Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability, the all new talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Good morning again, Trinidad and Tobago. Dr. Shane Muhammad, good morning to you. Dr. Shane Muhammad, are you there with us? Hello. All right.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: So good morning. Good morning.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: There you are. Good morning to you.
[00:00:18] Speaker C: Not too bad. How are you?
[00:00:20] Speaker B: All right. Great, great, great.
Let's first talk about you and you know, your, your designation or your designee. This morning we had to laugh.
So who, who is Dr. Shane Muhammad? Let's talk about that.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: Well, one, I am the youngest political scientist in Trinidad and Tobago and I have, you know, I have got my degrees from both Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and my most controversial degree, which thanks to President Trump, has now been legitimized since he has further dismantled the Department of Education, pushing all of the federal accreditation and federal approvals for universities back down to the state level, which many people have seen in the United States as not a good thing. But like every single businessman that has an entrepreneurial idea, the result of President Trump's idea, which I would say has now become policy, is that he's moving education from being what we would call high fluted to what we would call inaccessible, what we'd call highly expensive, and pushing it towards the state level, where he cuts a lot of state funding, he puts it back to the states so that the states will now, the state's governors and the state's legislature would now be responsible for how the universities are regulated and accredited. So that kills any person's doubt about my PhD. But my PhD is in leadership and governance. And I Specifically choose a PhD in leadership and governance because I believe that leadership in Trinidad and Tobago and leadership across the world is very critical to understanding where we are going in terms of a nation and where we're going in terms of the geopolitical atmosphere from a political, sociological and economic standpoint. And if we don't understand what leadership, how important leadership is, calibers of leadership, behavioral traits, cultural behaviors towards leadership and, you know, the impact that good or bad leadership could have on states and on the world across the world across the board, we really not paying. We really would, we'd be missing a huge chunk of the very foundation that is politics and good governance. So that was my reason for doing leadership and governance. I am, I've been lecturing for the last nine years. This year started at UE now at Sam's Caribbean, looking at options in terms of what life is, what journey I'm about to embark upon next.
Love of my country, love my people, love my Nation very much invested in the future of Trinidad and Tobago and more so my young people that I have been involved in engaging with for the last eight, nine years.
But yeah, that's me in a nutshell.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: And I do appreciate it. And congratulations at your age, what you would have accomplished throughout the years. And thank you for chomp, making sure that your accreditations stick with you and that you can be accredited, for your various accolades. Commit, not committed, sorry, accomplish over the years. So thank you very much for joining us on freedom.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I mean, it's been five years since my PhD, but there are a lot of people out there who still doesn't understand the United States and how accreditation works and having the subject of much controversy. But that's all because of the political machinations out there that people really and truly don't like or have not liked. The fact that young people like myself, the world is changing in a direction where we're not supposed. Where we are by nature animals that drive towards. And I tell any young person in today's world, don't let anybody tell you you can't do it. There's always a way to get to the finish line. Sometimes you need to leap, you need to jump, you need to dive, but don't let anybody tell you to sit down and wait. Waiting is not an option.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. Many ways to get to the front. Let's do it. So as you mentioned, youth and you know, are you seeing from your political stance, from your viewpoint, as an, As a scientist, as an analyst, political patriot of Trinidad and Tobago, are you seeing much youths gravitating towards electoral parties? Are you seeing them out there? Do you think that the parties are doing enough to draw in the youth? And would they be voting this year? What do you think?
Hello, I think you're muted. You have to, right?
[00:05:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, you're hearing me now?
