Book on Woman bid for Political Leadership & Premiership launches

 Culture, gender and geography in the arena of politics - A new book by Dr Kris Rampersad

From the Trinidad Guardian

Book on Kamla launches today

by Shaliza Hassanali

A book highlighting the quest by the country's first female leader of the United National Congress, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for prime ministership is to be launched today

Written by journalist, researcher and publisher Dr Kris Rampersad, the book entitled Through The Political Glass Ceiling–Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female is a compilation of selected speeches of Persad-Bissessar against the backdrop of contending minority-versus-dominant factors of culture, gender and geography, as T&T struggles for articulation and definition of a truly encompassing national identity. The book is expected to be launched at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain, with the blessing and presence of Persad-Bissessar. Rampersad says the book presents the paradox of politics and society in T&T in the context of the contest for leadership between the country's longest standing political identity, the PNM, and Persad-Bissessar, who is vying for the office of Prime Minister. The book, consisting introduction, context and analyses ranges through the country's experiences with political parties under Dr Eric Williams to the period of voting deadlock at the turn of the century, involving Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning.

Book on Kamla launches today | The Trinidad Guardian (From the Trinidad Guardian

Book on Kamla launches today,  20100515 by Shaliza Hassanali

A book highlighting the quest by the country's first female leader of the United National Congress, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for prime ministership is to be launched today

Written by journalist, researcher and publisher Dr Kris Rampersad, the book entitled Through The Political Glass Ceiling–Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad and Tobago's First Female is a compilation of selected speeches of Persad-Bissessar against the backdrop of contending minority-versus-dominant factors of culture, gender and geography, as T&T struggles for articulation and definition of a truly encompassing national identity. The book is expected to be launched at MovieTowne, Port-of-Spain, with the blessing and presence of Persad-Bissessar. Rampersad says the book presents the paradox of politics and society in T&T in the context of the contest for leadership between the country's longest standing political identity, the PNM, and Persad-Bissessar, who is vying for the office of Prime Minister. The book, consisting introduction, context and analyses ranges through the country's experiences with political parties under Dr Eric Williams to the period of voting deadlock at the turn of the century, involving Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning.

Book on Kamla launches today | The Trinidad Guardian (From the Trinidad Guardian

Book on Kamla launches today,  20100515 by Shaliza Hassanali

PoS could recapture caribbean fashion hotspot | The Trinidad Guardian

PoS could recapture caribbean fashion hotspot | The Trinidad Guardian

T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian

(Published Triniad Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.334076.a0d806c55e 

THE VOICE OF THE PEO­PLE

T&T Constitution the culprit

by

Sat May 08 2010

Dr Kris Ram­per­sad

Var­i­ous oth­er analy­ses tell us that the cul­prit is the T&T Con­sti­tu­tion, and there is an in­dis­putable need for con­sti­tu­tion re­form, giv­en ev­i­dent flaws in T&T Con­sti­tu­tions past and present. Both the 1961 (In­de­pen­dence) Con­sti­tu­tion and the 1976 (Re­pub­lic) Con­sti­tu­tion were clear­ly al­ready ob­so­lete from their in­cep­tion, with their un­work­able British im­port of the first-past-the-post/win­ner-take-all mod­el and ev­i­dent fail­ure, as they dis­en­fran­chise large num­bers of vot­ers, as oc­curred in the 1981, 2001, 2002 and 2007 gen­er­al elec­tions. The al­ter­na­tive, pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion, which of­fers each par­ty num­bers of seats in Par­lia­ment, ac­cord­ing to the pro­por­tion of votes they com­mand, has re­ceived some at­ten­tion, but, like first-past-the-post, it up­holds a par­ty-based sys­tem that gives politi­cians di­vine sta­tus, and places them at the cen­tre of de­ci­sion-mak­ing, which we have seen, with de­mands for a bot­toms-up ap­proach, it­self can­not hold.

The Wood­ing (1971) and Hy­atali (1974) Com­mis­sions, set up to ex­plore con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form, pro­posed an­oth­er, a mixed sys­tem draw­ing from first-past-the-post and pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive mod­els. This has been re­ject­ed by the PNM's Williams and Man­ning, though all–PNM and the com­mis­sions–premised their ar­gu­ments on our di­ver­si­ty which they de­fined large­ly as eth­nic di­ver­si­ty. Man­ning put for­ward, in 2006, a "work­ing doc­u­ment" on con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form, drawn up pri­mar­i­ly by a one-man com­mis­sion (for­mer Pres­i­dent El­lis Clarke), and af­ter-the-fact staged some pub­lic "con­sul­ta­tions"–an ap­proach in­ter­pret­ed as pay­ing lip ser­vice to pub­lic opin­ion.

Ex­ec­u­tive pres­i­dent?

