything, whether by advising Cabinet of this eventuality or otherwise, represents gross dereliction of duty on his part.

 

 

 

36.            Warner, Ramadhar and Singh appear in the context of their continued silence to be complicit in the section 34 fiasco.

 

 

 

37.            The Prime Minister’s explanations in her Address to the Nation on September 20th 2012 are seriously lacking.  Her decision to fire Volney as opposed to announcing an acceptance of his resignation is entirely suspicious.  She must explain having deemed Ramlogan and herself deserving of “silk” why none of the aforementioned has been brought to the national attention. 

 

 

 

38.            The nation clearly cannot trust the government and it is therefore imperative that the country be permitted to judge them in a general election.

34Gate!

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This morning, in the aftermath of the Barnum and Bailey Circus Show that passed for a debate, for all of 10 hours yesterday the crucial questions still remain unanswered.

No member of the Cabinet has yet satisfied the public’s concern about why they decided to pluck Section 34, along with 4 other minor clauses, out of the Indictable Offences Act and proclaim it on the evening of August 30th while most of the nation was busy with Independence celebrations. Of course now, it explains why the Government had a celebration on the Eve of Independence, as well as on the evening of Independence. And there was I simply thinking is because Kamla love to fete! Nope, all the fetes were weapons of mass distraction.

There was nothing particularly new about the style of debate yesterday in the house. It pretty much resembled last year’s SOE justification and extension debate, and the Motion of No Confidence debate in March of this year. The Opposition asked the same questions in each of its presentations by Rowley, Imbert and McDonald: Why were the provisions agreed to by Senator Volney ignored, and parts of the Bill proclaimed; and why was that particular clause pulled out for proclamation when it was proclaimed  in the manner it was proclaimed. After Moonilal, Ramlogan, Roberts, Warner, Volney and Ramlogan again, those questions are still to be answered. However they did all manage to agree on repealing the Law retroactively, after Imbert suggested changes. the Bill now moves on to the Upper House.

How It went Down:

Kamla arrived late, and took the opportunity to distract the Parliament with the announcement that the Budget would be on Monday October 1st. Then Parliament recessed for 15 minutes for Kamla to hold a quick strategy pow wow.

Then they returned and the bullshit began…

What we do know is that Anand Ramlogan was very concerned about Imbert wanting the Bill to first be 7 years instead of 10. We also know that Ramlogan thinks the PNM wanted it to be 7 years instead of 10 to assist Rowley, Calder Hart, Juliana Pena and Andre Monteil…..what the Attorney General conveniently forgot is that none of the names listed have criminal charges laid against them in a court of law….but Ish and Steve do….so the Indictable Offences Act in no way impacts them….and this is through the fault of the AG…he is yet to lift a finger to lay charges against Hart, Manning or Pena…in fact I think he must have spent the last 2.5 years in office attempting to free Ish and Steve, not attending to the business of government.

What we learned from Anil Roberts is that Rowley parks his car on pavements, and that in legalese “shall” is not mandatory….Roberts sounded a bit Partapped in Parliament yesterday, no lie.

From Jack Warner we got a history of criminal activity in Trinidad and Tobago and a list of the lawyers who have assisted with such criminal activity. We also had another threat thrown at the Mirror…..come with the $12m, Jack and then we will take your threats seriously…until then, focus on developing a Crime Plan, nah?

From Hubert “Free Brad Boyce” Volney, we learned that he created the Bill and inserted that Clause for poor people….a clause that requires the perpetrator to have enough money to extend a trial for 10 years….Volney is the fucking Simon Bolivar of St Joseph, oui!

What we also learned is that our silkened luminaries, after hustling to proclaim Section 34 on August 30th, realised that the Bill was flawed and hustled just as quickly to repeal it, all on their own….no public pressure from the Opposition and the US…they did this for us, the nation, because they always listening to us. Doh mind Kamla could never answer any of our questions directly.

We were treated to Minister after Minister praising the legal expertise of Kamla Rani….so much ass licking taking place that Hollywood Sachy would be forgiven for mistaking it as a Maximum Dun Out of the PM!

In all of this learning, the crucial questions weren’t answered at all.

The UNC claimed to not know about the COP Press Release, and Prakash Ramadhar never spoke. So we, the people, have no idea how the Minister responsible for overseeing the Legislative Review Committee can claim, via his Chairman in a press release, that they never saw the Indictable Offences Act, specifically Section34  in the form it was eventually passed. According to Toney’s release, Ramadhar saw Section 34 with a different wording before it was passed in the Lower House and went to the Senate. When the Bill got to the Senate, under Justice Volney’s stewardship the wording changed. The Bill went from saying:

…. a Judge shall discharge an accused if the proceedings were instituted prior to the coming into force of this Act and the trial has not commenced within ten years after the proceedings were instituted” (before the Senate amendment)

To saying:

“….a Judge shall, on an application by the accused, discharge the accused and record a verdict of not guilty if the offence is alleged to have been committed on a date that is ten years or more before the date of the application” (after the Senate amendment)

  • This meant that in the pre-Senate amendment an accused person could have his prosecution stopped if after 10 years of being charged he was not brought to trial.

That Ramadhar, who would have had oversight on the legislation, never said a word in the debate last night speaks volumes. And the Opposition asked why was there a change in the wording of the Bill between both Houses…..this question was never answered.

At no point in time in the course of the debate did any member of the Cabinet read or quote from the Hansard….which has on record Volney agreeing to undertaking certain provisions before proclaiming the Bill. It was only the Opposition quoting from the Hansard.

