An Incomplete Investigation

Dear Guardian Media Investigative Desk, 

Everything fell flat, after two days of "exciting" coverage about tax dodgers. You guys had me, finally, anxious to be in front of the TV for the CNC3 News. I usually switch between you and TV6 at 7PM, because as a journalist myself, I have to read, listen and analyze almost everything. 

I am sure you can imagine how tiring and depressing that can be, given the stuff that we are reporting on daily, for broadcast news. You know, like international war, gangs and guns and murders here at home and in the Caribbean, extreme weather and geopolitical shenanigans.

 

It requires deep thinking and decision making to write broadcast news for people who are stressed and depressed, near angry or outright violent. And who do not want to listen to news, because it just adds to the bad news in their daily lives.

Anyway, I say this to explain also that the news readers are looking tired, even when they start a newscast. Especially Ria, whose eyes previously lit up with the excitement of news.

Also, by the time I look at your newscasts, I would have worked a news shift myself and would be looking to see what your vast newsroom produced during the day, which I do not have the tentacles to reach. Well, the last few days, as you bright and promising folks know, I have been more than intrigued to watch.

Yup, there were major loopholes in the investigation, especially since many of us already knew the context, which was missing from the story that was leaked to you guys in stages. So we were watching it unfold, chapter by chapter.

Well, we expected a different Chinese (as opposed to Chinese migrants) name on the evening that you delivered Derek Chin to the altar. By that time, you had sacrificed Anthony Chow Lin On (Chinese Laundry). Under threat was another Chinese businessman ( all born and bred Trinbagonians) who has, so far,escaped GML.

When the second local Chinese was delivered up, the Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority (which is still being established as an entity) Nigel Edwards revealed that indeed TT$15 billion in taxes was owed by businesses. Fifteen Billion you say!!

Sadly, no one on the investigative desk got a surge of adrenalin, the kind needed to take the story to another level. After all, as the image accompanying this post shows, your report has accounted for 0.6 percent of the money owed “by businessmen.”

Companies that owe billions must be large, it is obvious.

So, while the drama was unfolding, I wondered why the discerning journalists did not see the obvious flaw in the plot.

It would have been different if indeed the one who owes the most money was cracked down first.

There, on the couch, I was wondering, why pick up dollars and cents and leave the one hundred dollar bills?

Did the leak manage to serve the purpose which is to instil fear among the tax dodgers that “we are coming for the billions.”?

Could it be that the Trinidad and Tobago collective gets the first real sigh of relief, because TT$15 billion is five times the worth of TT$3 billion?

This time we are collecting and not losing, or rather misplacing?

Was it a preemptive strike, to release the information, to kill at least two birds

with one stone?

For example, as Finance Minister Colm Imbert, the second most senior member

of Cabinet found himself getting cut eye from colleagues.

After, of course, the egregious, unprecedented failure to verify TT$3 billion in the national accounts.

And the attempt to bully the Auditor General. Cabinet sources say Imbert was de jure acting Prime Minister, but his junior colleague was de facto. And so the hubris levelled at the veteran did not feel good, as it was evident in his face when he hosted the post cabinet news briefing while Dr Rowley was away on business in Ghana.

Colm Imbert

No better time to hit back with his decades of experience albeit in his twilight year.
At the upcoming mid-year budget review in the House of Representatives,
he will now comfortably show the vast difference between 3 and 15, in billions. 

Delinquent taxpayers, only two of whom we know, will be blamed for the state of the economy,
where that “dreadful” Auditor General Report will show that we are up to our throats in debt
and the actual deficit for 2023 is $20 billion.

So, it’s not that Imbert has been conducting business any better than Chow Lin On, or Chin.
The country is broke like them both. He created the enabling environment for the big players
whom they cannot "gangster" or discipline in some cases, to run away with billions, laughing as they go.
How did it reach there? Inevitably, small fry end up in the hot oil.

It is as a result of infighting in the ruling PNM which you can imagine is at a different level with a party in power. 

Given the enviable expenditure on GML’s "investigative desk" maybe you guys are still

working on the story.
It’s a big one. After all you have only uncovered a mere drop in the bucket.
And, yes, you reported some stuff inaccurately, about your competitor, which is also

crossing the line.
So, my dear fellow journalists, writing is all I have, and some knowledge to impart to you.

Until I give it up and spend my hours writing poetry instead of news stories, planting the land,
or selling sweet-drink.
Then, Akash can come and interview this idealistic journalist living in a termite-ridden

old house. I may get help to make a better living.

After decades, as a journalist I still cannot see the fruits of my labour.
The Fourth Estate, clearly, is no longer relevant.

In a world where Netanyahu is the boss, I am a humanitarian. 
Call me suicidal, if you may.

Here Endeth.
Sharmain Baboolal (HBM).
PS Read some more to better understand what respect is about, learn about a previously

well kept secret

Dear Prime Minister, Who is the boss?

Dear Prime Minister,

It was so good, and pleasant, to watch your Conversation with the public at Exodus panyard, last week. At ease you were. As I know you usually are, and have been, at panyards that you have visited long before you took on the mantle of Prime Minister.

And while for some it is simply an informal space to free up, for many of us it is a sacred place where no man is better than the other.

Bob Marley described one love ultimately as the space where we get together and feel alright. And that's not because of drink sharing.

One Love is the steelband culture. And, I will point you to the last Psalm in the Bible, Psalm 150, which describes worship of the highest order. For many of us it is also where our children get to practise discipline, tolerance and production which become ingrained in their DNA.

Indeed, it is the single largest cultural movement in the Caribbean.

Oh well, there are far more important matters than what I have written in these opening paragraphs, but I wanted to get off on a good footing with you.

There is a serious discontent brewing on the ground, among panmen, and I dare say, you may be taking the fall for something that you have become a part of, unwittingly.

It's your name (consequently, your respect ) that will be taking a nosedive in a community you would not want to be a stranger to, under any circumstances.

So when I saw you at the post cabinet news briefing on Thursday afternoon, basically saying that based on what you gathered from the public domain, you saw nothing wrong with Culture Minister  Randall Mitchell collecting an additional TT$70,000 a month in government funds, I was convinced you were passing over the matter because you really wanted to take a break from the pressures around you. And that you would deal with it on your return from vacation in Ireland.

