Faris Al-Rawi carries on the Seukeran political dynasty

Sired by an Iraqi architect after his mother Diane Seukeran, a former Government minister under the People’s National Movement, married Husam Al-Rawi, the young attorney is proud of his ancestry, so much so that he has an extract of his family tree framed and hanging on his office wall.

The complete document, which traces his ancestors back to 1,450 years ago, is carefully stored away.

“We are descended from the Prophet Muhammad, my 43rd grandfather directly. There are thousands and thousands of people who are Sayed (means “sir” in Arabic). In the Middle East it’s law that you can’t say you’re Sayed unless you are Sayed. To say you’re Sayed you have to have your lineage recorded so that they know who your lineage is,” Al-Rawi said in an interview with Sunday Newsday at his office on St Vincent Street in Port-of-Spain.

Practising law since 1996, Al-Rawi was appointed an Opposition PNM senator and made his first appearance in the Upper House following the recent opening of the Senate.

Many might wonder why a young, established attorney would want to get involved in politics, and especially with a party that lost soundly during the May 24 General Election, but Al-Rawi told Sunday Newsday that he felt now was the time to offer his services to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Besides, politics runs in his blood.

Unlike himself and his mother, Al-Rawi’s maternal grandfather, Lionel Frank Seukeran, was a veteran politician, but always on the opposition bench. He was a member of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). And it was Lionel who instilled values and ethics in his grandson and became a father figure to him.

“Grandfather was an exemplar in my life. I grew up with his love of the pursuit of perfection. I grew up with his stories of growing up a dirt poor immigrant descendant, the miles he would have to walk with the jiggers in his foot. Coming out of his experience, for me, was the lesson that you are not defined by where you come from, you are defined by the choices that you make. “My grandfather was a strong motivating factor in my life. He had very little tolerance for mediocrity from people who had greater potential. It was okay to be mediocre if that was your ability. He was the person who instilled in me the contemplation of debates, the art of listening to your opponent,” Al-Rawi said.

He said his grandfather, as a politician, saw his role as one of nation building, as his contribution to society.

“He was completely opposition in his perspective, but not just for opposition sakes. There are many excerpts in Hansard where you’ll see that he volunteered his support for the PNM government because it was correct to support it,” he said.

Lionel was also the one who took his grandson to vote when he turned 18 and teach him what a privilege it was to be part of this process.

“He impressed upon me what a privilege it was to cast your franchise, your vote, and how many people had died around the world for that right. I have never missed an election and I’ve always been proud to stain my finger in ink and not wash it off on election day.

“He also inculcated in us the position that it was not important who you voted for once you made an informed decision, but it was important that you did vote and that everybody should go out and exercise that privilege. Only then would we get a true representation of what the population’s perspective is. He never encouraged and neither do I., apathy towards voting,” Al-Rawi said.

Speaking of his early life, Al Rawi recounts, “Dad was the dean of faculty of engineering at the University of Baghdad. He’s a very well-known architect in the Middle East. He built many of the national monuments in Iraq. My mom and dad met in England while they were both at school, they got married and had twins, me and my sister Aasma, who is also a lawyer.

“We spent our initial years in England. We were born in Trinidad by what was a tragedy, but what turned out to be very good luck. My grandmother was dying. She died in January 1971 and we were born in May. My mother had come home to be with her mother before she died and as a result of that we escaped the difficulties of having been born in Iraq,” Al-Rawi said.

While his parents pursued there respective studies – Seukeran was studying law while Husam was on a scholarship for the Iraqi government to study architecture; they divided their time between England and Trinidad.

Then, it was time for his father to return to Iraq to fulfill his duties to his country, but unfortunately this was about the time the Iran/Iraq war had started.

Seukeran, who did not want to raise her family in a war-torn country, decided to return to Trinidad while Husam fulfilled his duties in Iraq.

Eventually, the strain became too much and Al-Rawi’s parents ultimately divorced.

“But, they have always enjoyed an excellent relationship and still do. They have a fabulous relationship which I use an example in many of my matrimonial cases that I handle,” he said.

While studying at Presentation College in San Fernando, Al-Rawi became very involved with the Boy Scouts, which he still supports today. His other real passion is martial arts, which he started at a very young age.

“My dad is a six-dan martial artist in a style called Wu Shu Kwan. He trained the Iraqi army in martial arts. He was the big man in the Middle East in the Olympic committee. My style of martial arts apart from Wu Shu Kwan is Shotokan karate, which is something that I support with the last drop of blood in my body... A phenomenal, altruistic wonderful experience. I am at the black belt level or sensei where you teach as well,” he explained. After college Al-Rawi flirted with the idea of doing medicine which was a very short-lived flirtation indeed.

“That flirtation rose mainly because most of the boys who were in school with me went off to do engineering or medicine. In my class of 30 there were 15 doctors, 14 engineers and one lawyer. I got my acceptances to pursue really anything and then I fell into the point of life where you have to decide what you want to do,” he said.