Given that Volney would have promised, on behalf of the Government, to pass the law only after all provisions was in place, means that Volney  is in contempt of Parliament.

Permit me to bore you with a quote from the Hansard, where Imbert is addressing the Parliament, and in it he talks about the provisions that must be put in place, such as building new courts etc to handle to capacity of petitions:

I had the opportunity to look at a report done on cases in the Magistrates‟ Court recently. If my memory served me correctly they have 10,000 new cases per year, some number like that, a significant number of which have all the requirements for a preliminary enquiry. So that once this Bill is passed, you are 
going to have a situation where thousands—not hundreds, thousands of cases are going to arrive in the High Court. That is why I am holding the Minister to his words; I took careful notes, where he said that the Bill had a proclamation clause. I am glad he referred to this. Let me quote him correctly. He said, “Once all the procedural and administrative mechanisms are in place, the Bill will be proclaimed.” I am taking the Minister at his word that this legislation will not be 
implemented until the necessary systems are in place, so that we do not have a situation where judges in the High Court are going to have to deal with hundreds of cases. 
I am not talking about the committal hearing. I am talking about the actual trial itself, because what you are doing is fast tracking. What you have told us is that you will be fast tracking matters. You quoted the case of Humphries, which means I do not have to quote it, where you indicated that the Privy Council had found that if you changed a procedure, that was not taking away the accused right to a fair trial, per se, that you had to look at the whole thing in context. Mr. Speaker, I am speaking to the Minister through you. In context, you have to look at what has been done and determine whether you have breached the person‟s right to a fair trial. It is obvious that it is the intention to apply this legislation immediately it is proclaimed of course, once it is proclaimed.
Let me qualify: as soon as you have your systems in place you will 
proclaim this Bill. It means that people who have matters in progress would now be subjected to the new procedure, once the prosecutor or the accused opt to do so. So you are going to have hundreds of cases going before judges, thousands I dare say, because it would take you some time to build those courts, and it would take you some time to deal with the rules. I also noticed that the Minister did not 
talk about the rules at all. Let me just say at the outset, since we are on this side are not going to oppose this Bill, but we have reservations which we hope the Minister would listen to, it is incumbent on us to deal with the issues that the Minister did not deal with. The Minister did not deal with the fact that in Trinidad and Tobago, unlike so many other Commonwealth jurisdictions, there are no criminal procedure rules. We do not have them. We have civil proceedings 
rules. They are quite detailed. If you go to the United Kingdom, they have criminal procedure rules. I could not bring them today because those rules constitute over 300 pages in the United Kingdom. We do not have them. We do not have criminal procedure rules in force in Trinidad and Tobago today. We do not have them. One of the things 
we are going to ask for, that before you proclaim this Bill that we most certainly would see those procedure rules laid. I assume, like the civil proceedings rules they would be laid here so we could look at them and make sure that they are just and fair, before you implement them.
The biggest blow to the government’s case though is DPP Roger Gaspard’s claim that he was not consulted on the Bill, and further, after giving the time line of the Bill’s passage and proclamation, arriving at the conclusion that it appears to be a conspiracy.
The Government never once referred to Gaspard’s 8-page letter; just as they never acknowledged the COP letter, or quoted from the Hansard, or indeed refer to the comments from the Criminal Law Association.
Kamla has refused to address the public yet again on a matter of public concern. The Opposition has now laid a careful case for why they cannot trust the Government and why the public cannot trust them either.
At the end of the day, this bid to free Ish and Steve has revealed this government to be dishonest and conniving. It has also revealed the leader of the COP to be weak and foolish. It has shown us that even the Opposition can be tripped up, and that our vigilance as citizens where this government is concerned must be on high alert because we never know when they are going to screw us over.
34Gate has also shown me that Ish and Steve may well bring down another UNC government!
De Vice Cyah Done!

A copy of the Hansard Record of the debate on Section 34 in Dec 2011 can be found here.

Dear Patricia McIntosh….Warmest Regards, Tax Payer!

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Dear Patricia McIntosh,

After reading the Sunday Express‘ account of your reaction to your constituent’s assessment of your performance as MP, I think you should apply to work for God instead of the people of Port of Spain North/St. Ann’s West. If, as you have said, “God knows what I have done”, then it seems to me that God should pay your salary, not me the tax payer.

It is unfortunate that the Leader of the Opposition is not in a position to reshuffle his Cabinet or MPs because if he could, there are a list of names I’d recommend he get rid of in order to make his Opposition in Parliament a much stronger one. And on that list would be people who publicly profess to not care about what their constituents had to say.

As MP, if even only one constituent is displeased with your performance, you are meant to return to the drawing board and see how best to improve yourself and the service you offer. Is not one and two piece of nonsense I have to put up with when the day come to earn the salary that is then taxed to pay yours. Up to now I am not sure where my tax money going, what it doing for me, and how my quality of life improving as my taxes increase. And yes, I know you pay taxes too, but Ms McIntosh, nobody put a gun to your head to be a MP, you made that choice yourself. You signed up for the job, now fulfil the job description.

When you say things like you don’t care what constituents have to say about you, you immediately remind me of PM Persad-Bissessar and her small goal squad. You also remind me of the many members of state boards who feel they are accountable to no one but the PM. And since the PM is accountable no one…EVER…and always mum, I am beginning to think that her leadership style might be informing yours.

In fact, after reading that account in the Express today, I start to say to myself, but these PNM MPs sounding just like UNC MPs. Like is the same khaki pants on both sides of the Parliament?

