Rodney Charles: UNC playing 'school games'

NAPARIMA MP Rodney Charles says "school games" are being played in the opposition UNC.

He was commenting on the party's attitude towards members who have given their honest views on the ability of UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to lead the UNC to victory in the next general election.

Charles, who announced last year he will not stand for re-election, added this was an issue of where one stands on principle rather than where one sits in any particular location.

He made these comments in a statement on September 11, two days after he and four fellow UNC MPs – Rushton Paray, Anita Haynes-Alleyne, Dr Rai Ragbir and Dinesh Rambally – were reassigned to the lower part of the opposition's front bench in the House of Representatives on September 9.

All five have publicly expressed doubts about the ability of the UNC to win the next election with Persad-Bissessar at the helm.

Paray, Ragbir and Haynes-Alleyne were members of the United Patriots slate which unsuccessfully challenged the Persad-Bissessar-sponsored Star slate for posts on the UNC's national executive in the party's internal elections in June.

Persad-Bissessar's post was not up for grabs in those elections, but will be next year.

Rambally and Charles were aligned to the United Patriots in the internal election.

Paray, Rambally, Haynes-Alleyne and Ragbir have all submitted their nominations to stand for re-election in their respective seats of Mayaro, Chaguanas West, Tabaquite and Cumuto/Manzanilla in 2025.

They have all said they are unconcerned about whether their nominations will be rejected on the ground that they criticised Persad-Bissessar.

The five were not invited to a UNC general-election preparation meeting at the party's headquarters in Chaguanas on September 1.

At that meeting, UNC PRO Dr Kirk Meighoo identified Mayaro as one of ten critical seats the UNC must win as part of its strategy to win an overall total of 25 seats in the next election.

In his statement, Charles said, "We are seeing school games being played where the archaic and failed approaches of 'head of the class' and 'naughty corners' are enacted on the political landscape while physical schools are unfinished, unopened, uninhabitable, or despairingly uninspiring."

He added, "Children are fighting and gambling in classes whilst leaders are fighting against and gambling with Trinidad and Tobago's future."

Charles said it was unfortunate that he and other UNC members who share his views have been ridiculed by other members.

"Ridicule and reprimand for exercising one's rights and standing on principle can be disastrous. It reinforces the barrier to entry our bright minds must overcome if they even desire to engage the political field."

Charles also said it was unfortunate that some people choose to beguile themselves with "box-drain budgets, bacchanal and benches."

He added that this blinds everyone to an ominous outcome.

"We are cementing the brain drain of intellectual and ethical acumen that should become our pool of potential leadership."

Charles said for him, it is more important where he stands on principles than where he sits in Parliament.

"We must never surrender to the pervasive pettiness, mediocrity, antediluvian practices and pedestrianism that surrounds us."

Comparing the reassignment of the seating arrangements on the opposition's parliamentary benches to shuffling a deck of cards, Charles said time will tell whether the dealers made the right move or not.

"What sweet in goat mouth, sour in the bam bam."

Opposition whip David Lee has said there is nothing unusual about the five being assigned to different seats in the House.

The new parliamentary term opens on September 13 at the Red House, with simultaneous sittings of the House and Senate.