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After visiting his aunt in

Paris, Al-Rawi finally made his decision. He wanted to study law. He informed his grandfather of his decision and was accepted by the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

“For the first time he voiced an opinion because they were always very conscious that we should do what we wanted to do. He said that was what I was meant to do and he was happy that I’d come to that decision by myself and gave me his blessings.”

Al-Rawi joined the PNM when they went into opposition after losing the election in 1995. He said he was “enamoured” with the policies that they had.

He said he was motivated by the policies that originated then and which brought the PNM back to power, and always admired the PNM’s discipline, resilience and ability to shape decisive policy whilst in Opposition.

“I look at much more than what face the party has. Needless to say with a face like mine it was interesting to move along the East/West Corridor in this last election because most people think that you would not be voting for the PNM just by the way you look. It was never a case of you were born and bred in PNM politics.

“My grandfather always said politics was a personal choice where one had to make an informed decision. Never once was there any persuasion from my mother or my grandfather to follow any particular politick,” he said.

“When they get their tails beaten they go away and they don’t sulk in the dark, but they start creating and writing policy to say where did we go wrong. Many people think that once you’ve had a licking you’re dead politically. That, I think, has been proven to be contrary in the case of the PNM. It might have the same name, but its ideas and policies continue to evolve.”

Al-Rawi said came into the Senate at this time because he believes that the PNM policies were solid and that good government was only possible by effective Opposition.

Having come from diverse ethnicity, Al-Rawi described himself as “very much Arab, very much Iraqi, but completely Trini.”

“Alternatives must always exist. Also the gauntlet is now thrown down to people like me to do that which we want to be achieved. Another factor was not being afraid to take on challenges. I had the blessing of my wife and my colleagues. It was the perfect timing to get involved in politics because I had the privilege of having some experience behind me,” he said.

And how does Seukeran feel about her son getting involved in politics and the PNM at this time?

“Mummy, having worn political clothes, is very conscious of the fact that it constitutes a challenge on self. There is the public scrutiny, there are the naysayers, there are the pundits many of whom have never been in the field to try, but they’re very good at sitting on the fence talking.

“She said I was going to face discrimination because of my choices. Obligation in terms of time is not something I see as an obstacle at all because the work in the Senate is very much along the lines of what I do in any event as a legal mind and a practitioner,” Al-Rawi said.

The aspiring politician considers himself blessed to be married to his wife Mona Nahous who is also a lawyer, and whom he teases as being his boss because she graduated one year before him.

“Not that any man should think that he’s the boss,” he said with a laugh. “Your wife is the boss because she is the leader of your family environment. We have three beautiful children – Abraham, ten, and two daughters Jinan, eight, and Julia, seven. Right now I’m at the stage of my life trying to be a good husband, good father, excellent lawyer and an excellent person.”

Because his family on his mother’s side married people in various countries, and his uncles in Iraq served widely as ambassadors to other countries, Al-Rawi and his sister were privileged to experience the life and culture of many different societies.

And because of this exposure they were also introduced to many languages such as Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

“We grew up in a very multi-cultural perspective. The beauty about it was that we gained a serious appreciation for where we live. Our choice was Baghdad or Port-of-Spain. For 25 years plus of my life Iraq has been in difficulty. Even during the Iran/Iraq war we would spend time in the Middle East.

“We never saw the war closely in Baghdad because it was really on the borders, but after the Gulf War you got to see the horrors of the war and you got to see how really privileged and blessed this country is...to have the climate we have, the humour, the resilience, the intellectual capability, the opportunities. Because of our international exposure we were always reminded every single day of just how beautiful a place we lived in. That inculcated in us a love for country and a deep desire to be a contributing force in our country. That led me to the place that I’m now in,” Al-Rawi said.

How does he juggle his law firm, responsibilities to the Senate and still make time for his family? He was full of praises for his wife.

“Having had to balance State boards before, Cabinet appointed committees and other institutions, I’m used to having to give a lot of my time. The bottom line is I work 17 hours a day, every day. I try to be at home by 7 pm and spend two hours or two and a half hours with the kids, stretching their bedtime and getting cussed for it.

“I try to steal some days for my children. I’ve learned to live on little sleep. I have a very supportive wife who is an excellent lawyer. I think if she wasn’t a lawyer she would have fired me a long time ago, but she is an extremely hard-working woman and it’s only because she is as diligent as she is that I’m allowed the privilege of having a good working team. Without her competence and her support I could never hope to be doing what I’m doing right now,” he acknowledged.

He also spends a lot of time with his in-laws, who live next door, and admitted to something that not many men would even dare to voice...an angel for a mother-in-law.

“Arab families centre themselves around food and family interaction. I am very lucky to have the world’s best mother-in law who lives next door to me and a fantastic father-in-law, wonderful brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. We live next to each other, we have what we call ‘the village’. We eat together, we lime together, the kids and I do martial arts together. When you give them time, give them quality time,” Al-Rawi said. The foundations are already layed for this young father-cum-attorney-cum politician to live up to his name — in Arabic, Faris means knightly or chivalrous, while Al-Rawi means bringer of knowledge.