Prime Minister’s gone wild… with elation at election results!

An elderly woman’s behaviour, which was controversially rebroadcast by the media, has come under national scrutiny with critics saying she should know better than to expose her frailties in public while supporters insist she had every right to be moved by the excitement around her.

But enough talk about the Beetham Gardens lady who flashed Newsday with her underwear.

Anyone caught Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s concession speech on Monday night?

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

First of all, Mr Live Wire would like to say if that anyone is stopped by a policeman while driving home and responds with “Ooooohwoooeeoho… Police posse, good evening!” and that motorist is not Maximus Dan; a breathalyser is likely to follow.

Which is not to say the motorist is necessarily inebriated; just that the officer might think it wise to make sure.

But, as we should know by now, sober judgment is not a prerequisite of politics.

Here is a Wired868 list of do’s and don’ts under the influence:

Things we cannot do while drunk: drive, handle heavy machinery, take antibiotics and competently screen potential dance partners.

Photo: See ociffer? Who's the drunk now?
Photo: See ociffer? Who’s the drunk now?

Things we can do while drunk: make friends (and quickly lose them), create new dance moves and appreciate Iwer George’s latest hit.

Grey areas: address thousands of political supporters at a sensitive time, run the country, recall important electoral results and remember what you were writing about.

At least Mr Live Wire is big enough to own up to the last one. But I digress.

UNC deputy political leader and the PM’s cheerleader-in-chief, Suruj Rambachan, was mad as hell that a video of the Prime Minister’s unusual concession speech is making the rounds on Facebook.

And by “unusual concession speech”, we don’t just mean because she did not actually concede anything and was not even sure how many corporations her party won.

Photo: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar gave a memorable concession speech after the 2013 Local Government Elections. For starters, she thought she won...
Photo: Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar gave a memorable concession speech after the 2013 Local Government Elections.
For starters, she thought she won…

“(The video) was politically motivated,” said Rambachan, in today’s Express. “What they have done is to take a video and apparently cut and paste parts of it to make a mockery of it.”

By “they” Rambachan meant the CNC3 news station, “politically motivated” meant broadcasting the political leader’s election views to the population and “apparently cut and paste” means edit.

Was Rambachan unsure of what a hatchet job looks like? Perhaps he should review a recent ad where audio clips from Jack Warner and Keith Rowley are interwoven to give the impression that they were in cahoots, so as to mislead and scare People’s Partnership voters into action.

But we are digressing again there.

Rambachan explained that, like the embarrassed woman in the Beetham, the Prime Minister was just excited by everything going on around her.

“We did much better (in the elections) than we had thought we were going to do,” said Rambachan. “… This can cause anyone to get excited and we were all excited about it.”

Photo: UNC deputy political leader Surujrattan Rambachan. (Courtesy www.news.gov.tt)
Photo: UNC deputy political leader Surujrattan Rambachan.
(Courtesy www.news.gov.tt)

In fact, the People’s Partnership lost roughly half of its corporations and possibly more if Chaguanas goes to the PNM, which might mean that Rambachan has set a new mark for extreme optimism.

The glass is not empty, you see, it is just perfect for a refill.

A possible problem with Rambachan’s explanation about the source of Persad-Bissessar’s high spirits is that the Prime Minister did not seem to know what the results were.

“Out of those eight (she only acknowledged her party’s efforts in eight corporations), we have brought home… how many?” the Prime Minister asked members of her podium, while already a few minutes into her speech.

Most people would try to get such information before starting a public address on election results. But the Prime Minister is not one to be bound by convention. In fact, she did not seem restrained by anything at all.

“Six out of eight,” said Persad-Bissessar, as she turned again to her audience. “Well six out of seven really eh; because one, San Juan, we never win (in) 2010.”

Take that San Juan! You thought you broke up with us; but you never had us to begin with! Joke’s on you!

Photo: From Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan: "Dear San Juan constituents. Concerning those things the PM said about you when she was clearly very excited..." (Courtesy PAHO.org)
Photo: From Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan:
“Dear San Juan constituents. Concerning those things the PM said about you when she was clearly very excited…”
(Courtesy PAHO.org)

Some persons on the podium shouted “five, five” at the Prime Minister.

“Alright, we bring home five,” said the Prime Minister, who was not going to let another lost corporation spoil her brilliant mood. “Give it up for five…”

The Prime Minister was mangling her lines, even as they were being shouted helpfully at her seconds before she repeated them. Thankfully, we did not elect her for karaoke.

“Tonight and tomorrow, I am still your Prime Minister,” she said, with a smile.

The nation probably breathed a collective sigh of relief. Her possible future career as a public speaker is definitely on hold for a few years at least.

