Former PP members question new 'coalition'

FORMER members of the now defunct People's Partnership (PP) coalition government (2010-2015) have questioned the motives behind the new "coalition" the United National Congress (UNC) is trying to form ahead of next year's general election.

UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar met with representatives of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP), Movement for National Development (MND), Congress of the People (COP), Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), Public Services Association (PSA), Postal Workers Union and the Fire Services Association on December 12.

She said the purpose of the meeting was to seek a "coalition of interests" between the UNC and other groups ahead of the election.

Persad-Bissessar believed this coalition could be better than the PP, which comprised the UNC, COP, Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) and National Joint Action Committee (NJAC).

After its creation in 2010, the PP became defunct after it lost the September 2015 election.

In a WhatsApp comment on December 13, National Transformation Alliance (NTA) political leader Gary Griffith said,"As a political leader and someone who has served my country for decades. I wish to state. I will always be willing to unite Trinidad and Tobago."

Griffith is a former soldier, national security minister (under the PP) and police commissioner.

He added, "If you are unable to speak to other political parties and unite with other parties then you are unable to unite a country if you become prime minister."

Griffith said the NTA represents that "bridge constituency of those floating voters who are neither PNM nor UNC till they die."

He added nothing is wrong with people who choose to blindly support a political party.

"That is their right."

He recalled the COP received 147,000 votes in the 2007 election.

"Those are the floating voters who are neither PNM nor UNC. My job is to represent those individuals and make sure they are not used by any political party.

Griffith said this

was what created doubt around Persad-Bissessar's December 12 talks.

"The problem that exists right now is that what Kamla Persad-Bissessar wants is to have a 21-seat UNC government.

"So her plan is to have the 19 seats that she presently holds, which is understandable, but she wants to insist that all of the marginal seats that are winnable in a coalition must have UNC candidates."

He identified St Joseph, Tunapuna, San Fernando West, Toco/Sangre Grande and
La Horquetta/Talparo as examples of marginal constituencies the UNC must win to get back into government.

These constituencies are currently held by the PNM.

Griffith said, "By doing that, she will get 19 seats that she presently has plus the other marginal seats that she would win using a cosmetic coalition/alliance prior to election."

Once the UNC wins 21 constituencies, he continued, Persad-Bissessar will "spit out all of the same third parties as she did in 2010 -2015."

Griffith said he will not allow this to happen again.

"This is not Gary Griffith being arrogant. This is me standing firm to make sure that the third party voters, the floating voters... that bridge constituency...whatever you call them, must never be used again."

Griffith said he will not do what the groups who met with Persad-Bissessar on December 12 did.

"I will not have the third-party voter be prostituted in any way, to be used and then spat out like what happened in 2010-2015."

Whenever Persad-Bissessar publicly pledges to have mutual respect and treat other political parties in a coalition with a degree of respect to ensure there is equity and representation of those parties) in a future coalition government, Griffith said, "That is when I will be willing to listen. Then she can give me a call.

"Until then, I have no intention for you to have a cosmetic approach, try to lure floating voters to vote for your UNC candidates in those marginals seats, so you will have a 21 seat UNC government."

Griffith said in the negotiations for the 2010 Fyzabad Accord, which created the PP, the COP representatives sold out.

"They ensured that the UNC got (contested) 21 seats (in the election) and as soon as the UNC got 21 seats in the 29-seat coalition government-they (UNC) threw out the COP, MSJ , NJAC and COP because they had 21 seats. This is what they want to do again."

Former PP minister Devant Maharaj said,"The simple truth is that the present Kamla alliance is not built on any substantive vision for the country's future. It are based purely on opportunism and the desire to defeat the PNM at any cost."

He predicted this coalition will fail as its predecessors had.

"Without a unified ideology or coherent policy agenda, it is only a matter of time before the factions start to cannibalise one another."

Maharaj said the proposed coalition is "a political turkey farm – an assembly of factions with no clear direction, just waiting to be served up as a sad, empty feast come election time."

Former Couva North UNC MP Ramona Ramdial said, "I assume it is the first rounds of unity talks, because not all the new smaller parties were present."

She observed the NTA, MSJ and Patriotic Front (PF) did not attend the meeting.

"So I look forward to subsequent unity meetings spearheaded by the UNC soon.
"

"I would hate to think that these attempts are a farce to fool the electorate."

Former Barataria/San Juan UNC MP Dr Fuad Khan said, "Comparing those single member parties to better than the PP is a lesson in political mamagism."

He added that Persad-Bissessar "has not made any calls to strong individuals in the UNC party and or sitting individuals who are now considered dissidents."

UNC MPs Rushton Paray, Anita Haynes-Alleyne, Dinesh Rambally, Dr Rai Ragbir and Rodney Charles have publicly questioned Persad-Bissessar's ability to lead the UNC to victory in the next election.

All except Charles have filed nominations to be considered as candidates.

Khan believed Persad-Bissessar will meet with the NTA and PF at some point.

"She is a great strategist and understands the political method of strategy –hence she called the lower ones first."

Former Tabaquite MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan said he was willing to give this coalition a chance.

"Any attempt to get together in order to do better for the country is a mature way of thinking."

Rambachan said Persad-Bissessar cannot repeat the mistakes that were made with the PP. He believed those mistakes arose out of
immaturity by her to manage the diverse interests in a coalition.

The PP, he continued, survived as long as it did because of the sacrifices of some people.

Rambachan identified former COP leader Prakash Ramadhar as one such person, "because of the patience that he had."

"You cannot have partners and make them feel unequal in a partnership or in a coalition."

Rambachan warned that if this does not happen it would badly damage the population's trust in the members of this coalition.

"They (UNC and partners) will have to make a monumental effort to win the trust of the people, given what happened to both the NAR (National Alliance for Reconstruction) and the PP."

Internal trouble within the NAR and PP led to the demise of both coalitions after they lost the 1991 and 2015 elections respectively to the PNM.

"If they don't win the trust of people, people are going to do one of two
things – stay away from the polls, or they are going to vote (back) the PNM."

Rambachan suggested the creation of some internal mechanism to ensure equity among the coalition's partners,such as a council of elders.

"Differences are going to arise. You have many competing interests in any coalition, in any party."

Apart from external alliances, Rambachan said Persad-Bissessar should be engaging in internal healing in the UNC.

"I am not in agreement with her shunting aside the people who she called dissidents. I don't agree with it at all."