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah, we're hearing you now.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: Okay. The vast majority of young people in Trinidad and Tobago should, and my keyword should be politically motivated to. They should be invested in what happens in their future, what happens in the governance of their country. How does politics affect their lives? And while many of them are listening, they're not motivated to vote. That's the problem. They're not motivated to vote because they don't believe that political parties are speaking a language that is going to. That is motivating them, that is encouraging them, that is aligning to their overall goals and objectives. They don't believe that they're being listened to. There are huge. I mean, one of the largest baskets of votes that one can tap into as a political entity would be young people. But young people are not the young people of 20 years ago. They're not even the young people of 15 years ago. Young people today are very much more informed. They are very, very much aware of what's going on geopolitically. They are, you know, in some instances, they don't see politics as a need for them anymore because they're going out there and doing very unorthodox jobs. They're looking at life in a very unorthodox way, which I always tell them that's not a bad thing because we always need new thinkers. We need new ways of thinking, new, new ways of doing things. They're very much involved in the technological aspects of all. Of all the technological development of our world. And they're ahead of us in a lot of things. And I've always said, I've said to them on more than one occasion that while I facilitate a class that involves theories and perspectives and ideas and, you know, analyzing what is in front of us, they also teaching me. And we have a lot to learn from them. The problem is we, the more mature of the society, the more the ones that are experienced tend to want to, what I say hurl or more or less, you know, throw our the word experience. And this is how it's done on them, expecting them to conform. And our young people today are not conformers. They are movers and shakers. And they're going to, whether they vote or not, vote by. They're not voting. They're sending a message. And if they vote, they're also sending a message. We should be working towards them voting to get them to be part. Not send, but to be part of the messaging, to be part of the process, to be part of what there is to be offered, to be part of where we're going and how they can contribute. But we're not seeing that reflected in any large number by the political parties that have put, you know, put them for the forefront. The one political party you can see that 42 I would look at to say that young people really matter is the Tobago People's Party. And people would turn biased towards them. But if you look at the Tobago People's Party, they're the next generation of leaders in Trinidad and Tobago. They've done it successfully, they've done it breaking down barriers, you know, moving away from this is how it's done to charting A way forward for Tobago and Tobagonians have gravitated towards it. Are they perfect? No. Can they do better? Always. We must always strive to do better than we did yesterday. And as I tell my students, I will say to the country now, even if you get 100 out of 100 or you get 90 out of 100, it doesn't put you at the top. You have to challenge yourself to get it again and do it again and do it even higher than that. So it's the same thing in governance. So the Tobago People's Party is one that I see where there's a lot of young people getting engaged, getting involved, and it's a new generation of leaders. The second political party that I believe didn't do the work that they should have done, but in capturing the minds of young people and not in a way that I 100% agree with, because I think there needs to be more depth, more explanation, more dialoguing.
Is the patriotic front all right? And that for me is more sensationalization of politics than it is a real, in depth, you know, more holistic approach to politics.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: And I'm happy that you mentioned that you talk about the younger ones should. If they don't vote, they are sending a startling message. If they do vote, they're also sending a message and being part of the solutions as well. But the better part of the consensus is that they should gravitate towards the voting polls come April 20. Now, that is the youths on the outside who are looking at the campaigns, listening to the political jargon, the rhetoric coming out from the politicians on stage, even down to the.
The, oh, my gosh, the word is eluding me. When they put their manifestos and all these things. You're looking for that right now. Let's talk about the changes in political parties. We can start off with the pnm, for example, you know, we would have seen over the years under Dr. Rowley's tenure, he would have brought in new persons. We had Dr. Shamford, Kojo, the Nayan, Gatsby, Dolly. We had others persons that we didn't know before coming into politics, or we would have known about them in the past, but not too much, but they were green, they were new, they were young, they were getting in. Then we now have on this slate. Now we now see in candidates such as Hans Devine's out of last year, last five years, we would have seen another journalist, a journalist, another media personality, Jason Williams, JW would have entered politics last political electoral year. Now we have Hans Devines. We Have Kareem Marcel, Christian Birchwood and Lena Rampassad and others getting. These are the youths getting into politics, right?
I'm calling, I'm saying my colleague and friend Hans Ole. But he wisdom showing. He was showing.