His draft pro­vid­ed for an ex­ec­u­tive pres­i­dent, as in the USA, which would give even more ex­ec­u­tive pow­ers to an al­ready max­i­mum leader of the first-past-the-post sys­tem, with­out cor­rect­ing (but rather fur­ther emas­cu­lat­ing) those in­stru­ments and in­sti­tu­tions that pro­vide checks and bal­ances on such "Mas­sa" pow­er. These in­clude the ju­di­cia­ry and the leg­is­la­ture, and oth­ers as the Om­buds­man, the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tion, the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, the mag­is­tra­cy, Com­mis­sions for In­tegri­ty, Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vices, Po­lice Ser­vice, Pub­lic Ser­vice, Teach­ing Ser­vice. etc. It al­so pro­pos­es to re­strict the prin­ci­ple of free­dom of ex­pres­sion (the me­dia) by al­ter­ing the Bill of Rights.

An­oth­er con­sti­tu­tion, draft­ed by the self-as­signed 2006 Fair­ness Com­mit­tee of four, leaned on a fur­ther amal­ga­ma­tion–of the Man­ning mod­el (though pro­duced be­fore Man­ning's) sup­port­ing an ex­ec­u­tive pres­i­dent, along with a mixed sys­tem of pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion and first-past-the-post, as rec­om­mend­ed by the Wood­ing and Hy­atali Com­mis­sions. One chal­lenge af­ter the oth­er to the con­sti­tu­tion has sur­faced, since the NAR, to show that the con­sti­tu­tion is not just dog-eared, but com­ing apart at the seams and ir­rel­e­vant in a rapid­ly-chang­ing world:

1. The PNM's chal­lenge of Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters' dual cit­i­zen­ship;

2. The 2002 18-18 dead­locked elec­tions which were not catered for in the con­sti­tu­tion;

3. Oth­er chal­lenges, main­ly re­lat­ed to cock­fight­ing, by Pan­day and Robin­son–ap­point­ments through the Sen­ate of peo­ple who had been de­feat­ed in the polls;

4. The chick­en-and-egg cri­sis pre­cip­i­tat­ed by the Stand­ing Or­der for elect­ing a Speak­er be­fore con­ven­ing the House, when nei­ther par­ty want­ed to pro­pose a Speak­er.

The con­sti­tu­tion, say the ex­perts, has out­lived its use­ful­ness. To jus­ti­fy his quest for an ex­ec­u­tive pres­i­dent/US-styled gov­er­nance sys­tem, PNM leader Patrick Man­ning has sought to jus­ti­fy his high-hand­ed ap­proach to de­ci­sion-mak­ing with ar­gu­ments that the ex­treme­ly di­verse na­ture of the so­ci­ety and their many com­pet­ing in­ter­ests made it dif­fi­cult to gov­ern, and need­ed "strong" lead­er­ship. But at the risk of sound­ing like a prophet­ess, the di­ver­si­ty of T&T is, in­deed, its pri­ma­ry char­ac­ter, and any­one who can­not man­age our di­ver­si­ty is doomed to fail­ure!

Any­one who wants to gov­ern ef­fec­tive­ly must unite the di­ver­si­ty, rather than seek ever more ex­clu­sive pow­er to over­rule it; (the con­se­quences of ig­nor­ing the pub­lic over an ex­tend­ed pe­ri­od have been graph­i­cal­ly il­lus­trat­ed by the events of re­cent weeks). The ex­perts tell us that the con­sti­tu­tion–and the West­min­ster-styled par­lia­men­tary sys­tem it es­tab­lish­es can­not ac­com­mo­date that di­ver­si­ty; oth­ers, like the PNM–un­de­ni­ably the most ex­pe­ri­enced par­ty in T&T–ar­gue that nei­ther could pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

Both, it seems, are part­ly in the right; but whol­ly wrong.

Lead­er­ship cri­sis–sin­gle par­ty or coali­tion

The search for the ide­al mod­el has been around the de­bate of whether the sin­gle par­ty or coali­tion gov­ern­ment is the bet­ter mod­el. Both have been tried and test­ed and found want­i­ng. As an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath ob­served, the three oc­ca­sions when our gov­ern­ments pre­ma­ture­ly col­lapsed have been as sin­gle-par­ty gov­ern­ments–Pan­day's in 2001 and Man­ning's in 1995, and 2010. Ma­jor­i­ty rule by a max­i­mum leader, with pow­ers equiv­a­lent to the di­vine right of kings, in a sin­gle par­ty is los­ing sway on a pop­u­la­tion be­com­ing more as­tute and un­will­ing to con­tin­ue as blind, un­ques­tion­ing, sheep-like fol­low­ers.

