Mods before alyuh chook this in General Section...give it a few hrs here nah...is a national coach talking here, and is a serious matter.
Source Trinidad Guardian
Jamal Shabazz: 1990 coup bid calls for serious analysis
Yvonne Baboolal
Published: 2 Aug 2009
Yvonne Baboolal
Former Muslimeen insurrectionist, Jamal Shabazz, believes there should be a serious analysis of everything surrounding the July 27, 1990, attempted coup of which he was a part. Shabazz was 27 when he was “given the job” to take over Radio Trinidad that Friday afternoon, announce the attempted coup, and reassure the population that the action had nothing to do with the setting up of an Islamic fundamentalist state. The following day, Shabazz joined the Muslimeen’s Imam, Yasin Abu Bakr, and his third in command, Hasan Anyabwile, at Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT), where they held workers hostage for six days. Last Thursday, Shabazz, 46, now a football coach, told the Sunday Guardian why he participated in the coup, and how it affected his life.
Asked to recount the taking over of Radio Trinidad, he said: “I don’t want to rehash people’s pain and trauma.” He said, however, that he had ten Muslimeen insurrectionists with him, and that two Radio Trinidad workers were injured. “We ensured that they got medical attention,” he noted, and continued: “On Saturday, I abandoned Radio Trinidad and took up residence at TTT. “I left a big note on the station’s door, stating that we had abandoned the building and there were only hostages on the compound.” Asked if the claims of involvement by politicians in the coup were true, Shabazz said: “It’s not in my place to try and tarnish anyone’s reputation, nor to take a serious matter and make a political scandal of it. July 27, 1990, is much too serious for me to do this.
“If we live to tell the story, and given the right opportunity, the nation needs to know the truth in a proper forum, like a national inquiry. “A lot of the disclosures about the Muslimeen and its connections must come from the leader. While I am getting weary of bearing the burdens of 1990, I will not break the protocol.” Asked to comment on Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s claims of an assassination plot against him by a certain organisation, Shabazz dismissed any notion of Jamaat involvement. “I think more people in the Jamaat are PNM than any other party.” He noted, however, that the Jamaat had allowed itself to be “used, abused and hoodwinked” by different political parties, even as recent as the last general election. “The Jamaat was approached by the Congress of the People, the United National Congress and the People’s National Movement, to do field work for them. “We worked with all three parties, and I dare all of them to come out and deny it,” Shabazz challenged.
Prison, persecution
Shabazz said he had faced “tremendous challenges” in his career as a football coach and community worker, because of his involvement in the coup bid. “There were people lobbying in high places against me working at a national team level.” (He is a former T&T and Guyana national football coach, and now assistant director of women’s football here.) “I had visa and travel restraints to the US, which has been partially lifted. I can now travel under specific conditions,” he said. He recalled spending 53 days in the Miami Detention Centre, after he was arrested at that country’s airport. “I had gone abroad to do a coaching course, but was charged for having a travel document I was not supposed to have. “However, God has given me the strength to rise above these obstacles, and still contribute to T&T in the field of sports,” he said.
Still unanswered
Shabazz called for a serious analysis of everything surrounding the insurrection, when asked to comment on calls for a commission of enquiry into the event which has left unanswered questions to this day. “The media have not allowed the Jamaat the opportunity to speak freely and frankly on why people, who are supposed to be sane human beings, could suddenly erupt in such an aggressive manner,” he charged. Told that he was getting an opportunity to speak freely, he began: “There were several reasons that resulted in July 27,1990. “The primary one was constant government (National Alliance for Reconstruction) harassment of the Muslimeen by putting army and police posts on the compound, despite court rulings denouncing such state actions.”
Shabazz said another reason was the “political climate” in the country at the time. “The NAR’s draconian policies presented a situation where public servants, oil workers, nurses, were protesting on the streets. “There was massive retrenchment of workers, the implementation of Value Added Tax and the taking away of Cost of Living Allowance from workers.” Asked if there was a similar situation in the country today, he replied: “It’s worse.” A third reason for the coup attempt was the persecution of the Jamaat. “Information had reached the Imam of an impending military strike on the Muslimeen to decimate the leadership. “When the politician ignores the court and uses the might of the military, then the matter becomes a military one. “Therefore, much to my regret today, these things prompted the reactions of the Muslimeen.”
Full of idealism
Shabazz, great nephew of the late economist, Lloyd Best, spent a part of his childhood in Tacarigua. “Lloyd had a deep influence on my thinking, socially,” he said. When he was 11, Shabazz’ mom took the family to Morvant. “I became so much a part of the area that Laventille is in my blood. I feel the pain of the political neglect of the people, despite their loyalty to the PNM.” By age 27, he was full of idealism, he said. “After the era of the 1970 Black Power Revolution and the the National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF guerrillas), I started reading writers like Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey. “I felt a great commitment to bring about social change in my country.” The commitment remains. But a coup to change things? “Personally, when I look back, I think our action could have been avoided. If similar conditions were presented, I would use my new-found mediation skills and patience to avoid rash actions.”