I was to tell Hans that the other day. Hans, your wisdom showing a little bit degrades coming in. But it's a youthful and vibrant change of candidates to add to the. These tall watts. Now how much of a difference can these youth. You talk about the youth changing. How much of a difference can they make when they meet people like Colm Imbert and others who are there to tell you hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. You're no reach. You're no reach. Calm yourself, calm yourself. How are they to make a valuable change bringing the fresh ideas when these stalwarts in any political party mash in your brakes? I believe that. Huh?
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Well, but listen, let's look at it from a realistic perspective, right?
Both the United National Congress and the People's National Movement, they share within the. When you look at the 41 seats, they share an average of about 14 to 15 safe seats among themselves. So even if they were to go really, really, really bad on either end, they're guaranteed at least well in the 2010. We can't use 2010. 2010 is a political anomaly. But if they were really to go badly and things were bad, you would probably get them diminished to the 15 seats that the UNC would have won in the 2007 election.
So give either side or give them. Give or take 15 seats or safe seats. Of those 15 seats that are safe seeds, very few have been given with the exception of Hans Birchwood and Marcel have been given to young people who are brand new, fresh off the political boot. They're green and bright eyed and bushy tail. That's the only three really when you look at it. The others are young. I would 100%. I mean you have the Ngats with Dolly's, you have the Shaka Kojos, you have the Randall Mitchells. Those and even they are pretty young in the greater scheme of things and they bring vibe. And I will give credit to Randall Mitchell. He's taken culture, arts and tourism and turned it into something and thrown his personality intate. He. He's thrown his everything into it and made it into something that branded him as in a good way. Now the other persons that are on the slate of candidates, the Sanjeev Boudus, the Lee Naranpasads, the this boy, Kieran Khan down in Faisal, bad, you name.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Them even Nicholas Morris under the unc.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: And well, I will come to the UNC in a bit. Right. But even those in the pnm, right, you see when the results are done, we're not guaranteed that we're going to see a lot of those young people more or less winning seats.
What we do know do that if the PNM wins the election are guaranteed that they would be first in line to be quote unquote taken care of. Not my words. Dr. Rowley's word. Dr. Rowley says he said it. He said the PNM knows and the PNM membership needs to understand and those that follow the PNM should understand what are the benefits of winning an election and what are the consequences of losing an election. So therefore we know that the young people, whether it's ambassadorial positions, senatorial positions, board positions, CEO positions, the state's apparatus is available for everybody to first but more or less first and foremost the persons that were not who were part of the state didn't win would be first in line. So there's that part of it. So while I and there are also young people like Renuka Sagram Singh Soklal from who will say to you and I and I could tell you they gravitated towards the seniors like especially Mrs. Robinson Regis and Mr. Inbert. Now Imbert is not Mrs. Robinson Regis is a person. I always say you don't judge a book by its cover. Yes, she's fierce on the political hustling. Yes, she is a very well versed speaker. She's aggressive, she knows how to command an audience, she knows how to command a podium. But in truth and in fact when you meet the lady and I think I would challenge any media house one day to do a sit down with Mrs. Robinson Regis and get to know the individual.
And I must say I have and she's first and foremost a very gentle lady, very kind, very loving, very nurturing to the young people in her party. And this, I mean you could have saw, you know it because people talk about it now, young people express it. And even Renuka Sagram Singh Sukal would have said that, you know, she admires the lady for the nurturing and the motherhood. She's been referred to as the mother of the party and whatnot. We need that sort of thing across all political parties. But you also, Renuka is also seen very close and very interactive with Mr. Imbert because while Imbert is experienced, I think his personality for what he gives to the population is shortchanged as to what his real personality is. And from my understanding he's actually a fun, very interactive political in the political party setting. He's somebody who can hold a joke and you know, capture the mind of young people. He can't do that from a government perspective because I understand how power corrupts. And the word corrupts is not money wise. It just corrupts who you are as a person. It takes away your personality, turns you into something you originally weren't. And we have to be very mindful across the board. Young people, new people coming involved in the politics, mature people getting involved in the politics. I always tell everyone, maintain who you are, be true to your to be true to who you are and be true to yourself before anything else. And that would make you shine above the rest. Now moving to the unc, we have the young. We have Nicholas Morris. We have Dr. He's not as, he's not very young, but he's mutually politics. Dr. Narendra Roop Narayan. We have Dr. Ali in Princess Down.