As good men and women hope you would, so as not to set a new ethical precedent, a frontline case of himself to himself.

You will find here the requisite document which explains the history of the Property at 55 Dundonald Street, in Port of Spain, which the State subsidised steelband body is renting as a Headquarters.

It was previously owned by Ophthalmologist Dr Bruno Mitchell, Randall's uncle until it came into his hands.

The official filing  is for 'Dere St Limited', stated to be the owner of #55 Dundonald St., Port of Spain which was retrieved last week from the CROS system at the Registrar General's office. The shares of that company were acquired by Dr Bruno Mitchell from Joe and Robert Elias on 14th December 2007.

The filing is 190 pages long, with 'Form 8' at Page 89 ( see photo) showing Randall Seth Mitchell 'Businessman' and Dr Jana Marie Koylass 'Medical Professional', as new Directors, effective 30th October 2020 .The address of both those people was stated on that official form to be #7 Fiona Street, Cocoyea Village in San Fernando. 

The 'Form 46,' dated 19th October 2021 at page 186 records the transfer of both Dr Bruno Mitchell's shares to the aforementioned people, one each.

This is a photo of the shareholders that we retrieved from Facebook, dated October 31st 2015.

Randall Mitchell and Jana Marie Koylass.

With incontrovertible evidence like this, how can you say, given the number of empty buildings begging for rent in Port of Spain, that this just happened to fall into the lap of Pan Trinbago? And that it was not a reckless decision made, flying in the face of all right thinking people?

The the documentary evidence of the transaction, is Pan Trinbago's lease for the property which should be made public, especially given the Ministers' stance that "there is nothing wrong or unusual" , while the Pan Trinbago President cautions "no need to broadcast this".

If the ethical standards do not hold with you, then the economics do not line up; the steel pan body that survives on state funds went  from paying TT$15,000 monthly to TT$70,000 monthly.

"State spending on the steelband might be better invested in fortifying the three pillars of the modern panyard, musicianship, community and business development, rewarding and supporting initiatives that advance each of those aspects of the panyard," a Newsday editorial on Feb 11th 2024 stated. I am sure you agree.

When you personally endorsed Beverley Ramsey Moore as the person to take over Pan Trinbago, little did you know that six years down the road, you would be reaping this kind of reward.

We know Randall Mitchell will not survive in another cabinet run by you, if you are elected into office again, having already been discarded by the PNM folks who grumbled to you and did not want his return as MP for San Fernando East. To keep the peace you appointed  him as a Senator instead.

Over time, Randall and Beverley became tightly bonded, like two peas in a pod. And it is manifest in this open act of disgrace, which you have defended, moreso because of your perceived value of Beverley.

Mrs Ramsey Moore and Mr Mitchell.

Last year, Dennis Phillip, whom you know from 1970, and with whom you share a mutual respect, described it simply as Beverley having you "by the short and curlies'” as through her you hope to manifest votes in the two crucial parliamentary seats in Tobago for the 2025 elections.

But there is none so blind as he who will not see. Panmen know that you have full confidence in her and therefore see all her actions reflecting on you, many of which you may not know about.

And while you are going through panyards for conversations, on your own terms and conditions and as a recommended good look by some of your image advisers, you are missing the whole point of the undercurrent of discontent.

In fact the panmen- a term used loosely to describe decent, qualified men- are going over your head to get a listening ear of President Christine Kangaloo. Some members of the Big Five are working actively on getting a replacement because they believe Ramsey Moore  has your full confidence, so they did not dare to reach out to you. Once again, it does not look good for you.

I am sure you hoped to be on better political footing after six years of  giving her the responsibility to  manage tens of millions of dollars of State funds for the single largest cultural movement in the country, and I dare say the Caribbean.

But it was a straight case of never-see-come-see. Too much, too soon.

It has reached the stage where Beverley’s father at Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra is in a precarious position seeing his daughter act foolishly, as she behaves like she knows more than the pioneers. Katzenjammers has taken home the giant share of government’s prize money in the past three years. Is that money invested into the Black Rock Community, or stays within the family? It is that same causal approach that emboldened the move to rent a building co-owned by the line Minister. Even when Mitchell warned her she reported to panmen that she did not care. 

If that isn't enough, the maestro Dr Len Boogsie Sharpe, one of the men who heralded her turn at the top, is now raving mad at the victim he has become. His name, undeservedly, dragged into the doldrums of TnT music history, with a last place in Panorama 2024.

It's a result of the arrogance of dealing directly with HADCO, sponsors of Phase 2 the band which Sharpe founded, as they court her to get the requisite favours to make themselves the premier steelband manufacturer, in a manner that could make everyone else become a bootleg operation. So given that she has HADCO tied around her fingers, she had no problem in placing Sharpe last.

The obscene manipulation of the Panorama competition and the State Funds over the past three years can be better explained by top notch arrangers who see  no redress.The placings determine where the most amount of money goes. You just need to look at the results of the last three years to show exactly where the eagle landed. Just know this is not a conspiracy theory, as they claimed, after I wrote about it for two years in a row.

Your decision to take away acres of land from the panmen, who have a 99-year lease on the property at Trincity would have gone unnoticed, if Mitchell did not get the State windfall.

It is unbelievably sad that you can't see how much it means to them to have a chance to execute their vision, which is what the land was given to them for. Not just for a Headquarters but a sustainable steelpan business model. And, if you are looking for impact and votes, building a centre for Pan Trinbago on the spot will positively affect tens of thousands more than a cricket centre would . Giving them the old Post Office Building in Port of Spain is an insult, really, knowing it was a trade off for acres of prime real estate. See below the proof of the 99 year lease.

We know that multinational firm Shell  acquired a multi-million dollar property on Tragarete Road  in Port of Spain for the Invaders Steelband and that you followed up by giving the band the deed to the land which has been their panyard for decades .

And that Desperadoes Steel Orchestra also got a TT$15 million panyard. So you have not been stingy, at all.

