Ishmael: Family, faith come before politics

BUSINESSMAN Inshan Ishmael said duties to his family and religion kept him away from contesting the St Augustine seat, although he had publicly announced he would do.

He did not submit a form on nomination day last Friday, despite his previous social media posts saying he would run as an independent to protest the selection of Khadijah Ameen, the candidate of the United National Congress (UNC), for which the constituency is seen as a safe seat.

“Basically, I had discussions with my friends and family and close associates," Ishmael said. "My son had done business at school and he is now going into medicine. For me it is going to take up a lot of my time as well as my wife’s time because for safety concerns, even though he has his own vehicle, we are the ones that more or less take care of him and carry him back and forth to school and so on.”

Ishmael said his son was spending a lot of time on his studies.

“I have always had a close relationship with my children, and people who are in politics tell me that when I get in there, unfortunately you sacrifice family life.

“Not only that, but the fact is that I am a strong Muslim as well. What happened is that unfortunately I may not be able to do the things I’d like to do where my religion is concerned. For example, I pray five times a day, and there are times you get caught up in certain things and you are unable to pray.

“So therefore sacrificing my religion and my family life, after giving it considerable thought, is not something I’m willing to do."

Ishmael said as he was a businessman, finance was not an issue.

"The reality is we have done more, singlehandedly, than most politicians in TT. For example our last covid outreach was over 42,000 hampers.”

Ishmael said his efforts exceeded the sum of the personal efforts of all politicians in TT donating from their own pockets to help people during the pandemic.

“We have accomplished more outside Parliament than being inside Parliament.”

Otherwise he said Bamboo No2, where he lives, in the constituency, had been a neglected area where residents now needed their leases renewed and where any improvements in roads, drains and parking had been due to his efforts.

Ishmael claimed if he had contested the seat, he would have won it.