Owing to pressures on my time, I was unable last Sunday to join in the commentary on the Prime Minister’s confession that he was the high official present at President’s House in August 2021. He was not there to meet the President, as he frequently does, but to meet …
Read More »Dear Editor: If PM did not instruct or intimidate PolSC members, how is what he did interference?
“[…] The obligation of the PM was to share the information with the PolSC as soon as possible, and leave it to that institution to deal with the matter on its own “[…] Are our memories so shallow that we have forgotten the attempted coup in 1990?! At the time, …
Read More »Demming: Open letter to Bliss Seepersad on ‘hidden hand of power’ that manipulated CoP Merit List
Dear Bliss, On behalf of the Prime Minister and the people of Trinidad and Tobago, I apologise for any anxiety and pain you have experienced over the past six months because our Prime Minister refused to admit that he was the official who, on 12 August 2021, intervened and diverted …
Read More »Daly Bread: Excuses feeding failure; reconstituted PolSC must still account for CoP merit list
George Washington Carver was born into conditions of slavery but nevertheless became a prominent agricultural scientist and innovator in crop farming. I mention him in the context of our leaders masking reality with excuses. Carver stated his view in a single sentence: ‘Ninety-nine per cent of failures come from …
Read More »Dear Editor: President Weekes would breach T&T Constitution if she revealed PolSC talks
“[…] In Section 35(c) of our Constitution, it is stated that the President may be removed from office if ‘… he behaves in a manner that endangers the security of the State…’ “It is pellucidly clear that the President is prohibited from sharing sensitive confidential information, with the national community, …
Read More »Daly Bread: All farcical and tangled up—between an evasive Govt and an unattractive Opposition
Many readers will recall the political controversies in which President Anthony Carmona, the immediate predecessor of our current president, was involved—arising out of the purported exercise of powers that he thought he had. As a result, citizens hoped that the presidency would return to calmer waters, not made turbulent by …
Read More »MSJ: Whose agenda are the UNC seeking to promote by weaponising the Parliament?
“[…] Some commentators are suggesting that there should have been a debate so that answers to questions that the public have could have been obtained. We disagree. “[…] Neither the President nor the former Chair of the PolSC sits in the Parliament so that, given what we’ve heard in the …
Read More »‘Should PolSC have been left in the dark?’ President says Merit List for CoP was received and ‘withdrawn almost immediately’
“[…] I confirm that an Order of Merit List in respect of the commissioner of police was delivered on 11 August 2021 to the OTP and withdrawn almost immediately thereafter that day. I therefore had no list from which a notification could issue. “[…] If there exists apparently credible information …
Read More »Daly Bread: Concerns remain over Al-Rawi’s half-Nelson and the Office of the President
Who aborted the process for the appointment of a substantive commissioner of police and why? Is the unprecedented situation of the top leadership positions in the Police Service now being vacant the outcome of the President’s acts and omissions concerning the merit list which the Police Service Commission had settled, …
Read More »Daly: Prime Minister’s duty to ‘inform’ does not excuse PolSC Chair meeting or alleged instructions
Recent reference has been made to the Prime Minister’s constitutional duty to keep the President of the Republic informed of the state of affairs in Trinidad and Tobago in purported answer to public concern about an alleged meeting between an unnamed public official and the then Chair of the Police …
Read More »Noble: The PolSC’s Game of Thrones—as fingers point at Bliss, what of Kawalsingh’s conduct?
The Bible has remarkable insights into power politics: indeed, the popular series Games of Thrones may have drawn inspiration from it. We are witnessing the intrigues and drama of local politics as two powerful tribes—kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and honest men—play a deadly, internecine game for control. …
Read More »Daly Bread: Who is guarding the public interest, as public offices fall prey to political interference?
It is well known that in a functioning democracy checks and balances to guard against abuses of power are required in the public interest. In addition to the separation of the respective powers of the political executive (principally the Cabinet), the legislature and the judiciary, there are additional constitutional provisions …
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