Tag Archives: Keith Rowley

The PNM and the politics

By Michael Harris
May 23, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com

PNMLast week I sought to examine how the People’s Partnership Government had fared in its first year in office and to assess its current and future impact on the politics of the country. Today I turn my attention to the People’s National Movement, the official Opposition (which is also observing, if not celebrating, an anniversary of sorts), to examine how it has fared in its first year in opposition following a most comprehensive defeat at the polls.
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Time for the President to change the Integrity Commission

Chairman of the Integrity Commission Eric St CyrTHE EDITOR: The Chairman of the Integrity Commission Eric St Cyr has been quoted as saying that the controversy surrounding the award of the $40 million contract to Gopaul and Company Ltd could have been avoided if the Prime Minister had stayed at a hotel.

The alacrity in which the Commission’s Chairman responded is similar to the pace of response when the Opposition questioned the appointment of Jack Warner as a Minister whilst at the same time holding an Executive FIFA office.
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PM admits staying in house owned by NP favoured contractor

GOPAUL ARE MY FRIENDS

By Darcel Choy
May 18, 2011 – newsday.co.tt

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-BissessarPrime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday said the owners of the house she stayed at on Maraj Street in Pasea, Tunapuna, during and after last year’s general election, were her friends.

“We are not blood relatives, we are not related by blood, not by blood or marriage, they were friends,” she said.

Speaking to members of the media after the opening of the Bon Air West Early Childhood Care and Education Centre, Persad-Bissessar confirmed she stayed at the home of Ralph and Maureen Gopaul.
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Ex-PM Manning suspended

Patrick ManningSUSPENDED
Manning sanctioned for being in contempt of Parliament
“Mr Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning is accordingly suspended from the service of this House with immediate effect,” declared House Speaker Wade Mark last night.

Mark did not state for what period of time but a suspension cannot cross a session of Parliament, which is the maximum threshold for a suspension. This session ends on June 18.
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Look What the PNM Come To!!!

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
May 11, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn March I supported the candidacy of Penny Beckles to become the chairman of the PNM because I thought she was the better candidate. Many of my friends, including Louis Lee Sing and Ferdie Ferreira, felt that Franklyn Khan was the better candidate not necessarily because he was more accomplished than Penny but because he is an Indian. In his now-famous words, Comrade Lee Sing declared: “If we don’t elect Khan as our chairman the PNM will become a N….Party.”
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A full circle

By Raffique Shah
April 23, 2011

Raffique ShahFORTY-ONE years ago, almost to the week, tens of thousands of mainly idealistic young people thought we had killed and buried the “race bogey” in this cussed country. We had grown up knowing that race-tension lay beneath the veneer of peaceful co-existence that those in authority had proclaimed. Too often, we had heard the epithets “nigger” and “coolie” bandied about, suggesting that after almost 150 years of living together in this melting pot, our people of different races and cultures were clinging to prejudices of a distant past.
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Race Talk in the House

ParliamentRace Talk in House: Jack, Rowley square off
The People’s Partnership has achieved better ethnic balance in the appointments of boards, Works Minister Jack Warner stated yesterday. He was speaking in the House of Representatives on the motion filed by Dr Keith Rowley, asking the House to reaffirm its collective commitment to the principles of fairness and meritocracy in public affairs in the light of the “reckless and divisive statements” made by the former Police Service Commission chairman Nizam Mohammed.
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Rowley’s Failure

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
April 20, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe hiccups PNM is going through have more to do with Keith Rowley’s failure to lead than Patrick Manning’s political intransigence and nostalgia for power. Manning, the insane victim of his own ill-judgment, is suffering from the failed-leader syndrome to which many past leaders fall prey: an inability to recognize they messed up and ought to leave the political stage quietly if they cannot do so gracefully. This is the difference between great leaders (such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania) who knew how to demit office peacefully and stubborn autocrats (such as Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarack of Egypt and Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivore) for whom power is an entrancing aphrodisiac.
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Manning’s Humiliation

Newsday’s Editorial
Sunday, April 17 2011

Patrick ManningFormer prime minister, Patrick Manning, not only had a private motion tabled in his name, rejected in the House of Representatives by vote of Government members, but suffered the public humiliation of five members of the political party he once led, the People’s National Movement (PNM) openly refusing to give him the support he clearly expected.
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PNM’s Backward Politics

lettersTHE EDITOR: At its recent Convention, the Peoples National Movement has demonstrated that its inner and intra relationship politics is backward, undemocratic, pathetic and exposes its negative/self defeating cult of the Absolute Leader. Patrick Manning is no longer the PNM’s Political leader but he still determines the policies of the PNM. Even though he was absent from the Convention Manning was able to defeat Rowley, the new, unopposed leader on two major policy issues, critical to the image and future of the party.
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