Dear people of Trinidad and Tobago and my dear suppor- porters. Pardon this little stutter, although it is not as bad as Joe Biden’s, you know the thing.
In 2010, the UNC was one of several parties which came together in the coalition People’s Partnership to win the elections and form the government. I quickly forgot that it was a coalition that won the elections and sadly and regrettably I behaved as if it was the UNC. All the forces in the country opposed to Patrick Manning, may God rest his not so gentle soul, were party to the Fyzabad Accord.
People say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, or something like that (looks to the left and grimaces). I never had absolute power. If I did I would have kept Anand Ramlogan throughout that administration and I would not have had to appoint Garvin Nicholas as Attorney General. Garvin has his good points, but producing a clone named Phillip E Alexander is not one of them. After Anand departed, I felt we should have a passably good looking AG and Garvin fit that bill. It looks like it will be a long time before someone as pleasing to look at will fill that position again.
I am writing Kamla Persad Bissessar's concession speech 2.
Anyway, let us get back to the matter at hand. While we were preparing for these most recent elections, I wrote a little history of myself detailing the struggles and hardships I endured as a member of the UNC. I said that I contested the Siparia seat in 1995 and became the first female to be appointed as Attorney General in this country. It will forever gall the present AG that he cannot lay claim to that achievement. I called out the leadership of the UNC for unceremoniously removing me to put Ramesh Maharaj in that position. It was only after publishing, that someone reminded me that I was holding on to the post, not as they do in pole dancing eh, until Ramesh cleared his desk at his private law practice. It was a toss up who was the better candidate for AG as I was adept at handling traffic cases and he touted himself as a human rights advocate. I use the word ‘tout’ advisedly. If we are to focus on tangibles, you would know who was better suited to the job.
Anyway if I offended him, that accounted for no loss of votes. I must check to see if his and Lynette’s names were crossed off on the polling list returned by our clerks. I need to confirm if they voted for the forty third descendant of the prophet, the guy who also building up his own lineage of “for profit”.
The people put me to sit at a desk in a corner and I had to take my own cushion from home so I could make myself as comfortable as possible while I dreamt of the day I could be prime minister.
At the time the word ‘misogynistic’ was not popular because Hillary Clinton… let us not worry about people who only come close to power through their spouses. If I ever needed to be propped up by a spouse, I would have taken Dr. Bissessar to that little desk in the corner.
People said I should not have called Ganga Singh, John Humphrey, Joe Theodore and Ralph Maraj misogynistic. Maybe Trevor Sudama, yes. Trevor showed a lack of respect for women doing house work when he called his appointment to the Agriculture Ministry as “Minister of Pumpkin and Bhaji”. What he wanted to be, Minister of Phoowa and Bhouji? I am just practising my Bhojpuri for when Clarence and Marlene cross the floor. What you say, Clarence lose, (looking right and rightly confused) he lose again? Well I don’t want him then.
I am writing Kamla Persad Bissessar's concession speech 3. I am using her full name in case the auto correct puts Kamala.
"Somebody told me I shouId have asked Clarence to cross the floor in the last administration, but you could just imagine Camille pleading, “No Clarencedass no, no, no! No Clarencedass, noooo!”. I had to remind them that Clarence was a senator.
I just want to say a little more about the misogyny before we move on. In case people think that I discriminated against colleagues on the basis of gender, I want to say that the first person I demoted was Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan who won a seat none of us would have even attempted. I moved her from the Ministry of Energy to bring in Kevin Ramnarine. I reiterate that it is better to have a man around who bows under pressure than a woman who gets in one’s way. In my first draft of this speech, I didn’t have that word around, but I decided to include it for clarity.
You all saw Kevin on the tv on election night, he doesn’t have a clue what is going on but is an expert just because of me. It was almost as if he drew a ‘blank’. I love that word ‘blank’. They really should not have put him on that stool to sit. The imagery! Then I moved Mary King and Verna. I had a little fear that Bhoe would have stood up for them, but he stayed quiet on Mary, his colleague from Tapia House and he too drew a ‘blank’ on Verna. I have full confidence in Bhoe knowing that when you put two slices of bread together, the butter goes inside, not on the outside and he also knows where the butter is stored.
I held on to Anand and Jack and Anil until I didn’t have an excuse anymore. People say I shouldn’t have brought back Anil in this campaign, but I felt that since the prophet great great grandson legalise the pot, a man with a hookah might not be a bad thing. To tell you the truth I was glad last time that no calypsonian write any lyrics saying “Roll it, roll it!”
I am writing Kamla Persad Bissessar's concession speech 4.
As to these elections, I have this to say. The party now has 18 seats categorised as safe and fairly safe, about the same now when there are 41 seats as when there were 36. I am aware that citizens who are yet to decide on who they will be voting for, look at the people who will form the main cadre in the parliament. I myself, I am not a strategist. Let me digress one last time to give you a rundown on why my advisors have failed me.
