“[…] 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 »Dear Editor: Should Trinidad and Tobago not give Abu Bakr his due: a national award of dishonour?
“[…] There is no greater example of our misapplication of the national watchword, tolerance, than the way we treat Yasin Abu Bakr… He hosts press conferences, and participates in national discussions as if he is qualified or worthy. He is not. His very presence at the table is an insult …
Read More »Media Monitor: Is Mondello leaving a ‘shithole country’? Or returning to one?
It wasn’t, we knew then, the best of times; it wasn’t, we now know, the worst of times. When, in July 1990, Yasin Abu Bakr opened a door and, in David Rudder’s well-weighted words, showed us our other side, like Adam and Eve, we went frantically in search of a …
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 »Brutal breaching of our maidenhead: bards, bandits, Burroughs, Bakr, Brooks
“Bring back the old time days,” Richard “Nappy” Mayers croons in the song of that name. “Used to be everyone/could afford to live right/Just to be nice/didn’t need no Paradise. “Used to be everyone/cared for each other/Lived like brothers/respected one another.” David Rudder punctures that balloon. “Oh how we danced,” …
Read More »Chasing Greatness868 (Video): David Rudder on Bahia Girl, Uzi diplomacy and High Mas
What is the pathway to greatness in Trinidad and Tobago? Musical icon David Rudder shares the secret of Bahia Girl, the aftershocks of the 1990 attempted coup, High Mas and what music says about our lives today. More from Wired868 TV6ME: Michael Johnson and Anton Corneal on How to …
Read More »July 1990 extra: An ex-Jamaat elder speaks out; how the shot was called on me
“I have earned the right to speak because of my commitment to Islam and because of the blood that gushed forth from me because of speaking out and being critical. “I speak on the authority of the four 357 magnum bullets from the gun that Mark Guerra gave to Quincy …
Read More »Yasinism—Part 2: The unravelling: Pyrrhic victory, greed, disillusionment and corruption of power
1990: A JAMAAT CHILD REMEMBERS—Part 2 Today marks the 27th anniversary of, in the splendid words of David Rudder, the night of the day when the prophets died” because “a man opened a door and showed us our other side.” To mark the occasion, Wired868 exclusively presents the second installment of a …
Read More »Master’s Voice: Between a marabunta and a jep nest; our two July days of infamy
Monday was the anniversary of that infamous jailbreak, two years ago, and I should originally have submitted this piece to be published on that day. But I think that it’s better if it appears today, between that 24 July anniversary and the anniversary of another infamous episode in this country’s …
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