You know, we're still looking at the UNC release who their new candidates are.
I don't know if it's enough to capture the minds of the young people, but I do know it's been a lot. It's enough. It's, it's working in a way where people are paying attention.
Can the UNC do better? I think within the framework of the unc and that's the difference between the PNM and the uncle. The UNC always, almost all the time goes looking outside of the boundaries of the UNC for bright, intelligent, excitable young people. When within the unc, whether in the core of the UNC or on the fringes of the unc, there are dynamic young people who may be doing performing jobs in their professional lives, doing professional stuff. They don't necessarily are at the front line of the politics because of work commitments and organizational, you know, where they stand in organizations or whatnot. But that doesn't mean they're not there and they're not present. So the difference is the PNM pulls from within first and the UNC goes outside first. And sometimes that's a good and a bad thing. And I would always say that the Heliconia foundation has proven to be a successful entity in the pnm. I would have loved to see the United National Congress have the equivalent to the Helicopter foundation. Even if they turn it in the, into a simple with like the Sunshine.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Academy or something, that sort of thing. But something right, but with similarities along the way.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Similarities, Training, development I mean, Mr. Pandley, back in the day, he had it not too long ago in the 2010-15 period. Dr.
Rambachan and Ms. Ramdial and they were working towards it, they called the DNC Party school, whatever you called it, the fact of the matter is there were people getting groomed. They're prepared. They debate learning to debate, learning about political history, learning about political behaviors, traits, etc, etc. It works very well and it functions pretty good for the pnm. It should be a model. I've always said the PNM is an institution in Trinidad and Tobago. Taken away from the politics that we may not agree with, the structure, the format, the, the institutions, the way they teach or they incorporate and they get people prepared for the different levels of politics is not something to be frowned upon.
I hear that.
So in that context, we must all again.
For my motto for this election has always been from before the election day to now, the UNC's challenge has been put forward by Dr. Rowley and Mr. Young. I think Dr. Young, Mr. Young does not need to say it again. If you don't like what you see on my sleeves, then best it. And even when Dr. Raleigh was leaving in his campaign speech before he took, before he resigned on the Monday, I summed it up to him putting out a challenge to Mrs. Posabi Sessa from the state stage utilizing, using Marshall Montano's Calypso for 2025 Beckman, which is if you, if you think you could do it better, if you could think you could, you could, you could win. I bet you. Bet me you can't. It's a challenge for her. Bet me. And you know, the same way we are using we deserve a party as campaign songs, that the ground will carry it, which I believe will happen. The ground will carry it or not, depending on what the vibe is.
It's the same thing. The challenge was if you don't like it and you didn't like it for the last 10 years, then do better.
Have they done better? I'm still waiting. There are eight more seats to go.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: All right. And I mean, I want to thank you very much. I will take one phone call with you this morning. Give one lucky caller a chance to weigh in quickly. Hello, good morning.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Morning.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Good morning.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Morning. Dr. Mohammed, do you get the impression that the population is well seized as to the pitfall that exists with respect to the economy and the whole question about the production of jobs in the economy? And lastly, I want to also ask you this question, the question of security and crime and persons Telling you I will give you guns. What is innovative or creative about that? I listen to your comments.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: All right, thank you very much.
[00:23:16] Speaker C: I would, I have said this, I will say this again.
Revenue generation, how we bring do business in this country, what we, what apparatus, what functions, what institutions, what mechanisms we put forward for the 25 to 30 period, needs to speak to a lot of economics, global economics, domestic economics, regional economics. While I understand that Mrs. Besadu Sessa is making a lot of promises and those promises have some level. So okay, I will give you. Use one example.
Education is very close to me. I understand how important it is to young people and even to the population as a whole because I teach students. Now the majority of my students have been those that have sacrificed their younger years for their kids to finish university.