Ms McIntosh, if is God who know what you doing in your constituency, how do we, the tax payers, contact him to get a proper account of your progress and shortcomings. If, worse yet, we don’t believe in God, who we going to in order to get an update? If you don’t care what the constituents have to say, then who cares? Direct us to that person please so that we can ask them to give us back the salary that you collect in the last two years.

You feel because your constituents voted Balisier and you in a PNM stronghold and the UNC doing nonsense you safe? No, eh. Not at all.

My advice to you at this point in time is shape up or go and apply to God for a job in his constituency. Until then, try and care about what EVERY constituent have to say.Or come next elections you might get eh shock of your life.

 

Warmest Regards,

Tax Payer

The Leela of Jagdeo Warnersingh….Hari Om!

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My dear devotees, today I have a very special story to tell you from the Hidden 5 Books of the Gita….yes. It is a tale of a warrior so mighty and so strong, that even religion bows to him!

It is the tale of Jagdeo Warnersingh.

The tale starts many years ago. He was born under a funny moon, so funny that it gave Warnersingh, who was clearly of the highest possible caste the darkest of skins and the curliest of hairs, even more curly than journalists, but, unlike the Biswas of Mohun, he did not have an unlucky sneeze….no instead the gods granted him the boon of a stutter. This stutter was so powerful that it fooled its listeners into thinking Jagdeo a fool, a buffoon, and so, his cleverness and cunning was sealed from the world for a long time.

Perhaps it first came to light in the form of plagiarism in an unfinished postgraduate degree. Perhaps it came to light when he, at  first a lowly teacher rose to great heights in the great court of the Fifa. Either way, Jagdeo Warnersingh moved from lowly teacher to Fifa Executive and in the year 1990 achieved his first great act of cunning! He fooled over 1 million people into believing that he was in support of national football. In the course of that feat, the gurus say Warnersingh rigged a football game and oversold a stadium and escaped with not so much as a rap on his clever little knuckles.

Ahhh my dear devotees, but in the years to come his tricks would get even more complicated. He would gain ever greater heights in the pantheon of Fifa, becoming a Vice President and being the right hand man of Titans such as Joao Havelange and Sepp Blatter. Yes, my dear devotees, so great is our dear Jagdeo Warnersingh that he straddles several mythologies and transcends even the hidden books of the Gita!

Warnersingh built further on these accomplishments by purchasing a political party with his earnings from Fifa, and it is here my dear devotees that the true Leela of Warnersingh really begins. You see, there were others in this Political Party who feared and hated the Warnersingh, because behind his stutter, deep in the recesses of his jaw he his files….yes FILES my dear devotees. The Warnersingh had information, cleverly hidden from his closest enemies about all of their questionable activities and in this Political Party that he purchased he thrived. His enemies believed that Warnersingh’s curly hair and dark skin would be his downfall….but my dear devotees they did not consider that the colour of his money would transcend the colour of his skin and so their evil wishes for Warnersingh were magically removed by the colour of the Benjamins! Another Titan from a different mythology!

Ah, my dear devotees, see how our beloved Jagdeo is blessed. Eventually Jagdeo began eyeing the highest seat in the land, but he was blocked from it by two demi-gods, both of high caste, the Panday and the Manning. Warnersingh then vowed to remove these two demi-gods from his path and looked for an instrument.

The instrument he found was as beautiful as he was not, and if he were Ram, she would be his Sita. Yes my dear devotees, Jagdeo Warnersingh found his Rani in Kamla and together they decided that they would crown each other. Kamla was eager for his financial support, and Jagdeo was eager for her voter base.

Together they made history, and then Jagdeo hit a dark period. The Titans of Fifa turned against him, our hero was left in the valley of the shadow of Suruj, and it seemed that he was on his last leg when an internal elections returned him to his strength and gradually the Rani, who seemed to have turned her back on him, remembered the powerful files in the back of his throat and put Jagdeo to serve her on a secret council of Security. Then, when she felt no one in the Kingdom would care, she elevated Jagdeo to be her right hand and keep the land secure!

So great the Warnersingh had once again become that he smashed all murtis and sacred spaces in his path to success and  Brahmin by Boat pundits with the surname Maharaj rushed to place malas around his neck and proclaim him the true warrior of Dharma!

But wait! Lo! Behold, Lawrence of Maharaj and The Keith are waiting in the wings my dear devotees….This Leela isn’t done!

The Re-Shovelled Deck :A Govt on All Fours…

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The Re-Shovelled Cabinet. Photo courtesy Guardian website

(2years, 29dys)

I grew up in a house where All-Fours was a serious game. My uncle played tournaments. It would irk him to no end to see how casually his nieces and nephews would play things like Rummy without a properly shuffled deck, removal of the Jokers and proper cutting. It was from him I learned to play cards, to understand the signs of the game of All-Fours, and to know that even if I was dealt a weak hand, if my partner had a stronger hand, and we both understood the mechanics of bluffing and kept straight faces, we could come out with solid wins.

Kamla’s much anticipated re-shovelling of the Cabinet yesterday, went far beyond my expectations, and yet fell short of it in some ways. She was right to call it a Cabinet Reconfiguration, because that’s what she did. Kamla took her old cabinet to a joiner and basically asked, “How I could make this thing look and function different, without wasting the material?” After announcing the cabinet last night, the focus of everyone, from layman, to political parties to political gurus, was the appointment of the Minister of National Security. Supporters of the party hailed it as a good move, detractors frothed at the mouth, and some dashed off hastily written press releases. I was more interested in the details of the entire cupboard. My father is a joiner, is so I stop!