Nevertheless, there is also, a WhatsApp Voice Note with excerpts of the meeting held on March 17 when Beverley, sitting in a roomful of pan men,b oasted that she was the one who told “Randall” that she saw no problem with renting #55 Dundonald Street, that she “did not care.”

So, who is the boss, Doc? I don't want you to go down in history as the first Prime Minister to lose the trust of panmen.

Even if what Dennis said is true, Beverley is of no value to Tobago in the manner that you require for the two parliamentary seats you need on the sister isle and will not bring in enough votes for the price you are paying. I wish there was a way to convey this in fewer words, and still the full story has not been told.

Respectfully, and Sincerely, 

Sharmain Baboolal HBM.

Panorama Re engineered:It Is Now A Hustler's Paradise.

Dennis Phillip (at right).

No one had to dare him to speak publicly, for the records.

It was about time. And that was evident in his tone which was strident but respectful, as is the nature of the man who was part of the team that built the structure for all the financial benefits that accrue to steelbands competing for Panorama, at least.

Ironically, for the post Covid Panorama (the Jubilee year, no less) his band was starved of funds.

For starters, Birdsong Steelband (Academy and Social Enterprises), born out of the University of the West Indies, has been denied access to TT$60,000, which Dennis Phillip (a founding member) says is owed from the 2022 Taste of Carnival.

Indeed it was a bitter taste for the band that did not "qualify" for a place on the stage at the Queen's Park Savannah, as Pan Trinbago’s President Beverley Ramsey Moore arbitrarily ruled their exclusion on the grounds that they did not play a bomb tune.

“She deemed Andre Tanker’s Forward Home as a calypso, even though it earned Birdsong a third place in a Jouvert Bomb competition at Victoria Square in Port of Spain about ten years ago.

“Was she uniquely qualified as a musical anthropologist to make that call for a song that was never perceived as calypso?” Phillip asked.

“Again, she said the band did not play with the required numbers on the night when they passed through the yard in what they said was a courtesy call and not a judging moment. “What was the mechanism ascribed to the executive to play the role of adjudicators for the large band for a Taste of Carnival?” he asked, again.

Since no one knew the parameters of the Taste of Carnival Ramsey-Moore's decision was challenged in the High Court. But Birdsong, in the spirit of pan, withdrew the matter which was set for 11 AM  on Saturday, hours before the show.

Consequently, Philip and his team were punished. A withdrawal of government funding is a painful blow to any unsponsored  band, especially in an environment where most bands were held hostage by players as the post Covid Panorama morphed into a big time hustle.

“In normal legal practice, if you withdraw a matter there are no costs involved. She says her lawyer's fee  was $100,000, while our lawyers charged $23,000. Her reasoning, as we understand it up to now, is that she has to pay that bill and that's why she has not yet given us the money,” Phillip explained. 

Charlie, very much a man who prefers to remain behind the scenes, is not just an architect of Birdsong. Starting as a University of the West Indies (UWI graduate at the age of 24 years, and working through both Pan Trinbago and the National Carnival Commission (NCC), he was part of the team that shaped the business side of pan, giving birth to PANVESCO, eventually, after years of riding the bull to ensure that money was wisely invested in the steelband communities.

Against this backdrop, his tone became more strident. 

Elite Hustle

“The powers that be perceive pan as another CEPEP programme. The entire commentariat (educated people and so called experts) see pan as a way to keep the ghetto quiet. It all has to do with money passing through like a dose of salts to keep us quiet after Ash Wednesday.

“The Tobago connection has a lot to do with it,” Phillip said during an interview last week, as all bands went into post mortem mode after Panorama 2023.

“You must understand that Tobago politics is on a knife's edge since the two parliamentary seats on the island are critical to national politics. Beverley Ramsey Moore has always been in opposition to the People's National Movement (PNM) in Tobago. She now has Rowley by the ‘short and curlies’.

It won’t be surprising to see her take it to another level and contest an election for the PNM, just as Bertie Fraser ( a former President)  when he fought for the Tunapuna seat in the 1976 elections.

“Anything she comes up with she gets it,” he stated, matter of fact.

“She has traction and access to government funding and determines where the corn is being  shared, and there is a certain kind of arrogance that goes with that,” he charged.

“They are distributing the largesse as if it is their own manna from heaven,’"Philip said, starting to build a case against inequity in the distribution of resources.

“Tobago is, therefore, an elite hustle.

“One young player boasted to me that he called a price of $7,000  to play for a Tobago band, which did not factor in the cost of transport to the island as well as accommodation and meals. Their bands had the advantage over all others, having also received money In October from the Tobago House of Assembly ,(THA ) as Chief Secretary Farley Augustine pointed out, added to the money from the national body.

“That’s in addition to other funds easily doled out by the THA, on request, which they are fortunate to have,” the Birdsong founder said.

“If you approach any young person under the age of  22 years, they ask one question; how much are you paying? That’s the mentality that is now haunting  every steelband,” he said.

‘Yet, musicians from England, France, the United States and Japan  and other parts of the world, who come to Trinidad to play at the Panorama, pay their airfare, accommodation and meals .

“Perhaps the most damning thing I have heard over the season was a young player saying , "I don't want to be a musician, I am a panman. There are people playing for 15  bands and can't tell you who is the arranger or what is the name of the song. Can they really play music?

“These entitled young people are not interested in where the steelband came from and really don't care where it is going because they are in it for the hustle," he said.

 “After 40 years of a University of the West Indies steelband program , that is clearly an indictment on us. Even worse, there are students begging for funds to do post grad work abroad, which does not reflect well on our institutions and our self described nomenclature as the mecca of the steelband,” he put it nicely.

 “Why are people leaving the mecca to do graduate work when others should be flocking here to do post graduate work in the Trinidad environment?” Charlie asked.

“At the last International Conference on Pan held in Port of Spain (2015) there were 30 odd learned papers presented, only two of which came from Trinidad,” he recalled, removing the plaster from deep sores.

“If we can't tell our own story, what do you expect?” Phillip mused.

A False Sense of Reality.

“Essentially we have a national culture that can't distinguish between Public Relations and Philanthropy. "We need perceptive donors who understand that society needs art and are not just looking to ride on a wave of popularity.