Gov­er­nance by any one ma­jor­i­ty eth­nic group has be­come un­savoury to grow­ing and more vo­cif­er­ous el­e­ments, de­mand­ing recog­ni­tion of our cul­tur­al and oth­er di­ver­si­ty, de­nied in Williams "No Moth­er In­dia, no Moth­er Africa" max­im which seemed not to grasp the com­plex­i­ty of the iden­ti­ty is­sue. Nor have coali­tions worked ei­ther; not two ex­am­ples, the al­liance gov­ern­ments of 1986 and 1991–both of which evolved out of forces op­pos­ing the PNM and in­clud­ing Pan­day's UNC, Robin­son's De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Ac­tion Con­gress, Karl Hud­son-Phillips' Or­gan­i­sa­tion for Na­tion­al Re­con­struc­tion, Lloyd Best's Tapia and var­i­ous oth­ers.

They failed be­cause...

They failed, not be­cause the struc­ture of the coali­tions was test­ed, nor be­cause of chal­lenges of man­ag­ing our com­plex di­ver­si­ty–they nev­er got a chance. They failed be­cause–as with the max­i­mum leader mode of sin­gle-par­ty pol­i­tics–man­ag­ing the di­verse egos of a man-rat-dri­ven po­lit­i­cal cul­ture, con­tin­u­ous­ly test­ed the con­sti­tu­tion and the gov­er­nance mod­el, pro­mot­ing the em­i­nence of con­sti­tu­tion­al lawyers and le­gal Mes­si­ahs. They failed be­cause of un­en­light­ened or mis­guid­ed lead­er­ship that failed to re­spect the needs and wish­es of its peo­ple.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.334076.a0d806c55e

Kamla vows to help arts, local authors | The Trinidad Guardian

Kamla vows to help arts, local authors | The Trinidad Guardian

Commonwealth praise for book on Kamla’s speeches

Commonwealth praise for book on Kamla's speeches

A valuable addition to research on gender and women in politics in the Commonwealth. That's how Dr Mark Collins, director of the Commonwealth Foundation, described the new book by Dr Kris Rampersad–Through The Political Glass Ceiling–the Race to Prime Ministership by Trinidad & Tobago's first female, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Selected Speeches. Speaking at the Commonwealth launch of the book at the Partners' Forum of the Ninth Women's Affairs Ministers meeting (9WAMM) in Barbados on Friday, Collins noted the need for research and documentation identified by various speakers and workshops at the meeting.

He said the book and the project for promoting social research and publishing which it launches were answers to that need. He also pointed out that it was not common for a chair of the Commonwealth to change mid-term, as happened in this case, with the change of Government in T&T which makes Persad-Bissessar the first female Caribbean chair-in-office of the Commonwealth. The launch was attended by representatives from across the Commonwealth. A copy of Through the Political Glass Ceiling was presented to chairperson of the foundation, Simone de Comarmond who endorsed Collins appreciation of the book as a needed documentation on gender development.

The launch was in keeping with the forum's theme, Gender Issues in the Economic Crisis Recovery and Beyond: Women as Agents of Transformation. All proceeds of the launch go towards supporting Caribbean research and publishing. Compiled, with introduction, contexts and analyses by Rampersad, the book features selected speeches of Persad-Bissessar against the backdrop of the roles of gender and geo-politics among other factors in the contest for leadership between Persad-Bissessar and the country's longest standing political entity, the People's National Movement. Rampersad is a journalist, researcher and writer who has been exploring the diversity of Caribbean society and cultures for some 20 years. Through the Political Glass Ceiling is available at all major bookstores. 

For more see; https://krisrampersad.com/?s=glass+ceiling

 Contact https://krisrampersad.com/ 

Wed Jun 09 2010

Commonwealth praise for book on Kamla’s speeches | The Trinidad Guardian

The Trinidad Guardian -Online Edition Ver 2.0

The Trinidad Guardian -Online Edition Ver 2.0

Women’s action mandate

DARCEL CHOY

 THURSDAY 22 APRIL 2010

International Relations Director of the Network, Dr Kris Rampersad said the Network is demanding these issues be integrated into all policies and decision making, budget design and implementation and action.

The release stated that the Women’s Mandate for Action presents women as a political constituency as has labour, the private sector and religious groups.

“Our constituency is one to whom political parties can make commitments for action and to whom they can be held accountable,” she said.

Rampersad noted that their goal is to transform the culture of politics in the country by ensuring all persons have equal opportunity to participate in public life and to ensure there is no discrimination either direct or indirect, on the basis of gender, ethnicity, class, age or sexuality.

She explained that women have been excluded from political decision-making at the highest level but they are confident of the positive impact their contribution will have on the development of our society.

“Our mandate for action which has emerged from our work of women’s organisations over many years and from commitments agreed to by successive governments as the Convention of the Elimination of All Rights and the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies. These provide the basis for a comprehensive framework for the advancement of women and the enjoyment of basic rights to gender equity, the principles of which must further inform the national gender policy,” she said.

Rampersad added that a gender policy must reaffirm the commitment in the constitution to gender equality and social justice and provide a framework to guide and inform transformation of existing inequitable gender relations.

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :

Caribbean Copyright Link > About Us > News

Caribbean Copyright Link > About Us > News

Dr_Kris_Rampersad.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Dr_Kris_Rampersad.pdf (application/pdf Object)