By now we all know who the players are in this NEW CABINET…and that’s what it is. Yes they are still calling themselves the  People’s Partnership, but the 2010 Cabinet and the 2012 Cabinet look very different. It’s almost as if we got a new government, without going to the polls…..that can’t be good, because it means that 2 years and 1 month into office, Kamla and her even larger Small Goal side are starting from scratch.

In the midst of an economic meltdown, spiralling crime rates, rising unemployment, meteoric food prices…..this government that promised to bring change, is attempting to press the re-set button and act like the last two years of misstepping didn’t happen.

The Old Cupboard….

Kamla, as card dealer, revealed two things last night: she knows that her government and governance is failing; and she knows she has to make her boldest move for Ejection 2015 (it’s not a misspelling) now!

Her speech last night was filled with the usual campaign rhetoric, but in a more subdued tone; because while Kamla’s words stated that her government had been working hard and achieving much, the Cabinet she was about to reveal said louder than anything else in the room that the PP has failed. Kamla referred to a depleted treasury, yet, we know that Dookeran came and met a stable economy; just as Devant Maharaj met a Caribbean Airlines that was in the black. We know too that in 2010 she met a crime rate that was lower than what we have right now.  But of course, this government never admits to making a mess of things, just like the last regime. So Kamla segued into listing her changes by implying that she consulted with the people and was now taking the criticism on board.

Understand that this Cabinet Re-Shovel comes in under one month since they spent $9m patting themselves on the back for being in power for 2 years and staying stronger than ever. In less than a month of that Eat Ah Food Fete the Partnership was destroyed when the MSJ broke ranks. It’s something she didn’t make mention of last night. Indeed the four parties that remain don’t like referring to the MSJ anymore because they know that in truth and fact they are no longer the People’s Partnership, but rather a UNC Alliance All Fours Team. And in future that’s how I’ll be referring to them.

This UNC Alliance is now faced with a significant task, turning the tide of public opinion that is growing against it. You see there are several levels of dissent Kamla has been coping with and her reconfiguration last night was meant to address all issues:

1. The MSJ Split

2. The COP discontent

3. The Muslim Vote Discontent

4. The Swing Vote Discontent over an under performing economy, spiralling crime, and corruption.

 

The MSJ Split means that the 5-party Panchayat is dead. This of course means that Kamla hs to pull the troops in tighter, closer, give the impression of being a tight-knit unit that includes everyone. Couple this with COP discontent over the San Fernando Mayorship and general feelings of being sidelined and ignored and the solution becomes clear: increase the number of COP members in the Cabinet, while giving Marlene Coudray a ministerial position. Look closely at the list of appointees and see what’s going on. No wonder Lincoln Douglas denied he agreed with Nalini Dial’s comments…and no wonder COP Cabinet Members and Executive members attacked Dial’s comments in such a savage way. In exercising her right to post tasteless comments on her private FB wall, Dial was upsetting the apple cart of new Eat Ah Food positions. Douglas publicly agreeing with Dial might have cost him a ministry. Now the COP has almost doubled the number of previously held positions and gone from 6 to 10 Cabinet posts. Several of those positions are held by people who never faced the electorate at the polls such as Bhoe Tewarie and Ganga Singh. To see Ganga Singh, whose name is synonymous with corruption at WASA be let back into our government has to be one of the most galling things on the face of the earth. Now Kamla’s Corruption Chorus Line of Goopeesingh, Ramadharsingh and Singh can just call themselves the Three Tenders.

The Cabinet still remains predominantly Hindu in terms of its religious make-up, but in the Jahaji Desi groups of late there has been a lot of complaint about the lack of Muslim representation. Whether unwilling or unable to add more Muslims, Kamla decided to kill two birds with one stone and add a COP member who comes from the most prominent political Muslim family. Her new Minister of Communication, Jamal Mohammed is the great-nephew of PNM stalwart Kamaluddin Mohammed, and nephew of former PNM Senator Nafeesa Mohammed. One member of the Mohammed Clan in Parliament must be the equivalent of about 50 muslims at least, right Madam PM? I hope those ratios work out for you.

Now  to issue number 4. Kamla is trading on a few givens with the Trinbagonian psyche. We have a high tolerance for corruption in this place, once our pockets not affected directly. Once we benefitting from a corrupt act or a corrupt person, Trinis will more often than not look the other way (Dear Lord thank you for my Tobagonian mother) and give people a bligh. And to the Europeans and Americans who don’t understand how there can be citizens of this country who’d support a man as obviously corrupt as Jack Warner being a member of government….that should now answer your question. Jack is beloved in his constituency because he gets things done…temporarily. And Trinis love a quick fix. Long term goals and vision does make them impatient…we like things to happen one time…and see immediate results…even if they worth fuck all. So an action man like Jack, who willing to put Fifa money where his mouth is will be immensely popular here. You want a wall built overnight? Jack will get it done….it’ll fall down the next time rain fall hard, but the point is he built the wall…and that’s what Trinis will remember. You want your national football team to get to the World Cup…easy peasy, Jack will get it done…but they don’t care that he has screwed over present and future generations of young local footballers to do so. So, Kamla, aware of all of this, appoints Warner as Minister of National Security. This appointment is an admission that John Sandy has failed and Trinis are fucked when it comes to the crime situation. Forget the SoE folks….the ultimate weapon in Kamla’s arsenal is about to be deployed. I feel quite certain that Jack has been given the mandate, by fair means or foul, bring that crime rate down! And this appointment is a double edged sword. If Jack succeeds, Kamla has 2015 in the bag….if Jack fails, he gets the axe and so does Kamla….if ever someone was relying on the strength of their partner’s hand it is Kamla.