“Unless the elites  see all art and culture as intrinsic to the evolution of society, we have nowhere to go,” he said, challenging the commentariat to open their minds.

“Whereas the perceived narrative is that the steel pan is a national instrument, it is instructive to note what is happening in the Schools' Panorama. Bands that were champions in the past like St Augustine did not take part in the 2023 competition because under the Ministry of Education, the schools’ panorama is more reflective of the endowments of the schools, rather than the talent," Charlie continued with the stream of consciousness that's badly needed in the current narrative contrived by Pan Trinbago.

“UNIPET gave a $35,000 cheque to the Combined Naparima College who also received donations from Tiger Tanks and the San Fernando City Corporation .

"Compare that  to a Medium Band; the only private money Pamberi got was a donation of $5,000 from Nestor Sullivan's widow,“ Phillip revealed, to drive home the point of the growing divide.

“Seven out of ten bands in the finals were from Board Certified schools with the only government schools being South East Port of Spain, Pleasantville and El Dorado Secondary Schools.

“Yet, for years,they have been mamaguying bands and saying the categories serve as a stepping stone to move up to a large band. How many bands have  graduated?”  he asked, adding another thought provoking question to the list, bringing the narrative to reality.

“Pan Elders won the Medium Band category about five or six times, is anybody sponsoring them?

"Is the playing field level for a band with just $300,000 in sponsorship, when compared with a band collecting $1.3 million which will allow it to nurture a core of players on retainer fees and not be subject to the mercies of the hustlers?

“What was  the audience at the small and medium band finals?” he asked rhetorically, knowing both shows operated at a loss.

“These are conversations you are not hearing anything about,” he reminded us.

Stand Pipe Politics

“The President of Pan Trinbago is very much into gaslighting. So she says we collected more revenue in Panorama 2023 , but what is the comparison?

“What was the arrangement with the Greens at the semi finals, for example?

“If you make a few million dollars in gate receipts ( and that is stretching it) please say what is the total cost of the Panorama? Give us the overall budget and  show us what is  the share of gate receipts,”  Charlie said.

“If you have a show on the scale of Panorama whose main revenue is gate receipts then you are spinning top in mud”, he repeated what we all know.

“At events around the world, they collect more money from the global audience rather than the gate receipts.There is no global audience except for a few people in the diaspora and still the live broadcasts are of poor technical quality,” Charlie said.

“Yet, with this false sense of what reality is, Pan Trinbago acts with a kind of condescension  when they give you a small portion of the money due and have you hanging on, using the tactics of a two-bit politician playing stand pipe politics.”

“What is the revenue stream from all the Panorama music for which they own all the  rights?” he asked again, the questions piling up.

“The fact that we are one of the best in the world does not mean it will be so in the next generation, because we are heading down that slippery slope," he added, after throwing light on the messy situation.

         Thunder Across the Table.

         

Dennis Phillips is immensely qualified to break the glass ceiling for all the men who have been terrified of offending Pan Trinbago first woman  President Beverley Ramsey Moore, unwilling to upset the apple cart for fear of victimisation.

Among them have been men who did nerve wracking negotiations, among other things, to make it possible for the current executive to float around on the raft they built. The intention was equitable distribution.

There was no payback for the men who fought for tens of millions of the national purse to be allocated to steelbands.But passions fulfilled was enough.

Dennis Phillip is a founding member of Birdsong (1973) and became manager of the band two years later, even as he held jobs at the UWI Campus, the Ministry of Finance and BWIA. By 1978  there were three members of Birdsong on the Pan Trinbago executive under George Goddard who resigned after the Panorama 1979 boycott, when Arnim Smith moved up the ladder from Vice President.

Fighting For Assistance

"At  the time, the appearance fee for steelband  at Panorama was $300 which was essentially the cost to tune a tenor pan. Arnim and myself negotiated with the Carnival Development Committee (CDC) led by the late Jack Lewsey and Ivan Williams was a member of the Board which meant there was thunder across the table when we asked for the appearance fee to move to $5,000," he recalled.

“The 1979 boycott  marked the first time that panmen demonstrated outside of WhiteHall including staunch PNMites like Eddie Hart .Only Desperadoes did not heed the boycott.

“We resumed the negotiations in 1980  and they said if we raise the appearance fee from $300 to $5000, all interest groups would want more. Eventually we agreed to raise the fee and the rest came in the form of  assistance to steelbands to make up the $5,000 for which they negotiated,” Phillips said, giving context to the benefits now enjoyed in the movement.

And Then Came The Scoresheets

With that settled, the next step was to bring back the Steelband Music Festival after an eight year hiatus .Pat Bishop  who was working with Kirpalani’s the largest retailer on the island at the time, along with Damian Holder and Kenny De Silva helped to facilitate. 

“Two of us, Greaves from Starlift and I, met with Roy Boyke, Kenny de Silva  and the Chairman of Kirpalani, Shaffique Sultan Khan at El Socorro and we agreed to use the Jean Pierre Sports Complex.. 

“By the night of the  finals in 1980, tickets were sold out.

“We created a professional environment, at the end of which all the players and their bands lined up and listened to the remarks of the adjudicators, when the results were announced, as it was in the format of the Music Festival," Charlie, who was the stage manager for the ground breaking event, said.

“It was the first time that score sheets were used to give the results which was also introduced for the first time in Panorama the following year. Previously, bands were  given a final score. There were no marks or comments.

“After the roaring success of the  Music Festival, Pan Trinbago was awarded the Trinity Cross at the National Awards  in August. In 1981 we staged the School’s Steelband Music Festival, moulding a new crop of professionals, he said, tracing history that has seemingly been erased for a generation of small hustlers.

Payment For Excellence Killed

“Then came the landmark in 1991 when the international courts awarded millions of dollars to Trinidad and Tobago in the Tesoro Bribery Scandal, the only time that the country ever received money from a corruption case.

“Prime Minister ANR Robinson gave TT$7 million to the steelband movement, which was a lot at that time and we decided that it would remain as capital for steelbands, which gave birth to PANVESCO, with Clary Benn being the architect as we  involved a broader section of the community namely  Reginald Dumas and Joe Esau to come on board with their expertise and experience. It was  launched with three steel bands playing inside the lobby of the  Central Bank building.