And you know, they're in a phase of their life where they're looking to either they're sitting in upper management, middle management and looking to move on. And MBAs are critical. But you know, we must be able to create a society where we are innovative and we're always thinking entrepreneurially. And one of that should be that while we are investing in the society, we should have mechanisms to ensure that the investment in society from an economic standpoint is pushing revenue generation, is pushing boundaries. And I could safely say that I'm yet to hear something that stands out to me from an economic generation perspective, from a growth and development, from an innovation, entrepreneurial management perspective, from an entrepreneurial leadership perspective, that I could say, aha, that's absolutely fantastic. And I keep saying it. Where is the economics on the platform? It's either they've not said it yet, they've not done enough about it, they've not addressed the how and the what. The two questions that I keep asking is what are you going to do? And how are you going to do it to the benefit of not just the country as a state, but to the people of Trinidad and Tobago? What are you going to do to ensure that there's more money in the pockets of the population while at the same time ensuring that there's more money flowing through the banking sector, the financial sector of our country that gives us growth and development? That's one, two when it comes to security and crime.
While Mrs. Wasabi says there's a hard liner when it comes to the castle doctrine about giving guns back to the society and giving guns to the population, we don't want people to become trigger happy. We know, let's be real, we have to understand our society. Trinidad and Tobago are our people. We give them an inch to take a mile. We give them a mile, they take, you know, a kilometer. Right.
And therefore everything must be done within measure and within reason. We don't want trigger happy people. We don't want because people are now able to have the right to bear arms. They're walking around with a gun in their pocket and out of a confrontation for somebody, mashing their shoe out of, you know, in a crowded space, they pull a gun for somebody. Absolutely, you know, unacceptable. So the idea of giving guns to people back to defend themselves against criminals is something that I would say needs to be done in a very measured manner. There needs to be a whole new system by which people fuls are approved. I did have a. I do. I mean I've been writing for the last couple of years. I've been taking notes of, you know, what it should look like. Nobody's. And while I, a couple of months ago, CNC3 went crazy, considered thinking I would have been involved in politics. I've been available to both to all political parties in Trinidad and Tobago to sit down, have a conversation.
I mean, political strategy is something that political scientists, we know, we're familiar with and therefore we should make ourselves or at least I did say out loud that I'm available to all political. It doesn't mean I'm plm, unc, tpp. But if you're interested in development, holistic development of the country, it should not matter whether I'm aligned to you or not. It should be that I could be able to sit and say, well, I think this is a really good idea that you are doing. You all just haven't communicated it properly. I think another important aspect of how we go forward as a nation, and especially if we're wanting to gravitate, grasp the minds of our young people, political communication is a very important thing. And if we're speaking a language that's too technical, that a language that's too. Yeah, the word is technical. The people will not get it. I mean, some of my colleagues struggle with being with trying to be non technical and non academic. We need to speak in a language where across the board everybody understands. So as it pertains to that Castle doctrine with guns, while I understand the ideology behind it and the philosophy behind it, it's not the be all and end all. We still have to look at the sociological aspects as to what is causing petty crimes, what are causing people to resort to a life of crime. We should go even deeper than that into what I would call the dark world of crime and really and truly understand what is causing it. Where are the gaps and how we can, how we can close those gaps, eliminate those gaps. And it may very well be that we need to look at expertise that does not necessarily exist in Trinidad and Tobago or the region. But we should be looking at taking this into a geopolitical sphere because we are on the watch list of the United States, of Canada, of England, of the eu, of everybody. When you're on the watch list for everybody, then it says it's a very clear message that your politics, your crime, sorry, is not, and your lack of national security is not a surface level matter. It's a deep rooted matter.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Dr. Muhammad, unfortunately, I'll have to leave it here. We will talk again in the not too distant future as we get back into more talks as the political climate thickens nearing the election. So thank you very much and do have yourself a great day.
[00:29:34] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me as well.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: Have a good one.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: Same to you.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Insight, Instant feedback, Accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