Unfortunately this appointing of Jack as Security Minister means that the country will suffer in the short and long term. The appointment will further tarnish our international image. Even if Jack makes inroads into crime, it’ll be quick fixes. Downturns that will be quickly trumpeted all over the media, while the longterm side and after effects might just kill our children….23 years later local football still reeling from November 19th, 1989.

Larry Howai’s appointment as Minister of Finance is a better calculated risk. When the foreign team hired to turn FCB around from financial failure couldn’t do the job, it was Larry Howai that was promoted to do the job.  And I sincerely believe that he has been brought on board by Kamla to clean up the colossal mess that Dookeran made of the economy. Howai’s mandate has to be put a halt to the decline….and try and stimulate some growth, please. If he does that, he’ll be the PM’s blue eyed boy, because the two fronts on which Kamla was all geared to lose Ejection 2015, was crime and the economy…..sounds like PNM 2010 deja vu doesn’t it?

Mindful of the fact that she was getting rid of two Afro-Trinbagonians (and all yuh could cry for Verna all all yuh want, after what happened to Cheryl Miller under her tenure she deserved to be fired), and was likely to face a pounding for the ethnic make up of her Cabinet, Kamla ensured that she did the requisite window-dressing….and I want you guys to note that she ensured that the two (redundant) ministries that deal up with issues like culture and diversity are headed by Afro-Trinbagonians. Game to Kamla….let the black people and them complain now….Eintou if you aint get no money for you Support a Bad Habit Committee is because Douglas, not Kamla, turn you down.

She has also set herself up nicely to ensure that the grassroots battle for Tobago and Local Elections can be efficiently fought. The offensive Shoppin Toppin has been moved from everyone’s sight and put under Glen Ramadharsingh (shudder) and Delmon Baker is now at the forefront. It’s now up to Assworth Jack and his spinning TOP to do the necessary and try and bring home that THA Elections….Kamla depending on your hand boy!

Suruj Rambachan, who was  spectacularly inefficient as a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communication Minister has now been made Minister of Local Government…..he’s close to all the plum Regional Corp contracts that make pocket lining so easy, and he can overseer the pack setting for next year’s local government elections. Chandresh Sharma has been given Transport, lucrative contracts and kickbacks for party financiers in that ministry as well.

So, now that we’ve arrived at this point I hope that the reader sees that the Reconfiguration exercise on the PM’s part was actually well thought out. She’s battling on several fronts and knows this. Yes, Jack Warner’s appointment as Security Minister is a big deal….but the even bigger deal here is that Kamla has begun to battle for 2015. Whether it will be effective now depends on performance. It is this that both the PNM and MSJ have to contend with.

Watch out too for the disappearance of the COP. With the MSJ gone the remaining members of the All Fours Alliance will begin to merge and morph and all sound the same. The COP’s identity is now entirely subsumed. No more standing up for principals and rights and Mayorships in San Fernando (ent Navi Murad-Ali?).

With a bigger Cabinet though comes more salaries to pay and more mouths to feed.

De Vice Cyah Done!

Eliminating the Evidence

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And it came to pass on Monday last that Grim Doopeesingh was riding a Jackass on his way to Pt Cumana

when a darkness as potent as the Keith fell upon him.

Grim jumped off his Jackass and grandcharged in the darkness,

flailing his arms about in a threatening manner,

and in the stillness that accompanied the Darkness came a voice that said,

“Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, stop thine foolishness and boileth down like a pot of Bhagee.”

Grim trembled with fear, looked at the voting population,

fell to his knees, begged forgiveness and said “I am yours to command.”
The Pantomime saw this and thought it was good.

This is the word of the Pantomime!
If you google TTPS Crime Stats up to a day ago you would get to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s web page that shows the number of crimes to date in their relevant categories. It is this web page that would have provided journalist Kevin Baldeosingh with figures to refute the claims made by ACP MErvyn Richardson that “Crime is down.” Go and google the same phrase now and there is no sign of the crime statistics…..Information manipulation folks. Without information at our fingertips we can’t think for ourselves….we have to rely on the bodies in charge to think for us. So when in future Richardson say, “Crime is Down” ignore the fact that retirees being hog tied and beaten while their sons being murdered, because how can we refute Richardson’s claim when he alone has access to the figures?

It’s dangerous business when state authorities decide to manipulate facts and figures in this way. We already have a government that lies to us. As recently as this week we had Devant Maharaj claiming that three vessels were being sold for scrap and then the Director of the Water taxi service contradicted him on national television in his presence and said, no, in fact, at least one vessel going to be refurbished and sold further up the Caribbean to function as a…wait for it….wait for it….WATER TAXI!!!!!

There’s a reason folks call him Deviant. He is a cunning one, that man. Just last evening we saw precisely what hiring family members with “common sense” as the only qualification will do for us. Rabindra “Prado” Moonan announced at  CAL’s launch of the start of their London route that CAL will never again give up the London route…..Deviant gets up right after and states that he will be keeping an eye on the route and if it isn’t profitable they will cut it. Two things become immediately apparent: these people don’t do their research, nor do they consult with each other. So, cash strapped CAL didn’t do a feasibility study on this route before launching it to know if it will be profitable or not? They launch the route first and then going to “see” if it profitable? And further, you and Rabindra aint consult with each other on what you planned to say? So basically the national airline being run worse than a parlour by these two fools and we mustn’t criticise.

