A MOST outrageous political development occurred in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday when the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen of Yasin Abu Bakr staged an event on Independence Square in Port-of-Spain to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of their failed 1990 coup to topple the democratically elected government of then Prime Minister, ANR Robinson.

Quite appropriately, the Page One lead story in the ‘Trinidad Express’ was headlined “OUTRAGEOUS” to summarise the general response of those interviewed, some of whom were then involved with either the Robinson-led coalition government, or the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).
Scores were killed and injured (among the wounded being the Prime Minister himself); looting and arson were to account for many millions in losses for the business community, and an entire nation deeply traumatised.
Worse, that dastardly 1990 episode in the often stormy political history of Trinidad and Tobago has NEVER evoked even the slightest display of remorse from the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen  and its leader. Instead, the postures have generally been one of defiance, including during the Commission of Enquiry into the circumstances of the coup.

Contempt for Enquiry
The flamboyant Abu Bakr was to show contempt for the Commission itself, and went as far to suggest that he was prepared to give evidence, only if paid for his time in equivalent sum given to the Chairman of the Commission, Sir David Simmons, a former Chief Justice of Barbados.
However, for the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen to turn the 23rd anniversary of its abortive coup into another occasion of political defiance and contempt for public opinion is perhaps a most sad, tragic commentary on the state of Trinidad and Tobago’s political culture,  almost 51 years after its independence as a nation.
Perhaps a symptom of this pitiful state of the nation’s political health was the silence, at the time of writing yesterday, of the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).
Hopefully, given its known alacrity to engage the media with press releases and comments, the PNM may yet come forward with a response to Imam Abu Bakr and his Muslimeen colleagues’ latest display of mocking public opinion, at home and abroad, in the manner chosen Friday to mark the 23rd anniversary of that bloody July 27, 1990 coup against an elected government in Port-of-Spain.
Well, Guyanese across ethnic and political boundaries are all too familiar with the tragedies at home that have too often resulted from extra-parliamentary politics. They include organised crime to help transform armed jail-breakers into so-called “freedom fighters”, and leave a trail of murderous blood-letting.
One such noted criminal during that gruesome political period  of gun-running, armed robbery, blood-letting, rape and arson, even included — perhaps as a sick joke — a “hero’s funeral”, with the People’s National Congress ensuring the criminal’s  coffin being draped with this nation’s flag, the Golden Arrowhead.
In sharing hopes, therefore, for better political judgment and respect for democratic governance across in Trinidad and Tobago, a vital CARICOM partner, it is relevant to also remind the Guyanese people about the need for constant vigilance against those whose thirst for power have so often mocked the rule of law.