JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Ac­tivist Nafeesa Mo­hammed is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to meet with lead­ers of the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty ahead of her up­com­ing meet­ing with Don­ald Trump, fol­low­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s with­draw­al of sup­port for Is­rael in its con­flict with Iran.

Ini­tial­ly, the Gov­ern­ment had sig­nalled sup­port for both the US and Is­rael over Sat­ur­day’s at­tack on Iran, while con­demn­ing Iran’s re­tal­ia­to­ry strikes on US bases in neigh­bour­ing coun­tries. The re­ver­sal has prompt­ed ques­tions about whether the change was in­flu­enced by con­cerns over Mus­lim vot­er sup­port.

Mo­hammed, in a What­sApp state­ment, urged the Prime Min­is­ter to con­sult the Mus­lim cler­gy on is­sues af­fect­ing the com­mu­ni­ty. She high­light­ed that there are two Mus­lims in gov­ern­ment, Sad­dam Ho­sein and Dr Aiy­na Ali, whom she called on to fa­cil­i­tate such a meet­ing.

“Now is the time for our Prime Min­is­ter to con­sult with the lead­er­ship of our Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty to so­lic­it views on is­sues that are af­fect­ing us. Last night’s flip-flop­ping from the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs and to­day’s news­pa­per head­lines are caus­ing dis­com­fort to many,” she said.

Al­though Mus­lims make up about 10 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion, Mo­hammed stressed the po­lit­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of their vote in key mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies, in­clud­ing Barataria/San Juan, St Joseph, San Fer­nan­do West, Moru­ga/Table­land, and Ch­agua­nas East.

A for­mer diplo­mat, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty, said the Gov­ern­ment’s shift re­flects a de­sire to main­tain ties with the US but ques­tioned the ben­e­fits for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“If Kam­la sup­ports the Unit­ed States and gets $10 bil­lion, fine—but the Gov­ern­ment isn’t think­ing strate­gi­cal­ly,” the diplo­mat said, warn­ing that the coun­try could face iso­la­tion and fu­ture chal­lenges.

Pe­ter Wick­ham, di­rec­tor of Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Re­search Ser­vices, warned that close align­ment with Trump could pose long-term po­lit­i­cal risks. “Trump won’t be there for­ev­er. When he’s gone, these po­si­tions may very well come back to haunt her,” he said, though he not­ed the re­gion dis­tin­guish­es be­tween cit­i­zen sen­ti­ment and gov­ern­ment po­si­tions, po­ten­tial­ly mit­i­gat­ing im­me­di­ate back­lash.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Derek Ram­samooj said the ef­fects of the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion may be grad­ual. “You would have some so­cial fall­out, not nec­es­sar­i­ly im­me­di­ate­ly, but in the com­ing weeks and months,” he not­ed, adding that food and en­er­gy prices are ex­pect­ed to rise due to the Iran­ian con­flict.

For­mer For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment on Face­book, say­ing its stance does not re­flect the will of the peo­ple. “We are NOT a na­tion of war­mon­gers, but we are cur­rent­ly bur­dened with a law­less, un­in­tel­li­gent, dis­con­nect­ed, and cal­lous UNC regime,” he wrote.

Ef­forts by Guardian Me­dia to reach the Prime Min­is­ter were un­suc­cess­ful. Sean Sobers, when con­tact­ed, said he was in a meet­ing and did not re­spond be­fore press time.

Lt Com­man­der Nor­man Din­di­al, po­lit­i­cal leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance, said the Gov­ern­ment’s rapid sup­port for the US is akin to “class teacher pet syn­drome,” pan­der­ing to for­eign pow­ers.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front leader Mick­ela Pan­day em­pha­sized the eco­nom­ic risks of the con­flict. She warned that any es­ca­la­tion af­fect­ing the Strait of Hor­muz—a key route for near­ly one-fifth of glob­al oil and gas ship­ments—could spike en­er­gy prices, im­pact­ing gro­cery bills, elec­tric­i­ty costs, and the cost of liv­ing. Pan­day called for a clear for­eign pol­i­cy and a fi­nan­cial plan to pro­tect cit­i­zens from glob­al in­sta­bil­i­ty.