Category Archives: PNM

General T&T, PNM, Politics

Patriotism and its vulgar application

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 09, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOver the past two weeks Minister Stuart Young has proclaimed his patriotism and his commitment to the central tenet of our National Anthem: “Here every creed and race find an equal place.” Anyone who objects to his interpretation of this aspect of the anthem is accused of being a racist or, as he said recently, of playing “the unsavoury race card”. He has accused me of attacking him “on the basis of race” (Express, January 2).
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General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Pride in our origins

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 02, 2023

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago I cautioned the People’s National Movement about the Prime Minister’s desire to foist Stuart Young upon the party as its next political leader. I also asked party leaders to recognise how important black people are to the sustenance of the party.

In his response, Minister Young accused the editor of the Express and me of being racist for publishing my observation. He commented: “The Express editor has taken a conscious decision to use racism as the foundation for an attack against me and I reject this… It is important at moments like this when media and others attempt to attack persons based on race, and a promotion of racism, that we, the citizens, reject them and their messaging, and I do so.” (Express, December 19.)
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Unravelling of a nationalist party

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 19, 2022

PART II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWhen the People’s National Movement started its mission in 1956, its primary responsibility was to uplift all members of the society, particularly the underclass, and to ensure that each party member was treated fairly. It also held out the promise that each member could rise to the highest levels of the party.

Although the founding members understood that genuine democracy implies one-man-one-vote, they also recognised that equity (the quality of being fair and impartial) should be the base of the party’s mission rather than the ubiquitous notion of formal equality. They believed that the promulgation of formal freedoms is an empty gesture if the necessary political structures were not in place to achieve them.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, Law, PNM, Police

A case of narcissistic sycophancy

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
Submitted: December 04, 2022
Posted: December 06, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeBy the time you read this column, the Hon Keith Rowley will have been re-elected leader of the PNM by as much as about 75 to 80 per cent of the vote. In so doing, party members have placed their seal of endorsement on everything he has done, thereby taking full responsibility for the downward spiral in which the country finds itself. On the very weekend in which he is elected leader of the party, we will be witnessing a record number of homicides in the country.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

A sacrificial lamb

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 28, 2022

“Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead…”

—William Blake, “The Lamb”

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeTwo weeks ago I spoke about the incivility in our political culture and the need to refrain from making savage attacks against one another. Many people responded favourably to my article. Richard de Lima, writing from Ontario, Canada, observed: “I have been reading your columns in the Express several years, which though always informative, sometimes stimulating, and often entertaining, have not prompted me to write you before. On this occasion, I feel obliged to extend my compliments to you on the penetrating remarks made about the conduct of PNM ministers and other senior party officials in regard to challengers for various positions in the forthcoming party elections.
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Crime in T&T, General T&T, PNM, Politics

No place to hide

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 14, 2022

“There’s no hidin’ place up there,
Oh, I went to the hills to hide my face,
The hills cried out, ‘No hidin’ place;
There’s no hidin’ place up here.”

—An Afro-American spiritual

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThings have been warming up (or deteriorating) lately in the political arena among those who see others as pothounds; those who consider themselves as thoroughbreds; and those who accuse challengers of the established order as possessing sinister motives.

Stuart Young, Minister of Energy, demeaned PNM members who offered themselves for leadership positions in the party’s forthcoming elections. He claimed that since 2015, some of them have done nothing but criti­cise the party leaders “like little pothounds barking at our ankles as though they are the opposition and now they want to put themselves forward and call themselves firstly PNM members and then secondly want to be PNM leaders”.
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General T&T, PNM, Politics

Talk to me

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By Raffique Shah
October 10, 2022

Raffique ShahThis race, Karen (Nunez-Tesheira), is not for leadership of The People’s National Movement. It is for leadership of the country, the nation. It requires someone of stature and fortitude who can take Trinidad and Tobago by the scruff of its neck or other body parts, shake the masses into facing the reality that we can work our way out of the deep hole we have dug ourselves into, and from which we can clamber out only if we stand shoulder to shoulder and use our collective strength.
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Crime in T&T, PNM, Politics

Academic oasis

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By Raffique Shah
September 05, 2022

Raffique ShahI was scanning the local television channels last Tuesday for any Independence-related special programming they might feature on the eve of the 60th anniversary, when I realised CCN TV6 was about to run live coverage of the formal opening of the Dr Eric Williams Memorial Library and museum in Port of Spain.

As the cameras panned the guests arriving for what was likely to be one of the feature events of the anniversary, I experienced a wave of nostalgia, memories of what seemed to have been many years ago when Erica Williams, daughter of the late prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, first communicated with me about her project.
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General T&T, PNM, UNC

The cries of our people

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 29, 2022

“The horner man crying; Somebody horn de horner man…”
—Anil Roberts on Keith Rowley

“I could take a horn if I get one. I ain’t sending nobody to kill nobody.”
—Dr Keith Rowley’s response to Roberts

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThese are the sentiments of two of our leaders on the eve of the Diamond jubilee of our Independence. Serious people treated Roberts’ characterisation of Sharon Clark-Rowley, the prime minister’s wife, with the disdain that it deserved. There was no reason to drag her into the gutter, as there was no need to elevate such spurious nonsense to the level of serious national discourse. As we say—if you play with the dog, you get bitten by the fleas.
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