I see Louis putting some pressure on Coconut Vendors, now my first response to this was, “Louis on he shit again”. But now, I am not so sure. Coconuts, I am advised, go for about $10 a nut now in Port of Spain, it’s a vending item with virtually no overhead on the production end of thing (no fertilising, watering etc) basically you plant, wait, harvest and sell. These carts occupy some of the best locations in town and vend for free????? You think any of those coconut vendors actually pay income tax, NIS and Health surcharge? I doubt, and yet they enjoy some of the best real estate the city has to offer rent-free…..and after 7 coconuts done cover their rent? Look, Louis, see if you could charge rent across the board, oui! That is the one recommendation I have at this stage.

Of course the talk on most people’s lips today will be Sat’s testimony at the HCU CoE wherein he accused Harry Harnarine of putting out a hit on him…Sat’s exact wrods were that Harry paid someone to “eliminate” him….like a bowel movement? A shat? And what pissed Sat off was that when he went to the Police and reported the death threats they told him that upon investigating the report it was determined to be a low level of threat. I listened to this and felt sorry for Sat….people don’t even hate him enough to want to kill him…and for all his public huffing and puffing even the police unmoved by his plight. But the most telling moment during Sat’ testimony came from comments he made that had nothing to do with HCU, and everything to do with curry and identity. Responding to some goad from the insolent Farid Scoon, Sat boasted saying,  if you go now to London curry is the preferred food in London. “We have taken over London.”
When asked if he meant Trinis when he said “we”  he stuttered before replying, “the conquered peoples”. Imagine after being born here, living here, growing here, eating ah food here Sat’s identity still grounded elsewhere!

 

Is Friday people….and we still here!

De Vice Cyah Done!

Tim the Toolman….and tales of other handymen!

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I want to recommend Grim Tim Doopeesingh for canonisation. Why? Because he has to be the best thing to happen to the Catholic religion here since the Nicene Council.

Anybody with half a working synapse will tell you that where you might get through with blatant corruption, nepotism and racism, the minute you start to touch people religion….their get out of jail free card with immor(t)ality….your ass is grass.

Doopeesingh’s attempted merger of a Catholic school with a Government school was tantamount to the man killing a bull and carrying it for Sat Maharaj yesterday. And as I watched the story and kuchoor unfold I wondered at the obtuseness and stupidity of Grim Tim. Even Eric the First (… Prime Minister, folks) with all the public support he had in the early years of his political career had to kowtow and concede to the Catholic Church. The details of that concession are enshrined in The Concordat, a document so powerful that even the other religious denominations for all their hatred of Catholicism hold on to it like a lifeline! we offer up a Te Deum to Dom Basil, because it was he who took on The Eric and triumphed….but I digress.

I fear Doopeesingh has never read the Concordat….indeed, I am beginning to wonder generally about his literacy and common sense. In a country where education is revered as the escape route from poverty of the working class surely Grim and his cohorts understand what religious-run schools mean to this country. There is a reason that Doopeesingh and his generation were sent to certain religious board schools, and tried to pass their Common Entrance or SEA or whatever for certain religious board schools….because in Trinidad and Tobago we have a healthy and profound belief that a religious-based education is the only path to success. Blame the missionaries who brought the idea here….our blame our society that cannot get out of its mimic men phase of existence, but government schools, whether primary or secondary, are always thought to be inferior to a religious board school. As such, these schools  possess a level of immunity that you just don’t touch!

The Concordat states quite plainly that the physical property of these schools are owned by the religious body….what it doesn’t quite state is who is responsible for building and maintenance…but if we just look at what happens around us it becomes pretty obvious. Since 1962 the Ministry of Education has undertaken to build and maintain both state and recognised religious board schools. While Facebook threads yesterday quibbled about who was responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the schools, it was eventually revealed that maintenance and upkeep actually falls under the State’s remit…..that is, the Ministry of Education….and right now the person at the helm of that ministry is none other than Grim Tim! But Town and Country has refused approval to raise another structure on the property ( i didn’t even realise we actually needed their approval to build a thing….look at Grand Bazaar…Regents Tower etc), so Grim Tim has to find an alternative…..Enter his bright idea!

This past Monday the Doopeesingh called a meeting between the parents of the Pt Cumana Govt School, the Pt Cumana RC School, the MP for Diego Martin West, aka The Keith and the Archbishop of the Catholic Church….a veritable Council of Trent!  The Archbishop maintains that he was never told all of these people would be present at the meeting….in short he was misled and waylaid by the Minister’s people, and so he declined to participate in the meeting. After listening to the concerns of the stakeholders, Doopeesingh, in his inimitably aggressive, boorish and dictatorial style, then condescended to tell the parents what would be done. Up until the Grim spoke the general idea was that there would be two schools co-existing on one compound….then it turns out that what Doopeesingh really meant was that he was going to merge and mix the two schools. The sacred and the profane…..as one school…..Tim feel he is Minsh? He was trying to make ah mas?

No, Tim, no! Do not be a martyr for your stupidity. Take it from a person who went to a Presbyterian Primary School and a Catholic Secondary School…..do not interfere with the rights and entitlements of these religious boards. Is not only Sat Maharaj and the Maha Sabha that can benefit from the Concordat. It have a reason the document name in Latin meh boy!

