“[…] The 1990 coup demonstrated that unchecked religious freedom and extreme religious ideologies can pose a direct threat to democracy and civil liberties. This horrendous event is a sobering example of how extreme religious beliefs, if unchecked, can manifest as domestic terrorism. “Freedom of religion does not include the liberty …
Read More »Kamla: “The rule of law remains our strongest shield”—lessons from July 27
“[…] Let us be clear: the perpetrators of July 1990 were not patriots. The true patriots defended the Constitution and safeguarded our Republic, some at the cost of their lives, others bearing wounds and trauma to this day. “[…] Today, three months after returning to office, I reaffirm my Government’s …
Read More »Coup Time: Town on Fire
“[…] So, we inside the parliament again. The Prime Minister was in front ah the room way the podium was on a chair. He looking a little frail and he saying, ‘My nation stay calm. This would soon be over.’ “At he side was two men in black and behind …
Read More »Soldier vs Muslimeen: Eve fires back at Shabazz, as T&T call-up Alvin Jones and Waldrop
Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team head coach Angus Eve has made two changes to his squad before Tuesday night’s final Courts Caribbean Classic outing against Guyana at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. Soca Warriors right back Alvin Jones has been recalled to the squad, after …
Read More »Dear Editor: ANR Robinson inherited poisoned chalice; Abu Bakr made things much worse!
“[…] I would like Fuad [Abu Bakr] to tell the nation what other option the NAR Government had than to go to the IMF. “Far from being a heartless dictator, the then Prime Minister Mr ANR Robinson sought to retain all those persons employed in the Public Service by reducing …
Read More »Fuad Abu-Bakr: The Imam put the ‘healthy fear’ of the people into T&T governments
“[…] As a result of Yasin Abu Bakr and 113 other brave men, governments had a little fear for the people after. Thus they at least threw crumbs for them. Also no government dared to go back to the IMF and bring austerity again—as this government is currently afraid to …
Read More »How will T&T remember the colourful 1990 coup character, Yasin Abu Bakr?
I so wanted to write about the theatrics and the vaudeville-type show just recently put on in Parliament by some seasoned actors and let’s say some neophyte starlets who saw an opportunity to have their names lit up in neon lights. The show debuted on 21 October 2021 and from …
Read More »Yasin Abu Bakr: The drugs made me do it; Jamaat boss on 1990 coup
Flashback: The following interview was first published on 27 July 2015… Jamaat-al-Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr says that the country still does not know the real story of July 1990 but he is not yet ready to share it. What he does share is that it is the Jamaat’s attempts …
Read More »Colleen Holder: My dad, ‘Mac’, and other media workers never fully recovered after 27 July 1990
“[…] Even though ‘Mac’ and his colleagues were sent for counselling by the company, he never fully recovered. I am sure the same can be said for many of the others…” The following letter to the editor on the personal toll of the attempted coup by the Jamaat Al-Muslimeen on …
Read More »Brutal breaching—Pt 2: X marks the 1990 spot but the enduring political question is why
Yasin Abu Bakr loves the soap-box. The witness box or the dock? Not quite so much. So at the post-27-July-1990-coup trial, there was no grand “History will absolve me” peroration. None was needed. Not in Clebert Brooks’ court. With no legal training, you would say that an amnesty signed because …
Read More »The record is straight already; Daly dismisses Smart’s counter on NAR’s ‘coup bungle’
There are many issues other than the NAR’s bungling of the aftermath of the 1990 attempted coup with which I would like to engage. However, my colleague, Anthony Smart, has presented some material which he says shows that the NAR did not seek to avoid the amnesty or postpone having its …
Read More »Daly Bread: How the NAR Gov’t bungled the 1990 Coup trial
My colleague Anthony Smart asked for particulars on my assertion of bungling by the NAR Government following the attempted coup in 1990. He reminds us that he was Attorney General of the NAR Government during that period, until the NAR lost office in November 1991. That’s easy, Anthony. After the …
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