Withdraw from race, Bharath

ISRAEL B RAJAH-KHAN SC

VASANT BHARATH and his gullible supporters are contending that his election as leader of the UNC will place him in a position to reorganise, revamp and revitalise the UNC into a cohesive and united political force which will then place the party in a very good position to capture the reins of government in the 2025 general election.

And without blinking an eye they are telling the UNC membership that Kamla Persad-Bissessar could remain as Opposition Leader and Bharath could carry on as an effective leader of the UNC in his quest to make it the winning party in the 2025 election.

Every right thinking and sensible member of the UNC (whether or not they support Persad-Bissessar as the leader to take them into government in 2025) knows that having one person as Opposition Leader (Persad-Bissessar) and another as leader of the UNC (Bharath) is highly unworkable and thus a recipe for disaster and the eventual destruction of the UNC as an effective political party.

The Opposition Leader in TT is unusually a potential prime minister in waiting. That person, in order to enjoy the position of primus inter pares (first amongst equals) as prime minister must be the leader of the party that wins the election.

And the person who is to be appointed opposition leader must be a member of the House of Representatives who is best able to command the support of the greatest number of the House who do not support the Government.

For the Opposition Leader to command that support, he or she must not only be politically savvy but must possess the wherewithal to persuade them to lend their support to him or her. The metaphorical big stick and carrots to win over reluctant members of the House assist in commanding support.

Bharath is not a member of the House of Representative and thus constitutionally he cannot become opposition leader or prime minister.

The time for contesting the leadership of the UNC is not now. The pro-bono advice I dare give to the politically naïve Bharath is to await the 2022 local government election and, if Persad-Bissessar loses ground, then perhaps he will stand some sort of chance in gaining leadership of the UNC and thus influence the selection of candidates for the 2025 general election.

He can then catapult himself into a safe UNC seat, say, St Augustine. And as an MP and leader of the UNC he becomes the prime minister if the UNC wins the general election. Is not that your burning ambition, Bharath? And incidentally, you would have fulfilled your father’s dreams of his son becoming the PM of TT.

As it now stands, Persad-Bissessar is in strong control of the UNC via her MPs and councillors. They all owe allegiance to her for the various political positions they now hold and it appears they are all loyal to her. And she possesses the metaphorical big stick and the carrots to cement their loyalty.

Persad-Bissessar is very happy that Bharath is contesting the leadership of the UNC. She can now canvass and campaign to save it from destruction by having a different person as leader of the party and another as opposition leader – the prime minister in waiting. Bharath’s candidacy for leadership will only serve to galvanise support for Persad-Bissessar as the leader.

I dare say to Bharath if there was no contest for leadership of the UNC the turnout of the internal election for the other officer holders would be extremely low.

It would have been a good strategy for a “nobody” to contest the UNC leadership against Persad-Bissessar. The great majority of members (with the covid19 virus in mind) would have abstained from voting knowing fully well that the “nobody” candidate would be defeated. So with an insignificant number voting for Persad-Bissessar and if she loses ground in the 2023 local election her position becomes very shaky as leader and prime minister in waiting.

Bharath will then have had an excellent chance to obtain the leadership position by December 2023 when it becomes vacant. But then again he will have to “toss up” in the 2023 leadership battle with Roodal Moonilal and Jearlean John.

Thus my pro-bono political advice to Bharath is to withdraw from the contest against Persad-Bissessar. You do not stand a snowball of a chance in hell in beating her.

You should run away from this fight in order to live to fight another day. You would destroy your political life in this battle and thus end up metaphorically eating dog rice for the rest of your political life.

To me, it appears that you are more of a statesman than a politician. Politics is not only about who gets what, when, how and why, but the art of timing in the control and acquisition of political power. And in politics nothing succeeds but success.

Bharath, again I advise, make the sagacious decision of withdrawal and live to politically fight at the appropriate time for leadership of the UNC.

But we know that the die has been cast by your good self because if you were to accept my advice and withdraw from this contest you will be viewed as spineless and a coward; thus you cannot flip-flop. You have no alternative but to fight on and be disgraced in your pending humiliating defeat at the hands of Persad-Bissessar and her grateful members of Parliament and councillors.