Panday as Leader

[dcs]

About the women thing:

Open memo to Penny
Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
Wednesday, April 11 2007

THE EDITOR: My dear sister Penny, today would be a good day to resign. Put two wheels on your heels and run from the shame. We would like to think that you have had no part in the planning of “development” options that seriously endanger our environment, no part in the mamaguy of the EMA granting “permission” to build a smelter two years after the site was confidently cleared (savaged) for the building of said smelter.

Early in the game, your Prime Minister told the nation that the smelter project was a “done deal” (translation: “Shut up!”). So the EMA Certificate of Environment Clearance (CEC) was already included, from morning, in the done deal? Would our caring government have spent our money to bulldoze acres of our land, destroying precious forest and wildlife, if they didn’t have this permission in the bag since then, long before the EMA went through the motions of “consulting” and “assessing?”

Clearly, then, this CEC is a sad mamaguy. They mamaguy the country and they mamaguy you, Madam Minister of the Environment. Through your Ministry’s reafforestation programme you busy planting trees all over the country, and they busy mashing down trees by the acre, not only on the south-west peninsula (Smelterland), but also Fort George, Tucker Valley coming up, and God knows where next.

We can’t believe you are part of that. We can’t believe you are in on the smelter “done deal” and all the other vandalism that your 2020 government is perpetrating on our environment. It has to be that they exclude you from their decision-making and treat you like another rubber stamp.

So get out of there, my sister. Run while we can still think of you as a woman of the people and a community activist devoted to service rather than to power at any cost. Write your name into the distinguished tradition of women in politics who dared to distance themselves from Party when their conscience told them to, thereby making a resounding statement against policies and actions that they considered wrong. These women chose principle over political power – women like Hulsie Bhaggan, Debra Moore-Miggins, “Sister Pam” Nicholson, Gillian Lucky.

We wouldn’t want history to count you, instead, among those who helped bring irreparable harm to our environment, to us, our children, and our future generations, by not taking a stand against the abuse of political power.

Yours in sisterhood

MERLE HODGE

St Augustine

[dcs]

dcs liek yuh get to ato..lol

I swear he was going and say JW but he say Dooks   

JW mustbe sound like he talking in tongues now fuss he vex hahahaha

The UNC has just sustained a canon salvo to the side of the ship  BUTTOI

What constituency Santa Cruz fall in   

[dcs]

Ato: UNC should focus on nation-building

Trinidad Guardian
Sunday 15th April, 2007

Former United National Congress senator Ato Boldon believes the party should spend less time dealing with internal issues, and more time on nation-building.

Clarifying statements in a radio interview last week, Boldon said he was frustrated because “I know the UNC has the right policies and the solutions, but we spend too much time talking about internal issues rather than those that affect all the families here in T&T.

“My party has the ability to change our country, and that is what we should be concentrating on,” he said in a media statement yesterday.

Boldon stressed that he continued to be loyal to the UNC, “because of my conviction that it is the only party that can rectify the damage caused to our country over the past six years.”

He believed that others who had deserted the party, including Congress of the People political leader Winston Dookeran, were wrong to do so.

Boldon also said when he joined the UNC as a senator 14 months ago, he was approached for several reasons, “one of which was that the United National Congress leadership knew I always spoke my mind and would not duck issues.

“I believe in a day and age when most politicians simply follow a party line, that this is a valuable quality—and Mr Panday and others inside the United National Congress agreed with me.”

[dcs]

Ouuu gouuuddd...Jack buff him so bad he back in the ranks within a day   

[truetrini]

Ato have shares in Cascadia Hotel   ent Ato?   

[Organic]

Ouuu gouuuddd...Jack buff him so bad he back in the ranks within a day   

friggin spineless
steups
eh care what anyone say. spineless..

[noname]

Ouuu gouuuddd...Jack buff him so bad he back in the ranks within a day   

friggin spineless
steups
eh care what anyone say. spineless..

Look here for a sneak preview of Ato's response.
http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=26737.30

[Socafan]

Ouuu gouuuddd...Jack buff him so bad he back in the ranks within a day   

friggin spineless
steups
eh care what anyone say. spineless..

Look here for a sneak preview of Ato's response.
http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=26737.30

I doh wah trivialize allyuh thread eh...but...Ato have jerri curls?

[A.B.]

  jerri curls, yes 

When did I say I was "out of the ranks..."

Sounds like the same thing to me in this article.  Perhaps you can say how it is otherwise?  Because it didnt have the "Express PNM spin" on it to say "I was vex with Dooks cuz he left cuz he left us leaderless" and not "I wanted him to stay and work out whatever differences he had from inside the UNC?" 

It's basically the same story, a day later!

Oh never mind, I now read who wrote that post.

I said what I felt, and like Mr. Panday said, I am entitled to my opinion - just like everyone else in here.

"Spineless" for calling it like I see it and not pretending the 800lb gorilla isn't in the room (like others)?

OK. 

Seems like the people in the street feel differently.

[cocoapanyol]

Any strong women in trini politics.?? any at all steups. willing to fight.
they all seem to be lap dogs always bowing.
sheesh man

I'd advise you to read Mary King, Dana Seetahal, Gillian Lucky before posting such tripe.

what tripe man....yes they members of parliment and senate. btu as with any politician now adays. please tellme what they have actrually done for the people. just being in parliment and being female excuse dem from getting flack for lack of real effect.  u only hear about them as with all de rest of mps when somin ahppy in dey continuency and they get a photo op.
 like it or not we need some strong real femlae leaders..
ah thatcher(like she or not), indira ghandi, golda mier or even dame eugena charles.
mary king, gillian lucky nice read in de papers.....
and?>?>>>>
steups eh

Which of our current male politicians show positive/strong characteristics that intersect with those leaders you list above?
In my opinion, NONE. So why are you holding our female politicians to a higher standard than the male leaders?