To merge a state and a denominational school has implications for the curricula taught as well as staffing and budget. After a merger, who decides the curricula? Who decides which teachers stay? Tim…the Concordat specifically says that the board retains rights over these areas….you forget that? Your advisers didn’t read the document at all? Not even the first 2-3 bulleted points?

And further, to tell parents that you not building a new school because you don’t want to waste tax payers dollars was pretty insulting in light of all the squandermania that has happened under this govt…let me list a few: The Arima Prison Facility to house 1 inmate, $60m; The PM’s Travel Assistant $800,000; The Crop Duster, $.9m; Fuad and Vernella’s Credit cards US$20,000; the last Budget extension $1.5bn…..the budget extension before that, do I need to go on? More money has been spent on silly frivolous things than have been spent on educating our children….and their parents are tax payers….so what shit you really coming with?

The Archbishop’s decision to seek legal advice and further, to reject the Minister’s offer, if Tim aint realise it, was a slap in the face and a tossing down of the gauntlet (a la Fluellen and Gower in Henry V). In the course of one stupidly aggressive and condescending speech Grim Tim Doopeesingh has riled up more than 300,000 people….at least that’s around how many Roman Catholics we have in Trinidad at the 2000 census. The other thing Doopeesingh forgets is this, a significant portion of non-Catholics were educated at these schools and have a soft spot for their alma maters. He has no choice but to back down on this matter and boil down like a pot of young bhagi!

Catholics will turn a blind eye to corruption, genocide and paedophilia…..but don’t touch their churches and schools!  And blaming  Keith Rowley for your hoof-in-mouth-disease is embarassing and tasteless. As Minister of Education the buck stops with you. You are the final decision maker.

Now the School has been moved to a Church Hall in Constabulary Street, and Tim, your tenure as Minister won’t be remembered for the clear cronyism going on within your ministry…..it won’t even be remembered for how you trying to screw over SEA students….it will be remembered for how you tried to mess with the Concordat and in one fell swoop got the nation’s Catholics pissed off at your highhanded ways!

You skilled Tim…You blessed and talented…I can’t remember the last time I see a man bend over AND screw himself at the same time….

In other news, the COP, who never took Anil Roberts (for his loud mouthed boorish ways) or Prakash Ramadhar (for generally letting down of the party and not upholding principles) to task now want to cruficy Nalini Dial, a woman who made a tasteless comment on her private Facebook wall. Ms Dial, who faced much public condemnation for her comments, is basically being punished for exercising her freedom of expression. Or maybe she’s being punished for her stupidity, because since the leak of the comment from her wall to the media Dial has refused to apologise (well within he right), but further to that is now making the rounds of television and radio shows to defend her comments. Really Nalini? Who on earth advising you?I sense a pre-action protocol letter in someone’s future. It’s a pity that the COP more interested in public perception over an issue that will blow away in 9 days, than in putting their political house in order….more and more they remind me of the UNC!

Oh, by the way, Marlene Coudray has stopped posing with the Prime Minister for photo ops and 48 hours after news broke of her daughter’s disappearance and possible death has arrived in Jamaica!

The HCU Enquiry continues to heat up. The most recent update is how a handyman went from rags to riches. The story today outlines for us some recurrent themes in Trinbagonian social history…our love of mimicry, penchant for corruption and predisposition for ethnic discimination. Some interesting details come out in the course of  George James’ testimony. We see his meteoric rise from being a handyman to owning a contruction and home repair company. We learn that his business was a consortium, and used as a “clearing house” for the HCU’s other businesses. We learn that James planned to build a Disneyland styled water park. That his success at the company had people wondering if Harnarine was trying to douglarise the HCU…..why contact with Afro-Trinbagonians does frighten some people so? We learn too that “the unspoken policy in the HCU is to make money off of stupid niggers”.

In short we learn many things that we already know. Ours is a corrupt, depraved, racist society on all sides of the fence…..and we like it so!
All yuh feeling Kamla’s wind of change?

De Vice Cyah Done!

In a Real Slump!

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I want you to pay attention to a few things. The turn over of new missteps by the PP has slowed down, and what we have now is a case of the same missteps further compounding themselves and becoming large and bloated issues.

These are the issues that are going to be used to do battle against them come the THA Elections, the next Local Elections and of course the next General Elections…whenever that will be. I’m no longer saying 2015 because the political environment seems volatile. While the Panchayat still has a pretty sound support base that flood the the online blogging sites and  newspaper, radio and television comment boards; there is now a growing voice of dissent as well. The people who were always pro-PNM are openly gloating now, “Ent all yuh vote for that? Well take change in all yuh pweffen!” And many of the PP supporters who made the switch to the Bigger, Better Party are now bawling that this isn’t the change they voted for. For many who remember being upset by nepotism, corruption, squandermania and an autocratic leadership style under Patrick Manning’s version of the PNM, Kamla’s tenure thus far seems like a case of exchange….we went from Patrick Manning….to Patrick Manning in drag.
The PNM die-hards have even gone so far as to insist that Manning’s term in office wasn’t “so bad”…and this is where it get’s scary for me. Because when your governance is so bad that Manning starts looking like a good leader know that we in shit!

Our education, health and environmental policies are no better now than they were under Manning. The education system is outdated and failing the nation’s children. Our health care system is in a mess….and as for Environmental policies? What Environmental policies? It still easier for a man to start a quarry in Trinidad than to start a farm!

