Kamla: UNC can win alone

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar opined that the United National Congress (UNC) can win the next General Elections alone and outside of coalition with any third party, she told a UNC Monday Night forum at St Joseph Secondary School.

“Those who think the UNC cannot win an election and your leader cannot win an election, let us remind them that in 2010 we won an election. For those who think we need crutches and props to win, put them aside. ‘Get behind thee, Satan’. The UNC can win alone.”

Persad-Bissessar accused some people of spreading a false narrative that the PNM is bad and UNC is bad, such that a fresh third party should be formed. “You see these third party tricks? I’m not falling for them this time,” she hit.

“You form a party and all of your members will fit in one maxi-taxi but you come and you say ‘Guess what? I’m a leader and I want to be amongst the leaders. And I want seat ‘here’ and seat ‘there’.” She said the UNC will win this election united together.

“So don’t get carried away by the narrative that we must do ‘this’ and I think in a way it’s a kind of contempt for themselves in the UNC that they do not have the confidence that together we can do, we can do it, we can do it and we will win.”

Earlier she said that in reply to calls to unite the UNC, she was willing to work with anybody for the country’s best interests. However she said the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were very different times from today, adding, “We need new faces, new voices, young people.” She said while it was okay to look back to learn from past mistakes, the party must not go backwards. “The only way for the country to go forward is to engage the young people.”

Persad-Bissessar’s strong words followed a recent call by Baratasria/St Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan for the UNC to unite with its past leader Basdeo Panday and past chairman Jack Warner, and came against the backdrop of the UNC’s membership in the People’s Partnership that won government in 2010.