As for what these women do other than pose for photo opportunities in their constituency? Do you even know who these people are before you critisize them?
First of all, Gillian Lucky is the only one out of that group that sits in the House of Representative. Mary King, Dana Seetahal and Angela Cropper sit in the Senate as INDEPENDENT senators. Do you realise that the president appoints them on his own discretion? Anyway, the implications for this are as follows,  even if all independents and opposition senators vote against government backed legislation, unless someone from the government crosses, it will pass. I'd like you to try to read their contributions to various pieces of legislation. No not the express or the guardian. The hansard record. In case you dont know where that is, look here http://www.ttparliament.org/hansard/2006.htm

I dont hold any brief for any of these very women. Maybe you want to see a female revolutionary. Personally, I'm very impressed by the contributions of these women and by other persons who try to uphold some sense of integrity and transparency.

 

[dcs]

-When asked if he were called upon by Dookeran, now political leader of the Congress of the People (Congress), to serve in his party, Boldon replied, "At this point I am heading in the other direction. I will have to seriously consider it."

-Boldon stressed that he continued to be loyal to the UNC, “because of my conviction that it is the only party that can rectify the damage caused to our country over the past six years.”

People on the radio calling in to say Ato have a split personality   

Express and Guardian show deyself yes.  Between this story and Manning visit to Oropuche you swear they not talking about the same thing.

[dcs]

Ato is wrong
Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
Sunday, April 15 2007[/b]

UNC interim leader Basdeo Panday yesterday said former UNC senator Ato Boldon was wrong to say that he (Panday) is not the right person to lead the party.

Responding to comments made by Boldon in another daily newspaper (not Newsday) article, Panday said: “He is entitled to his views. Even though he may be wrong.” Boldon, a former Olympic medallist, resigned as a UNC senator last week to take up a job to coach the Saudi Arabian national sprint team.

Boldon said he was unlikely to return to national politics again. The UNC is still to decide on replacement senators for Boldon and Harrypersad Mungalsingh who was fired earlier this year after making controversial statements about crime and abortion.

The House sits on Friday while the Senate sits at 1.30 pm on Tuesday where debate on the Homes for Older Persons Amendment Bill 2007 is expected to continue.

[A.B.]

Wait til Tuesday.

With what happened at Virginia Tech today I really guess I ent have no quarrel in me again nuh.   

What they say, they say.

[Pro-Jayz]

Kamla: I'll step down for Bas
Anna Ramdass aramdass@trinidadexpress.com

Friday, April 13th 2007

   

Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said she is ready to surrender her position as Opposition leader to interim United National Congress political leader Basdeo Panday.

Persad-Bissessar, in a telephone interview yesterday, said that if it is the consensus of the Opposition MPs in the House of Representatives to have Panday return to the position he held before, she is willing to step down.

Panday is expected to be screened today to contest the Couva North constituency seat.

"I have no difficulty with vacating the seat of Opposition Leader as that position came to me because of Mr Panday's legal impediment," she said.

Her willingness to give Panday the lead front seat on the Opposition benches comes even as Government is currently seeking a ruling of the High Court to determine whether or not Panday should officially re-enter the Parliament as the representative for Couva North following the collapse of a conviction.

Persad-Bissesar said that since Panday no longer has any conviction, he has the legal right to his Couva North and Opposition Leader seat.

"Right now if elections are called in the morning and Mr Panday wins his seat he will be able to sit in the Parliament," she said, adding that Government was "holding the Parliament to ransom" by seeking High Court intervention on the issue.

Persad-Bissessar made history in the country by becoming the first woman to be appointed as Opposition Leader on April 26, 2006.

The position was declared vacant by President George Maxwell Richards after Panday was convicted of failing to make an accurate declaration to the Integrity Commission regarding a London bank account.

Persad-Bissesar said that nominees for 12 constituency seats will be screened today, including her own seat in which she is unopposed.

She said the screening process is expected to be wrapped up by Sunday and then the candidates will have to be approved by the national executive of the party.
   

Kamla ready to hand over to Panday
Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com

Tuesday, May 1st 2007

   

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she is more than willing to give up the post to her predecessor, Basdeo Panday, in the wake of his full reinstatement as United National Congress political leader.

Panday's full reinstatement occurred during the UNC's national congress meeting on Sunday, as the party he founded celebrated its 19th anniversary yesterday.

Speculation has already arisen that if Panday, the former Couva North MP, is again able to return to the Parliament as the Couva North MP and UNC political leader, he could also be returning as Opposition Leader.

"I have always maintained my appointment or election as Opposition Leader had arisen because a legal obstacle rose against Mr Panday, and once that legal obstacle is removed, I have no difficulty in him resuming the position that has wrongfully been taken from him,"[/b  Persad-Bissessar said in a telephone interview yesterday.

She said she was always willing to serve her constituents and her party in whatever office she is appointed to, whether it is within or outside of the Parliament.

She noted that Panday was fully reinstated as the UNC political leader by a unanimous vote at the national congress.

"He has in fact been the de facto leader of the party, this serves for him to be de jure leader," Persad-Bissessar said.

Panday, who is also the former Couva North MP, is seeking to be reinstated to that parliamentary seat, in light of the Appeal Court's decision to quash his conviction and sentence last year on charges of failing to declare a London bank account.

The Parliament has, however, petitioned the High Court for a ruling on whether Panday can now return as the Couva North MP.

For his part, Panday said yesterday that he was not concerned with which office he holds.

"I still have to work really hard to beat the PNM."

As for the UNC's 19th anniversary yesterday, Panday said, "It feels good to have sustained a party for so long. I think after the PNM, we are the oldest party in the country."