“When the idea came for payment to players, it was meant to incentivise excellence in Panorama by awarding graded stipends to players from the first four bands.BWIA had pumped TT$1 million into the Panorama and  had collected all the names and prepared the cheques.

“But Patrick Arnold came and created the hustle when he said give money to all players,” he said, adding it has evolved into one of the most corrupt processes.

How to Knock Out Watchman? Gary Plots and Plans, PSC on Pins and Needles.

Blocking a Nation's Prayer:

There was a sense of purpose, when decades ago, he declared his mission in the name he chose. Almost always with a serious expression, but with the ability to make you laugh at yourself anytime, he said his duty is to be, for Trinidad and Tobago, the Watchman: “to look out for people, to warn people and to stop people from doing wrong.”

Wayne Hayde (Gary Cardinez Photo)

Is he still too serious for them? When the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) Headquarters was car bombed in the 1990 attempted coup and police men were utterly demoralised, as a police constable he was among  a small group that led from the ground and from the ashes came the Police Second Division Social and Welfare Association that successfully bargained for resources and respect.

The homegrown, incorruptible, police officer‘s decades of experience in international conflict zones-in a non-military capacity- in Africa, the Middle East and Asia has groomed him for the job at hand. He sees the challenge as bringing T&T to an even keel.

Once again, Wayne Hayde has applied for the post as Police Commissioner, four years after they created the circumstances to make him ineligible.

In 2017 , they rendered him unqualified on the basis of his age, although he is far younger than the man who is Chairman of the National Security Council and US President Joe Biden, no doubt.

Did his fair and fearless social commentary in calypso in the decade of the 90’s, especially, place him at a disadvantage, he wondered.

So, he refrained from taking legal action because he did not want it to seem like a case of sour grapes.

Hayde quietly left Trinidad and witnessed, from afar, all the drama unfold as a result of the tainted process that took Gary Griffith into office as Commissioner of Police. It was no different from every night he performed in the Calypso Monarch Finals, even when thousands  of patrons at the Queen’s Park Savannah chanted “sing Watchman sing.”  As he walked off the stage, he jumped in his car and headed home to watch the results on television, knowing  it was the respect of the people that mattered and not the status quo.

Now, as a candidate, the Chaguanas born and bred Hayde is setting standards for the newly appointed Judith Jones led Police Service Commission (PSC), by his vigilance.

“This is a new day,” he declared recently, in a voice message to senior police officers in a What’s App Chat Group, many of whom pushed him to apply for the job as top cop.

“Not to undermine, challenge or damage anyone, we are all seeking a fair assessment, a confidential process, which gives confidence to the public that the person selected has been chosen by fair means,” he stated.

In the process between 2017 and 2018, there were major breaches of confidentiality (that could have been challenged in court) when Griffith paraded, in the media, the scores of the candidates on the Merit list, showing himself as the man with the most points. And no one asked how he got access to that information. As it unfolded, Griffith was a repeat offender when in 2021, as a candidate, he was copied directly on confidential emails from the PSC leading to the eventual resignation of  the Commission.

“In 2022, there was an interview on July 2nd with the candidate saying that he has “complete confidence in this new PSC, after he met with them”, Hayde noted in the dialogue with the senior officers, wondering  “ if we are going through a tainted and biased process, again, where the outcome has already been determined.” Days later the PSC issued a statement clarifying that the meeting  with Griffith was not connected to the selection process. But that was not all.

Gary Griffith

Still unreported to date is a recent attempt by the former Commissioner  to lobby a senior Tobagonian police officer  to apply for the post promising him second in command, in what appears to be a desperate attempt to get the support of senior police officers. He is trying to give the impression that he has some power and influence over the process again and is sure to win.

But the Watchman is on the alert.

More than three years ago, in 2019, when he last visited Trinidad and Tobago from Uganda where he lives and works, for a reunion with his Batch, I met and interviewed Wayne Hayde the night before he left the country. There was no right time to publish this interview because it would have been lost in the loud sound of the TTPS crashing into an abyss of politics.

No one knows who the Watchman is, really, except for the on stage calypsonian.

The transcript of the recorded interview is broken into bite sized pieces.

Read on to understand why, under given circumstances, he is the answer to a Patriot’s prayer.

I wish I had the challenge to lower the murder rate.

Those who were there in the Executive  of the TTPS did not deserve to be considered for the job because they were part of the colossal failure, in my opinion. There are those who will argue that things were fine, I beg to differ. 

Let me tell you, I want to be able to come home and feel comfortable and work with anyone who is committed, competent and willing to do what it takes to bring the country back to an even keel. Because we are all part of the problem letting the police service sink so low. But of course, I reserve the greatest amount of my disappointment with Stephen Williams, who was a friend of mine, who remained and kept fiddling while the Service was burning.

Stephen Williams.

That is the reason why I applied. Had it been a national vote, in 2017, and the both candidates were allowed to talk and make their case I am positively sure, I would have won people over, even though I had been out of the country for so long and half of the young population don't know who I am. But this is the age of the internet and people can simply check and make their own judgements where that is concerned. 

But it’s a thankless job. There is no way you are going to score a definitive victory. 

What you have to do is hope that your positives outweigh your negatives. And the greatest negative right now (2019) is the question of the murder rate and that is really what I wish I had the challenge to do. 

 

As I got older and as I went to different places, I have seen a lot of death and destruction. I have gone to places in Rwanda where they killed and buried 45,000 people (about twice the seating capacity of Madison Square Garden). Overall, half a million Tutsis were killed in the genocide, victims of the Hutus. I interviewed people who, I know, if they get an opportunity will cut your throat and drink your blood. I have been to places where people don't have water or basic amenities. I have been to places where had it not been for the grace of God, it could have been me. 

AFP Photo: Rwanda before the genocide.

When I lived and worked in East Timor, we used to take a flight and go to Bali. Two weeks after I passed through there, suicide bombers blew themselves up and killed people at Mata Hari Mall .