The majority of the population here is so caught up with just surviving…finding ah food to eat, that the larger issues like what kind of quality of life they want and what kind of governance and leadership they should agitate for escape them completely.

For the mother who needs money to look after her family, does it matter if Dookeran has no real fiscal policies or if Kamla will giver her a handout that will help make ends meet?

And this is the problem right here for me….previous administrations have ensured that the majority of the population remains dependent on a system so shitty that it is demeaning. So, issues like nepotism, corruption, bad fiscal policies, squandermania etc mean nothing once the masses could eat ah food.

In the last 2 weeks there has been a web of lies developing around several crucial issues.

In 2010 the PP campaigned and said that the PNM had squandered so much money there was virtually none in the treasury. Dookeran promised as Minister of Finance he was going to steady the country fiscally, after 8 years of PNM mismanagement, and put us back on track. From Budget 2010, to Budget 2011/12 we have had increasingly larger budgets, and larger deficits. Further, no budget has followed through on the campaign promise of diversification of the economy away from fuel. If anything, Kamla seems to lean heavier on the fuel economy. The other thing that I have noticed about the budgets is that the last three have been focused on spending money on social programmes like increased pensions (which they took back) and CEPEP. What I want you to bear in mind is that the same kind of spending that Kamla et al complained about under the PNM (CEPEP, HYPE, MUST), all the various make-work programmes, is precisely what she is now copying….and further, her same supporters who complained bitterly that “money wasting in make-work programmes” are now saying on the same walls and blogs where they once complained…that CEPEP is a good thing!

I have to smile. CEPEP was once so demonised. It was a programme that UNC supporters complained harboured criminals, encouraged laziness in blacks (we all know about the 10-days mentality), indeed, many critics of CEPEP and other make-work programmes often complained that Manning and the PNM generally used it to create a dependency syndrome in their voter base…..so, then, tell me how Kamla’s use of CEPEP and Colour Me Orange is any different? Is it that Kamla’s supporters like hand-outs too and like to work as little as possible for a regular wage? My goodness….might we have been wrong about the ethnic-stereotyping we ascribed to CEPEP??????

What is frighteningly clear is that this government has no long term goals for turning the country’s economy around. The 2011 budget has seen government come back to Parliament not once, but twice in 2012 to ask for more money….more money from a treasury they claimed was empty. If they’ve asked us twice this year for money to manage last year’s budget…what going to happen in September 2012? Our next budget is about 3 months away and the steady economy and blue skies Dookeran promised us are nowhere to be seen. In fact, he has spent the last two weeks trying to convince us…and himself, that we aren’t in a slump. Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams quoted figures and said the economy was in a slump…Winston Dookeran using the same figures said the economy wasn’t….so who should we believe? Dookeran is a politician in a party that fighting for dear life right now because they have riled up the labour force and pensioners.

We are now three years into the PP’s governance and the economy they claimed was left in shambles is even worse off.

The pension issue is another case of lies and half truths flying all over the place after yet another shady promised. In 2010, while in one breath saying Manning had squandered money and left the treasury empty,  Kamla again promised on her election campaign that all pensioners over 60 years of age, regardless of whether they were receiving a pension elsewhere, would be entitled to a pension of $3000. Kamla made a big deal of it, because it was meant to show how much her government cared. After winning the election the PP government sought to distance itself from the pension promise. And by 2012 the talk had changed entirely with the government insisting that the senior citizens pension would now be reliant upon their NIS contributions. So, now, we have a situation where at least 15,000 pensioners are now receiving $1000 less than they were receiving at their last check, because Kamla didn’t keep the promise made. Yet Glen Ramadharsingh in television and radio interviews keeps insisting that pensioners aren’t getting a cent less than before….so who should I believe? A politician with a shady past….or the pensioners who can show you on their checks where there is a reduction in income?

The last issue I’ll tackle today….and trust me there is more, there always is with this government….is the investigation into Jack Warner.

Last year the Attorney General, following the leaking of a tape in which it is alleged Jack Warner bribed a room of Concacaf officials, launched a probe into MP Warner 2-3 weeks ago the the Police Service Commission (why them???) sent out a press release saying that CoP Gibbs had been advised by the DPP that Warner was cleared. Jack was jubilant….claimed he felt vindicated. Then 24 hours later we would find out that the investigation was done in a half-assed way, the DPP never cleared Jack, in fact he indicated in his report that the evidence was thin….aka half assed investigation, and that the police service should look into whether Warner had broken Customs and Excise laws….to date not a word on that issue. Inspector Totaram Dookie seems not to have explored that avenue in his thorough investigation….and this morning we have the AG, who launched the probe into Warner, jumping in to weigh on the issue and say that Warner is in the clear….pre-mature doesn’t begin to describe his actions….as well as immature and unprofessional. But, then again, this is the same AG who can’t find another charge to lay on Calder Hart apart from perjury….To date the only real investigation into the Jack Warner bribery scandal is on wired868.com, but Lasana Liburd can’t lay charges….the police have to….and now that Mr Warner sits on the same National Security Council as the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of National Security I doubt any investigation on him going to make serious headway.

Oh, and as an aside, the Minister of Buffoonery…Queen Kamla’s Court Jester Rood Boi Moonilal is at it again….he whips out a document in parliament and misleads the public into thinking it might have been linked to Patrick Manning, when it was really another Patrick…..if it’s one thing that has turned me off this PP Government entirely is their penchant for lying….brazen lying and vulgar behaviour….that seems to be their hall mark.

De Vice Cyah Done!