Rambachan: UNC needs change

FORMER Tabaquite MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan hinted at a need for change in the UNC, in a Facebook post on Friday in the lead-up to the party’s December 6 internal elections.

Newsday was unable to contact him to ask if he was endorsing former trade minister Vasant Bharath’s bid to unseat UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

In his post, titled "My view UNC internal elections," Rambachan urged party members to vote for the best candidates as individuals and not for a slate.

Three times he used words suggesting he was calling for a change in the party: “reinvent,” “different” and “change.”

“As UNC supporters and members we have a duty to put the best minds together to reinvent this party and prepare it for government," he wrote. “Whatever the outcome though it is clear that UNC members want a different party. They know that change has to take place.”

He said UNC members realise the cost of losing elections to "a party that does not treat every citizen equally."

Rambachan said the UNC election “requires courage and determination of a kind that transcends emotions and relationships. It demands rising to a level of emotional maturity that puts country first while expressing gratitude to those who have carried the torch.”

Rambachan had also made a post criticising a member of Persad-Bissessar’s slate, Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram.

“Please stay out of my way," he told him. "Do not call my house nor have your staff do so. It is none of your business who I and my family support.”

Rambachan said it was an abuse of an MP’s office to use that facility to canvass.