From Sudan, I covered Somalia, Addis Ababa and been to Nairobi at the West Gate mall, a place that all the expats like me will go. They killed them there. You do not know when is your time to go. So, I have learnt now to be thankful. 

 

  

A potent mixture of academics and experience: 

Yes, that is what I was doing. It is conflict and that’s my forte. In 1998 I got a call from the United Nations, two years after I applied, and they offered a contract for me to work with the International Criminal Tribunal in Rwanda, starting as a P2 , paying ten times what I earned in the TTPS.

I was a witness support officer to ensure the protection and safety of witnesses to the genocide in Rwanda. I also served as an investigator, going to different places and interviewing survivors of the genocide and taking statements and collecting evidence. I went to different prisons in far out places. I stayed there for one and half years and then I got an offer to go to East Timor where they had broken away from the Indonesians and there was violence.  The UN set up an international mission there with the stated purpose to turn East Timor into an Independent country in 2000.  I spent six years out there. 

UK Guardian: Timor fight for Independence

I was the Legal Adviser to three Police Commissioners and training adviser to another, setting up the police academy and creating programs for the new recruits because they were creating a country. 

I even drafted the Police Service Act for them. I drafted the Road Traffic Act, parts of the Firearms Ammunition and Explosives Act and part of the Criminal Procedure Act dealing with Juvenile Justice, as well. Because the country was being run by the UN, we had that kind of ability to write laws so I used my experience from different places to write the laws. Especially road traffic because at home in Trinidad, I knew every law in the road traffic book. I was promoted twice during that stint.

After allegations of abuse, the UN  decided to set up the Conduct and Discipline Unit and I applied for a post and moved to New York where I stayed for one and half years and was again promoted to P5 before I was sent as the UN Chief of Conduct and Discipline for Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, and Italy.  

I spent a year and half in Lebanon and got another promotion to D1 and they sent me to Darfur and it's where I spent just over seven  years and retired from there. 

It is impossible for me to see people through the prism of race and class because of where I grew up 🙌 and that is one of the things that has assisted me  greatly in life

I was always comfortable going anywhere. That first became important when I became President of the Student’s Guild at  the University of the West Indies, UWI. I can’t lose my accent. I don't know how to pretend. If I need to address any formal gathering, anywhere in the world, I know how to use English. But I still sound like I am from Chaguanas. 

I was born on Henderson Street, Chaguanas, in the area near the Lion House that is featured in Naipaul’s novel, The House for Mr. Biswas. But I grew up everywhere. 

The first school I went to was the Seereram Memorial Vedic but I didn’t stay there long because we moved to Chase Village and I went to Orange Field Hindu. And then when my other relatives came, they moved me to Carapichaima Anglican. 

👏I now hold a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Law, Law Education Certificate,  Master of Science in Protection Management,  Master of Commercial Law, Doctor of Business Administration and  I am completing a Masters in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building  at Kampala International University, in Uganda.

You are over qualified for the job? Why apply?

Several years ago, when they were going to advertise the post, (when Dwayne Gibbs ended up taking the position) people had called me and asked why don't you apply. 

But I knew from listening to the politicians that they were not ready to accept a local boy even though I had this international experience. They were dead set on bringing somebody, a foreigner. So I did not apply. I was proven to be correct.  Then when there is a need now, I got many calls from both civilians and police telling me  that I would  make a difference. 

Canadian Dwayne Gibbs

Against my better judgement I decided that I was going to apply. (2017) 

Against your better judgement? 

Yeah, because I still felt that people judge you not by who you are but by how they assume you are. And sometimes people, hearing the things I sang as a Calypsonian, and not knowing what I did outside of Trinidad and Tobago would never understand the level of expertise and so on. 

Many times, I had downtime and I would just beat the books, you know. 

Sometimes when you ask people Wayne Hayde, who is he? People do not always know. People see me through different windows. There were those on UWI campus with me, who knew me as I was and would judge on the basis of that.

They made up their minds to let the ship sink.

In the whole process of selection  in 2017-2018  the intention  was to maintain the status quo.  I was told by the Police Service Commission, they were given advice by some senior counsel ,that because of my age, because I was over 60 and I am coming in from overseas,  that they should not put me on the merit list. That is after inviting me twice from Uganda to Trinidad ,Transatlantic flights and jet lag and sleep loss, to do interviews, at which I did well. You understand? And then suddenly they decided to put Deodath Dulalchan— I have nothing against him I know him very well, and Harold Phillip, these are people I worked with and I like them I don't have anything against them. 

I knew that was the game. So, they put them on the list. 

It was Deodath Dulalchan, Stephen Williams, Harold Phillips and Gary Griffith. 

I still think I have a case against them but you cannot spend your whole life litigating.  For what purpose? Would it prove something? Would it improve my life? All it would do is give me bragging rights at this stage.

So that’s what they did. They did not look at international experience and  the fact that you were not part of the problem so you could be part of the solution. They were prepared to put the people who created the problem back into office.   

The Police Service Commission is occupied by different personalities at different times.

Does the PSC have a culture, even though they put different people in the Commission? 

When people work together and they make decisions of a particular nature, the organisations develop a culture. Every Commissioner comes in and meets a support staff: the administration and personnel department, the lawyers, etc. some of whom have been there for donkey years and enforce a certain understanding of how things are, and how things ought to be. 

The Commissioners being in daily, monthly, weekly interaction with the officers who are already part of that executive, can develop an understanding or a likeness. 

Like me, when I started singing calypso there were people who were afraid of me and felt that I was very, very, very radical. and then after year one and year two, they would come and say I listen to you and there is nothing wrong with you. And they have that understanding. 

I felt that the PSC had made up their minds to maintain the status quo and let the ship sink with who was already on it. 

  

Newsday Photo: Members of the Commission appear before the JSC, December 2017.

That Police Service Commission Lied to the JSC 

And they lied, for example, they never asked me if I wished to be considered for the post of deputy commissioner and I heard them go before the Joint Select Committee  of Parliament, and said they asked all the candidates. There were two candidates whom they did not ask  that question. Gary Griffith  and I. Because we applied for the post of Police Commissioner alone. And they know they did not ask me that question. 