I now regret that in my election profile I did not deal with an important aspect of my involvement in politics. I began as a member of the Organisation for National Construction… come on who sabotaged my print outs… Reconstruction. My guru was Suruj Rambachan who ran against Trevor Sudama in 1981. It was my own feeling that Trevor who seemed laid back, I have to stop using these terms yes, could never defeat an energetic and high profile member of a well-known family in that part of the country. I became a member of the NAR when the party contested the 1986 general elections and the following year I was made an alderwoman and chairperson of St. Patrick County Council. Had I known that the county extended all down to Icacos, I would never have accepted that post, except that I viewed it as a stepping stone to leadership. I could barely make it to the statutory meeting, much less to Columbus Beach.
When the NAR broke up I breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad some people had gone so there would be room for me at a higher level. I was selected to contest the Siparia seat in 1991. My huge defeat in that election showed me that the days of the NAR were numbered but Ganga Singh and I still hung around until we took the plunge into the UNC and were rewarded with seats in the 1995 General Election.
Outside of the natural coming together of people in 2010, I have no idea how I would have got Vincent Lasse and the late Rupert Griffith to cross the floor. When I think back on it, this guy Dr. Griffith took so many risks, faced opprobrium from PNM supporters and I didn’t think twice about firing him when I had to show the public and the press that I was doing the shuffle, or ska or whatever.
I am writing Kamla Persad Bissessar's concession speech 5
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"People say I am doing too much talking, but I want to remind them how long Cynthia Nixon talk when she lost the NY governor race to Cuomo and nobody complained.
To cut a long story short, the UNC is now run by the NAR guys who put me as the figurehead to secure the UNC base. The term people like to use is “hijacked” but we don’t have no terrorists here. Let me put it as clearly as I can, There are guys around like Suruj who have no political base. They grouped together to give me leadership of the party because of my stance on the eve of the 2007 elections. It took money to remove Panday and Jack was the facilitator. Even Ramesh Maharaj opposed Panday on my behalf and walked away without asking for anything. I still exercised my right to call him misogynistic. Well, enough people say there might be some truth in that, but I don’t want to go to court. I will have to represent myself and Panday always say that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.
I saw Robert Mayers on the tv elections night hoping we would win. It would have been a dream come true for him… 32 years of waiting but I will talk about that another time.
In these elections I tried to change some things. People still asking how many cabinet posts I expected to have. Was I going to put Vandana Mohit, Anita Haynes, Khadija Ameen in the same ministry? People never ask that about Stacy Rooparinesingh. Gary Griffith was one of my advisors and he never asked either. Was I going to put Ravi Ratiram, Dinesh Rambally, Arnold Ram and Saddam Hosein in Legal Affairs like Rowley did with the propheteer and Stewie? So it was OK for them to have young blood and hot blood but it not OK for we? By the way, Darryl Smith didn’t contest again, did he?
If I have to do it over, I would remove Barry Padarath from Princes Town and put Sean Sobers, let Barry run in Dade County if he want. I would give the San Fernando seat to somebody who could take some of the Presbyterian and Muslim vote, not like how we put Raziah last minute in 2015, eh. We already give Deyalsingh a 25-year lease on the St. Joseph seat. But I tell you, the amount of money we spend in the north east, we could ah buy the refinery with it. Joe Toney couldn’t even get a good candidate for Toco. Is like he still doh know who his leader is. But to tell the truth, I like the young lady who contest there eh, rolling in money and all that.
More… just one more.
I am writing Kamla Persad Bissessar’s concession speech 6
Pronouns: She/her
“I should not have considered Ahloy Hunt for St. Joseph the way his sister was involved in a Black Lives Matter controversy just before the election. We live in a time when information gets around quickly and stays around. Moreover Anil had launched vicious attacks on Hunt’s brother, changing Gary’s first name, no no, not that Gary who has changed his first name to Commissioner… Anil had changed Hunt’s first name into Isaac. People are not likely to forget that.
I should have ensured that all the big jefes who were in the NAR with me do some work during the elections. Instead of walking around with Arnold Ram, Bhoe should have been in St. Joseph giving Deyalsingh thunder and helping Nakhid kick hell instead of soft ball in Tunapuna. Everybody wants to work in a sure seat. You would think Suruj would have gone to San Fernando West, but I can only guess that he ‘fraid Faris. Suruj was talking for Moonilal, telling people that Moonilal should be the next leader and he scared away people. He is still using all the tactics of 1981, like we didn’t learn anything. Truth is, we didn’t. Look at Devant Maharaj, I only made him a Senator because Sat Maharaj begged for him, he couldn’t ask for himself. Imagine he playing big and the best he could have done before was lose as a COP to “come and go” MP Kelvin Ramnath, but one really should not speak ill of the dead.
I would have put back some of them in the senate and the Cabinet like how I make Ramadharsingh chairman of a regional corporation.
Sometimes God works in mysterious ways. For the next five years, every day will be Groundhog Day.
Having said all this, there is now no need to say that we lost the elections or to say who won.
I thank Lord Krishna for all the blessings he has showered on me and I move on… with or without Mickela.
