“[…] A glaring example of this disconnect is the Government’s approach to wage negotiations. While public servants are offered a mere 5% salary increase for 2020–2022—a proposal so meager it was sent to the Industrial Court—the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) has recommended massive raises for top officials. “[…] These increases, …
Read More »Daly Bread: T&T politicians should look at differing governance examples
Another big pappy resigned last week but of course that was in foreign. As with lame duck US President Joe Biden, that big pappy too was pushed from within. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who was the leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, had to resign because an investigation …
Read More »Daly Bread: The PNM’s election year excuse
A second volume of The Daly Commentaries—a selection of these weekly columns from 2016-2023, picking up from my first volume covering 2002 to 2015—has been published. Information about its release concludes this column. During my twenty-two plus years as a columnist, I have had the unstinting support of the Express …
Read More »Dear Editor: Dr Cudjoe was unfair to Prime Minister, regarding Jindial response
“[…] Dr Selwyn Cudjoe’s obsession with the PNM leader seems to have completely obfuscated his ability to be balanced and fair in his writing. “[…] He never once engaged the point that Dr Keith Rowley was making when he referred to the Opposition as unpatriotic louts—in relation to their discourteous …
Read More »Daly Bread: Why the PNM’s internal affairs are a matter of public interest
I have examined the surprise announcement that the People’s National Movement (PNM) convention and internal election scheduled for November 17 had been cancelled and the further announcement swiftly, but ambiguously, walking back the cancellation decision. My view remains that any apparent suppression of democracy within the PNM is a matter …
Read More »Daly Bread: PNM’s “ratification” confusion
Dr Eric Williams set the standard for the practice of party politics by the People’s National Movement (PNM), which he founded in 1956. As political leader of the PNM, after successive PNM general election victories, Dr Williams took office in 1962 as the first prime minister of independent Trinidad and …
Read More »Daly Bread: PNM’s impairment of internal democracy could leave T&T worse off
The People’s National Movement (the PNM) tersely announced last week: “The People’s National Movement wishes to advise that its 51st Annual Convention, as well as the internal election, originally scheduled for Sunday 17 November 2024, has been cancelled.” The PNM is currently the party in government having been elected for …
Read More »Daly Bread: Understanding political risk of T&T’s reliance on Venezuela gas
Exposure to assessing business risk, including the political risk of doing business in unstable environments, underlines that political and geo-political risks are volatile factors. When Prime Minister Rowley (the PM) recently exhorted that we “hold the fort”, he reportedly linked “a better position with the energy industry in the second …
Read More »PM’s coat of arms announcement needed consultation and political neutrality
“[…] While I have no issues with our national emblems being reconsidered and redesigned, because that kind of thinking is long overdue, my quibble lies with how the decision was announced and arrived at—though not in that order. “[…] It also raises questions of oversight since it is usually the …
Read More »Dear Editor: T&T Coat of Arms should not be business of any one political party
“[…] It is my view therefore that a decision to alter the Coat of Arms should not have been made by the political directorate at its party convention taking into account the implications for such a change, which is not the responsibility of any political party, but a responsibility of …
Read More »Noble: Out damn spot!—Hinds and Griffith must account for SSA scandal
“In the way of the world, things happen. As one writer previously wrote, ‘there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face…” Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, Express, 5 July 2024. The preening, self-important Minister Hinds evidently did not recognise that he was quoting Macbeth and …
Read More »Noble: What auditor general impasse says about the quality of our leaders
The ongoing saga of the auditor general and the understatement of the country’s revenue reveal the quality of our leaders. Did Dr Keith Rowley exhibit due diligence in approving the nomination? We have long harped on the notion of seniority in promoting leaders. But is that the best approach? In …
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