By Clint Chan Tack
August 01, 2021 – newsday.co.tt
MOVEMENT for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah said slavery continues today in different forms.
He made the statement in his Emancipation Day message to the nation.
He said the MSJ “deplores the fact that our education system is so deficient in the teaching of our real history – the history of the struggle “out of slavery, through indenture and up to freedom.”
Continue reading MSJ’s David Abdulah: Slavery continues today
By Julien Neaves
March 17, 2021 – newsday.co.tt
POLITICAL and social activist Bernard Yawching said he expects backlash over his book The Hidden Agenda of Race Relations in Trinidad and Tobago.
The new book accuses the United National Congress (UNC), the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS), and some members of the Hindu community and the East Indian community of promoting a racist agenda. It tracks events from a 1913 speech by former Arima Mayor FEM Hosein about Africans not being as productive as Indians to more modern-day controversies such as Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar describing the Prime Minister as an “oreo.”
Continue reading Bernard Yawching defends book accusing UNC, Hindus of racist agenda
By Raffique Shah
July 27, 2020
It would be remiss of me if, having chosen to comment on the 2020 general election, I ignored the many small parties and independent candidates that have entered the race. The Elections and Boundaries Commission said 150 candidates from 19 parties are set to do battle in 41 constituencies on August 10. Between the PNM and the UNC, they have fielded 80 candidates (41 and 39 respectively), while the new Progressive Empowerment Party has 28 candidates. This means that the other 16 parties and independents will have 42 starters when the polls open.
Continue reading New prospects for small parties
By Raffique Shah
November 8, 2019
Four weeks before the local government elections, and nothing tells me that there will be any more excitement than there was on November 28, 2016, when the customary one-third of the one million registered electors bothered to vote (34.34 percent to be precise), with the results being as predictable as the campaign was boring.
Continue reading Periscope on local government elections
By Laurel V Williams
March 09, 2015 – newsday.co.tt
Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah has dispelled speculation that his party would be joining forces with other political parties in the upcoming general elections scheduled for later this year.
Instead, he said the MSJ had ‘conversations’ with individuals in TT “who are equally upset about what is taking place in the country”.
Continue reading MSJ to fight elections alone
By Raffique Shah
February 28, 2015
A political volcano has erupted with full force, spewing rocks, ash, lava and fetid gases across Trinidad and Tobago’s landscape. But even as the explosion demolishes structures and changes the electoral topography, the political seismologists and volcanologists, seemingly in stupor, pretend that all is well.
Continue reading Political volcano erupts
By Raffique Shah
September 07, 2014
Archbishop Joseph Harris strikes me as being a “rootsy Trini”—a prelate who commands respect beyond his flock even as he exudes a tremendous sense of humour.
What I could not discern from a distance (I’ve never met the good Father) is that he is also a humorist who can put veterans such as Paul Keens-Douglas and “Sprangalang” to pale on any stage at any time.
Continue reading Politics and ethics only rhyme
By Raffique Shah
April 20, 2014
The UNC minister or activist who mobilised a gang of hooligans to disrupt a public meeting staged by dissident Barrington “Skippy” Thomas last Thursday evening should be taken before the party’s firing squad and shot—with “goat pills”. He (or she) has done irreparable damage to the United National Congress’s image, if that is at all possible.
Continue reading Crucifixions and Resurrections
By Stephen Kangal
November 11, 2013
Being a classic marginal seat, Monday’s St. Joseph Constituency (SJC) bye-election results have encapsulated and mirrored the psycho-political underpinnings of the changing electoral dynamics as well as of the traditional ethnic moorings impacting on and progressively shaping the national political/electoral psyche- a microcosm of the macrocosm.
Continue reading St Joseph Embodied the National Electoral Psyche
By Raffique Shah
November 10, 2013
Many readers scoffed at my suggestion in last week’s column that a rapprochement between UNC/COP and the ILP was a strong possibility in the run-up to the next general elections, due no later than August 2015. I imagine diehard supporters on both sides of the divide feel deeply wounded by the abuse their leaders hurled at each other during the three campaigns conducted since Jack Warner broke with the United National Congress (UNC) and formed the Independent Liberal Party (ILP).
Continue reading Facing Elections Nightmare