Later in the news clip, TV6 reporter Mark Bassant asked the Prime Minister about proportional representation and seemed surprised when Persad-Bissessar briefly took his microphone with both hands to respond.

Photo: Whatever you do, Elmo, don't grab Kermit's mic. Reporters usually hate that.
Photo: Whatever you do, Elmo, don’t grab Kermit’s mic. Reporters usually hate that.

A newsman’s microphone is sacred. But Bassant did not look too put off by the violation of his instrument and is unlikely to file a complaint. Of course politicians never seem to remember such acts of goodwill when they accuse the media of being on a spiteful mission to humiliate upstanding citizens.

Wait, was Mr Live Wire referring to the humiliation of a Beetham grandmother or the rebroadcast of a kamikaze address by the proclaimed “Mother of the Nation?”

Methinks I shooed pot dun this drunk ‘fore I gut Wired868 in treble.

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13 comments

  1. Not Fatigued, Happy, is how I think Dr. Rambachan described it on the night

  2. Hahahaha. I didn’t actually. She sounded “fatigued”?

  3. But Lasana didn’t you realize that during the phone interview about the 2-Pull Look-A-Like, she had the same accent?

  4. Feel free to check through the “Good Morning” archives too for more from Mr Live Wire 😉

  5. LOL, love this article, you had me chuckling all through it. (y)

  6. lol gotta love this writer
    “The glass is not empty, you see, it is just perfect for a refill.”

  7. Like John Legend: “when I lose I am wining”

  8. Live Wire868 you have a gift. This is a funny article, enjoyed it.

  9. It seems that being in high spirits puts everyone here in trouble …

    No matter whey pashy yuh votedfor, duh People’s Parship ish still your government! Tonight and tomorrow, I am still your Prime Mishter …

    That mini-earthquake felt around 1220am on Tuesday morning was me, rolling on the ground with uncontrollable laughter!

  10. Some points gathered from this..
    1. She was supposed to vote @ 11:30 am she came at 2 pm with a female aide tightly holding her hand. Hm… This is when the suspicions started.
    2. It would be easy for her advisors to see she’s intoxicated. UNLESS they may be accustomed and thought she would handle it with just a few slurs through a prepared speech like usual.
    3. An intoxicated leader is easily shepherded by “advisors”. It starts to become clear who is really running the country.
    4. The mic was cut when her behaviour accelerated. But UNC propagandists still comment and pretend she was… tired… or as the announcer said when she stumbled by the
    platform “intoxicated with victory”.
    5. “6 out of 8??” wait no… “5 out of 8″… she doesn’t even know whats going on??? and can’t begin to put whatever she knows into a coherent sentence.
    …It’s 8 vs 5 and one hung!
    6. The pm is not charismatic or outspoken by nature… (EDITED). This behaviour was NOT sober or in character.
    7. This is a continual disgrace to the nation and as the first female prime minister it’s a terrible legacy to leave.

    • Someone said where the FB clip is, ‘Drunk or Sober, she’s doing a better job than the previous administration!
      I agree the PP in 1.5 to 2-years did better than any government since 1956, and J.A. Warner was in the Government for them to look good.
      That was 1.5 years into Government’ and I can say my view is: Yes, it was when every-one started to work and set-up shop in 2010. Afterward, the Maha Saba took-over from T&T to India, and people who was not voted into office called senators, became ministers and running the show because sat calling the shots to his soldiers in Faith, to keep the faith… that regime is called the Cabal, and they can celebrate occasions and rob the taxpayers at the same time, that is called multitasking. Now its bigger than you are seeing-it, most is controlled through Ram Bachan cousin in India, how much people of the faith did the taxpayers pay for to go to India? Why does any one believe that India means Hindu, Why? And why does all these bleeders fool their followers, poor or rich followers who are in a trance and they laugh all the way the Banks in India and elsewhere… Drink-Rob-Fast-Pray and celebrate, all at the same time and more, that’s the mantra… Why is Senators running the country? Same as Patrick times, he brought young people to control… but the PM is a party animal since her decade and a half plus in Jamaica, so she can’t change her skin!
      They (the UNC) came here again, in NY for funding, and coming again… but we will deal differently (and Green if we must) and do not want to see any Cabal. They have to have a Name change… No soldiers from Sat crooked tear-*** band!
      India must start to send people of different religion from its cosmopolitan country as High Commissioners… Bring a Catholic a Presbyterian, Muslim and etc…
      This crooked spin controlled even from PNM times (fooled by sat) to give people the foolish impression that INDIA means Hindu, must stop here and now! Sat, Hindi is a language, its not Hindu… god-damn, the educated Hindus are all wrapped up in the cabal-ism/tribalism. you would never think these people have education!
      Have some respect for T & T People, and you are not the majority! My business partner in T&T knows more about the crooked!

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