I know they were recording part of the interview. Sure, they would never produce that interview with me to say I was asked that question over the course of two interviews because I would have told them what I told the press, I did not apply for Deputy Commissioner. I applied for Commissioner. 

But Dulalchan, I knew, did not apply for Commissioner and Philip told me himself he did not apply but they leap frog everybody else and then try to change the whole process and say that they were looking for a talent pool. 

If you are creating a talent pool, once you apply you will be assessed and those with the talent pool will be rated against any of the two posts. 

That was never done. 

Trinidad’s Perfect Crime Storm

You created a system where young people went into schools unable to learn and so develop a culture  of violence within those schools. We should focus more on technical schools which provide the trade and skills that allow the whole country to run. The artisan core is the basic core of the society. 

You introduce people to frustration and isolation, they found themselves where they had no real communities to provide solace, with community leaders who were gang leaders. Once that happened there was no pulling it back, except by drastic measures. 

For me, I look at cause and effect. I tell people there are many reasons that have all dovetailed to create a perfect storm of what we have here now. I am not a sociologist or psychologist or a community activist. So all the arguments about breakdown of the family structure and alienation of people, all these that could give rise to a culture of violence, I would leave to the experts.

I like to talk as a police officer because that has been my major experience. But also because of what I have seen, how other societies operate. I would say the biggest problem is that this country is overrun with guns .

Trini gunman.

The reason we are overrun with guns is because decisions were taken that loosened our controls over our already porous borders like closing the Police Marine Branch rather than building it together with the Coast Guard to create a concentric ring around the island, especially the Venezuelan side which is so close anybody who could walk on water will reach here. 

We must remember that we are part of this transshipment route from the major countries in South America where cocaine is being created. Unfortunately, we are on the road to the United States, which is the biggest and major user of drugs. 

When you have drugs of that nature the guns are there to protect it and we did not do anything to help with reducing the access to guns, given that we have a porous border and are so close to large countries that can do us harm. 

Then we had what was a failed system where we felt that every child was entitled to go to secondary school whether they had the ability to do well academically. We created all these schools and put students in it even if they were marginal in passing the SEA.

Police don't scare gunmen.

We have a miniature version of the garrison turf. On one side of the highway or the other side. It is all fed by one thing: guns. Once you remove the guns from their hands, nobody is going to rush across the road with no cutlass and go chop up the guys on the other side. That will only happen in the old steel band clash days. 

The unfortunate thing is that it is the ordinary people who are being misled into believing that the police are the enemy. That is what you have to conquer. if you do not conquer that view you will never get the intelligence, the support and all of that to help the police to solve crime. 

It is far gone because of the availability of guns. Without the guns we will go back into our Trinidad old talk and fight, but without causing too much harm. 

Our legislation is too weak based on what I know elsewhere. If you get caught with an illegal firearm in Uganda it will be a sad day for you, let me just put it that way. In one year, our murder rate was 500 and Uganda was 4000 but Uganda has population of 43 million (about twice the population of New York) .When you extrapolate you will see our murder rate is five times what the Uganda murder rate is given the population and then in Uganda, ninety percent of people were being killed by things other than guns- , with knives machetes, arrows, rockets. 

In Trinidad, how do you scare the gunmen? You're not going to scare them by just having a police presence and a police response. The judiciary and the politicians must join hands to ensure there are strong laws and expedited trials. 

If you do not expedite trials you are going to have people targeted for execution because the longer you stay the more likely they are to be killed.  Having a witness protection program does not work as well as you think unless you are in a big country . Where are you going to put them, on another Caribbean Island? It is just a plane to go there.

Photo: Vice News

An Incompetent Officer Can Soon Become a Corrupt Officer

For me, even though I am a police officer at heart and I love the police service, we cannot  hide our failures., We now have people coming into the job to spend some time, to eat-ah food and build a CV. 

We need to fix the discipline problem and do everything we can to get rid of the officers tainted by corruption and incompetence. An incompetent officer can easily become a corrupt officer and I want to get rid of both of them. 

There must be a process other than using suspension as a punishment. Rather than just put the person  on suspension with pay and forget them for the next five years because they are  not charged and tried departmentally.

You have to set up a disciplinary system within the service to get rid of them. 

And that has to be rigid and has to be consistent and you have to not care. 

Some of the officers bring their wives, girlfriends, concubines, children, aunts, uncles, in the wuk, so everybody seems to have somebody in the wuk who could look out for them.  

 When a policeman was respected.....  

I grew up poor, with difficult circumstances and I made up my mind very early that I wanted to be a policeman, I felt then I would earn respect and it would put me in a place where nobody could take advantage of me. I wanted to go to university because where I grew up in Chase Village, people who wanted a recommendation for their passport had to go to someone who was a police corporal and above, or a university graduate and you would see, people would have to go and line up by one man man’s house to get documents signed. 

I believe it was the best thing that could happen to a young man in terms of creating a sense of discipline. A police training college is not a school. It is a place to take young men and women and turn them into policemen, creating a specific sense of belonging, an identity, a discipline you would not have anywhere else. 

 

Police Constable Wayne Hayde.

…..And did not overstep the law

People would think I am militant. My attitude was if I see something is wrong and it can be put right, then why can’t I? Yes, I was always careful about overstepping the law.. There are times when you go to arrest people and they want to fight with you. If you want to fight me when I arrest you, we will have to fight until somebody wins. But I operated a lot by force of personality. I was not a physically big person, even now, but I always had a determination that if you are doing something wrong, I would tell you.

 If I am going to arrest you, I would tell you, but I also had a sense of knowing when to step back and apply irresistible force. If I go into a situation and realise this might lead to physical confrontation, and I don't have back up, I am not going to proceed. Still, even though I may be armed. I would say let's retract, come back with reinforcements and then take everybody. I tend to operate like that. I wasn’t afraid to arrest people. I arrested a lot of people. 

As for my superiors, If I had something to say I would say If I had something to ask, I would ask. But I am not disrespectful. I always had this ability to speak my mind. If something is wrong, I would say it is wrong. I hate bullies and if a fight started, I would jump in. I don't like it at all. Maybe I was stupid, or fearless or whatever, but I always felt there was a need to protect people if they are being disadvantaged- or being taken advantage of. 

