WAYNE KUBLALSINGH I AM always a bit shy, or taken aback, or flattered, whenever I travel the traces, tracks and trails of TT, to hear my name being hailed. Always, there, behind some washtub, some coconut tree, some toothbrush, the sound of Kublal! Doc! Mr Kublalsingh! And when I meet citizens on the street, the market: “I glad to see you.” “You look younger than the TV.” “Forget them government, eh. No more hunger-striking. Take care of your health!” Yet, there is a strain of citizen, one that surveys me with a salt-prune in the left cheek, a sour cherry in the other, and a pinched nerve at the neck. “You not hunger-striking again? Why you don’t hunger-strike against Rowley?” “You done protesting for mangrove or what?” Or more diplomatically, “I don’t see you on TV again.” One citizen, seeing me sitting outside a roti shop, cried bitterly: “You done with hunger strike! Now you come to eat we roti?” He, and his party perhaps, own roti. I am not part of the roti-owning fraternity. Just a fake, or non-Indian, a nemakharam coming to partake of their roti. Unfortunately, as I came out the car to confer more on the subject, the shouter scooted off. The main thesis of this latter strain of citizen is that I have attacked the UNC, but not Dr Rowley, the PNM. Either because I am afraid of Rowley, the PNM, or both; or because I am myself PNM. Yet, what is the record? How many times have I challenged PNM, versus UNC, projects? Here is the record. When the state decided to restructure Caroni Ltd (1975) in 2001, then shut down the whole enterprise, the two sugar-factory mills, the skilled labour pool, rail, sugar cane feedstock, the labs, the buffalypso, the citrus orchards, the 77,000 acres of land, and I challenged the closure, meeting over 50 experts, hosting a symposium, writing a detailed plan, A Framework For National Development, challenging the agricultural minister and his government to deploy Caroni stocks to lever national economic diversification, presenting them with 12 hardbound copies, which party was in power? When I went down to Chatham in 2006, at the invitation of Dr Raphael Sebastian, pitched a "War On Smelter" camp on Farm Road, lived in Chatham, resisted with the communities the Alcoa smelter, which party was in power? Originated the smelter project? And so with Alutrint. One thousand actions, singly or with the communities. Sitting in at the Twin Towers, a 40-day daylight fast in front of the EMA, the Smelta Karavan truck, the book Smelter Made Easy, ending in my spearheading legal action against the state, thereupon dealing the death blow to smelter, which party was in power? The sworn champions of the iron-clad “done-deal” smelter? And the proposed industrial estate at Otaheite on the fishing grounds of the fisherfolk. Which party conceived it, promoted it hammer and tongs? And the post-Panamax industrial port on the Claxton Bay fisheries and mangrove system. To service the Point Lisas south and east industrial estate. Under which party? And the Essar Steel Mill at Pranz Gardens. Displacing communities. Another three-year battle, hundreds of actions, prayers, curry-Qs, rallies, marches, roadblocks, sea sorties. Under which party? And Carisal. At Savonetta. Which government conceived this project? I personally advocated before the IDB, along with a small group, to not fund it; it was earmarked for outside the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, not inside. Which party? And the Debe to Mon Desir (not San Fernando to Pt Fortin) highway. Residents began advocating to reroute this highway in 2004, along with the leadership and lawyers of the opposition. However, the opposition fought for this project, fought against the residents, when they took office. Which party conceived the project, sought and won flawed (Armstrong Report) approvals between 2006 and 2010? And the Arima Market vendors. The vendors wanted more say on plans for the market, including stall location; and had fears that the market would be relocated out of town. In the Arima magistracy I am still facing arrest charges. Under which party? And the legal action I spearheaded against the construction of ten blocks of eight-storey apartments on the St Augustine Nurseries, which has halted the project for six years. No HDC construction work has started. Under which party? And the advocacy for criminal justice reform, outside the prison HQ, the Hall of Justice, the Ministry of National Security, the Parliament, the Attorney General’s office; until covid, when I was kettled by police. Under which party? And my action against the ill-considered move by a PM in blocking the CoP merit list. Writing letters to the President, subsequent sets of police commissioners, the acting chief of police, until this PM cried, “It was me!” Under which party? Most of these projects were part of the state’s Master Gas Plan. Which we had not the gas for. Which attempted to trade the economic, social, health, ecological wealth of communities for lumpsum profits to 100 per cent foreign ownerships (except Alutrint, partnered with a bankrupt Sural), and a little “filthy lucre” (activist Yvonne Ashby) for our Treasury. So what is the record? With my 11 still-pending arrest charges. With, since 2012, half my health? With millions expended from the pockets of supporters and myself? How many PNM projects have I challenged? Versus UNC projects? The score: PNM projects challenged 12, UNC projects challenged 0.