Linda, you're the one for me
Dublin Core
Title
Linda, you're the one for me
Subject
Women in politics
Description
Article on Dr Linda Baboolal. Newsday. Woman of Substance
Creator
Angela Pidduck
Publisher
Daily News Limited
Date
2003-01-05
Format
PDF
600dpi
Type
Text
Image
Still Image
Coverage
Trinidad and Tobago
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Page 24 NEWSDAY Sunday January 5, 2003
By ANGELA PIDOUCK
WHEN GIVEN a long-winded and rambling reply to a question or problem, which should have elicited a simple and direct answer/solution, my late father would ask 'what are you taking me all round the harbour for?'
I have asked this same question each time a new name has been added to the list of candidates for the Presidency of Trinidad and Tobago.
Hasn't Dr Linda Baboolal, Madam President of the Senate, done an excellent job from the first moment she was sworn in to act for President ANR Robinson from April 9 to 17, 2002, and thereafter.
The saying "when something is working why change it" also comes to my mind. But this is Trinidad and Tobago where nothing is simple.
I can just see and hear a year down the line, if and when problems do arise, the many letters to the editor and callers to the talk shows, listing reasons why we should have stayed with this woman of substance about whom there has not been one complaint in the past nine months - except for the supporters of the opposition who murmured in the beginning that she had been chairman of the PNM. But we will not go down that road as there is a precedent.
I shall give just one example of Dr Baboolal's worth. A little over two months ago, we watched with bated breath as this dignified woman appeared in the Red House at the opening of Parliament.
First in the role of Senate President; then as the House waited, Dr Baboolal was rushed to The President's House to be sworn in as acting President (President Robinson was ill). Unflustered, she returned to Abercromby Street, inspected the Guard of Honour, entered the Red House, and delivered the Opening Speech, an address which she had the good sense to shorten in light of the lengthy delays those in the House had experienced.
So, I wish someone would explain: "Why are we going all round the harbour" when we have a highly educated, dignified, gracious woman who is very comfortable among kings and commoners alike, is genuinely interested in people and the nation, and will bring dignity to this highest position in our land.
In 1995, the women of this country applauded as the UNC government appointed Kamla Persad Bissessar, Attorney General, only to turn away in disgust three months later when the very capable woman was replaced by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.
Why aren't the women's groups in Trinidad and Tobago being more vocal in these issues of rank tokenism.
To date, not one group has come out in vociferous support of Dr Linda Baboolal for President of Trinidad and Tobago. Actually, her name was at the very bottom of the list in a recent newspaper article.
She has been married to Dr Michael Baboolal, the District Medical Officer of Morvant, for 40 years, and they are the proud parents of three daughters, two sons, seven granddaughters and one grandson.
The Baboolals met as teenagers and were married right out of secondary school before leaving for Manitoba to study medicine.
After a first degree, the family with three young children, went to Ireland to the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians where a fourth child was born.
Returning to Trinidad, Linda refused a scholarship in paediatrics, not wanting to move her young family again, choosing instead to go into family practice because she considered herself “a people person."
When Prime Minister Patrick Manning asked Linda Baboolal to be President of the Senate she accepted because she had "never backed away from a challenge or situation no matter how tough."
To date, Linda Baboolal has done a very good job, both in the senate and as acting President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In an interview on the first day of her acting appointment last April, I wrote: "Seated opposite to Her Excellency in the President's Office, I was sure that there could have been no better choice for this historic appointment, the first woman to act as President of our country, than this very dignified and elegantly attired woman who has so far encountered just one problem: 'I am accustomed to rushing to open my own door, here I have to sit and wait for them to open the door"' she said with a smile.
Nothing has changed for me and, while the names of some well-suited individuals have been proposed, I ask two questions: "Hasn't the time come for a woman to be President of our country and why change what has worked very well for us in the past nine months?"
By ANGELA PIDOUCK
WHEN GIVEN a long-winded and rambling reply to a question or problem, which should have elicited a simple and direct answer/solution, my late father would ask 'what are you taking me all round the harbour for?'
I have asked this same question each time a new name has been added to the list of candidates for the Presidency of Trinidad and Tobago.
Hasn't Dr Linda Baboolal, Madam President of the Senate, done an excellent job from the first moment she was sworn in to act for President ANR Robinson from April 9 to 17, 2002, and thereafter.
The saying "when something is working why change it" also comes to my mind. But this is Trinidad and Tobago where nothing is simple.
I can just see and hear a year down the line, if and when problems do arise, the many letters to the editor and callers to the talk shows, listing reasons why we should have stayed with this woman of substance about whom there has not been one complaint in the past nine months - except for the supporters of the opposition who murmured in the beginning that she had been chairman of the PNM. But we will not go down that road as there is a precedent.
I shall give just one example of Dr Baboolal's worth. A little over two months ago, we watched with bated breath as this dignified woman appeared in the Red House at the opening of Parliament.
First in the role of Senate President; then as the House waited, Dr Baboolal was rushed to The President's House to be sworn in as acting President (President Robinson was ill). Unflustered, she returned to Abercromby Street, inspected the Guard of Honour, entered the Red House, and delivered the Opening Speech, an address which she had the good sense to shorten in light of the lengthy delays those in the House had experienced.
So, I wish someone would explain: "Why are we going all round the harbour" when we have a highly educated, dignified, gracious woman who is very comfortable among kings and commoners alike, is genuinely interested in people and the nation, and will bring dignity to this highest position in our land.
In 1995, the women of this country applauded as the UNC government appointed Kamla Persad Bissessar, Attorney General, only to turn away in disgust three months later when the very capable woman was replaced by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.
Why aren't the women's groups in Trinidad and Tobago being more vocal in these issues of rank tokenism.
To date, not one group has come out in vociferous support of Dr Linda Baboolal for President of Trinidad and Tobago. Actually, her name was at the very bottom of the list in a recent newspaper article.
She has been married to Dr Michael Baboolal, the District Medical Officer of Morvant, for 40 years, and they are the proud parents of three daughters, two sons, seven granddaughters and one grandson.
The Baboolals met as teenagers and were married right out of secondary school before leaving for Manitoba to study medicine.
After a first degree, the family with three young children, went to Ireland to the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians where a fourth child was born.
Returning to Trinidad, Linda refused a scholarship in paediatrics, not wanting to move her young family again, choosing instead to go into family practice because she considered herself “a people person."
When Prime Minister Patrick Manning asked Linda Baboolal to be President of the Senate she accepted because she had "never backed away from a challenge or situation no matter how tough."
To date, Linda Baboolal has done a very good job, both in the senate and as acting President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In an interview on the first day of her acting appointment last April, I wrote: "Seated opposite to Her Excellency in the President's Office, I was sure that there could have been no better choice for this historic appointment, the first woman to act as President of our country, than this very dignified and elegantly attired woman who has so far encountered just one problem: 'I am accustomed to rushing to open my own door, here I have to sit and wait for them to open the door"' she said with a smile.
Nothing has changed for me and, while the names of some well-suited individuals have been proposed, I ask two questions: "Hasn't the time come for a woman to be President of our country and why change what has worked very well for us in the past nine months?"
Original Format
Newspaper clippings
Files
Collection
Citation
Angela Pidduck, “Linda, you're the one for me,” Angela Pidduck's Writings, accessed April 25, 2024, https://angelapidduck.omeka.net/items/show/64.