I do not take things for granted and I don't mind sitting for the entire day and I have the capacity to argue for a long time. I could be with people doing this for hours and eventually wear them down and wear myself down and it avoided a lot of fights.

I never lost my temper. Let us discuss it and we would find a way out. I used the same approach throughout my life. When I was writing lyrics, I also understood the need for humour because if you could make people laugh when you are saying something very serious you can get away with it. I understood that because I used to listen to all the calypsonians, listen to their songs and reason it out to know what is wrong and right, hear the clever ones and be wowed by it.  

Rescued from “abandoned dog kennels”.

We were always dissatisfied about the leadership of Trevor Bailey at the time. So, I decided that I was going to challenge them. I organised a meeting in the Training College. A few people came, not the crowd that I expected. 

The following day Holder called me and said he had the same idea and asked for us to join forces. It was 1990, after the coup attempt in which the Police Headquarters was blown up and so we started going around to Stations and Divisions throughout the country. By 1991 we had established the Social and Welfare Association with myself as President. 

And then we applied for bargaining status for police officers in the second division and it was granted to us because we had the majority members. When it was granted, they challenged the decision which was tried in the High Court- around 1993. I was sitting behind the two lawyers who were arguing the State’s case. They asked me to help them with the intricacies of the regulations and I remember that because one of the lawyers was Sharon Rowley. I was  studying law but not yet a lawyer. 

We continued representing police officers in the second division . We highlighted the  conditions of police stations throughout the country and the first place we started was the Mounted Branch where police officers were actually using abandoned dog kennels as their dormitories. We went down there and shut that down. 

In other cases people were working in police stations that were rat infested. They were bitten by bed bugs and it was bad. The law was that the Minister of National Security was the one who had to declare a building to be a police station. But I read the law further which stated that the building had to be approved for human habitation by the Ministry of Health. 

So, we quietly went behind to the Ministry of Health and had them inspect some stations and give us certificates saying the buildings were not fit for human habitation. And then we took our own money from the Association and identified buildings to rent, to become police stations. We did not want to be accused of closing stations and putting the public at risk because the police officers are not working. 

We paid money to rent it. The government did take over the rent from us when they decided to do it. That's how, specifically Sangre Grande, Mon Repos and Four Roads  police stations were built. We had discussions with the Minister, Joe Theodore, and the government agreed and asked for six months to start the process. 

People have these nice stations and do not know the genesis. (laughter). 

The Watchman on stage

Thing to Cry, You Wining?

I only started singing when I wrote my first calypso in 1985 while at the University of the West Indies It was “ .. As a policeman, one of the things that you had to do was work extra duty at shows..  Sometimes I had nothing better to do after work, than to work and go home. So, I would work extra duties at the calypso tent, especially opposite the jail on Frederick Street, at Shadow’s Master’s Den. I worked  there so many times that  I could sing everybody’s songs. Then, too I would hear someone say something and know I could say it differently.  

I entered the university calypso competition as a first-year student. I called myself Calypso Fresh, and I beat them badly. 

Then an Independence Calypso  competition came up in August 1988  and I had written a song called Boots and Brains for the  third time at campus competition. They did not seem to understand what I was saying, so they placed me fourth. I took the same calypso and changed the lyrics to make it national, on the urging of my friends. When I got the form to sign up, I did not know what to call myself. I was watching Gayelle one night when Shorty-I and his family were singing a song called the Watchman on the walls of Jerusalem. And I said that is a good name. 

I went to the auditions where nobody knew who I was. I spent two days there. On the second day I got my chance to sing, as I hit the first verse and chorus and Dr. Fedo Blake who was one of the judges jumped up. And calypsonians who were outside started running in to hear. I got scared, but when I was finished, Peter Ray Blood asked my name and he wrote an article saying "hold on to your crown Cro Cro,  the Watchman  is coming strong. 

Cro Cro decided not to defend. I ended up winning. 

When I was the Students  Guild President, at UWI Roodal Moonilal became the Secretary and then moved up to become VP in the second year ,and I was President a third time when I was doing  my postgraduate studies. 

Moonilal was always a very sharp guy- always politically motivated. When Club 88 was formed he asked me to sing in the Aranguez savannah. I had just won the Independence Monarch  title with Boots and a Brain, but I refused to sing on any political stage.  

Victimised for my lyrics

I would say yes, though you can never really have any definitive proof of it. 

Let me give an example. In 1995 I sang a song called the Ladder, about  then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and the charges brought against him  before he was elected to office.

That was the same year I applied for a Commonwealth scholarship to go to Canada or England to do a Masters in Criminology. 

I went through the process  in which seven people were interviewed and I emerged at the top of the list that included three others. The only thing left was for the list to be taken to Cabinet for approval before December 31st. The interesting thing is that  the other four  were sacrificed because  if they gave approvals for 2,3 and 4, I would have had a case for discrimination, so they gave no scholarships that year. 

But then too I felt my career was much better as a singer. 

Ever serious, Wayne Hayde.

I placed higher in competition in the years when another party other than the PNM was in power, whether it was NAR or UNC, if you check my records. I felt that the judges had their own biases which were often applied to calypso and calypsonians, in a subtle way. 

Now it's easier for the judges, because the people have forgotten to sing political commentary. They don't have those challenges anymore. It's a question of music and who has a better voice, who went to the right school and who is managing who and all that. 

I made up my mind, very early, that I would basically sing for the people. I remember where I grew up, the people I know, who I feel comfortable with long before I became a singer. I never lost friends.   

After the disappointment of 1995 I decided to pursue a master's degree in criminology. I wanted to go to Cambridge University  but it was expensive, So I looked for an alternative and applied to John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NY to do a Master's Degree in Protection Management. I gathered the money I made from singing calypso and I took vacation leave and went to the US in 1997.

I spent two semesters and completed most of the course.  My GPA was 3.92.  And I was poised to go to Brown’s University to pursue my Ph’d when I got the job offer at the United Nations... and that decision informed my life for the past two decades. I learnt everyday that I lived.

    

1994: "Rise up my people let the world know you are alive.

"Let them see that despite all struggle, my people are bound to survive.🙏