Political decayof UNC

THE EDITOR: Rai Ragbir’s refusal to be screened doesn’t just highlight cracks in the UNC, it shatters any illusion that it remains a functional political party. His statement isn’t mere frustration; it is an unflinching indictment of an organisation that has abandoned governance for servitude to Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

His allegations are damning. Figures like Rushton Paray, Anita Haynes-Alleyne, and Dinesh Rambally are among the few remaining credible voices in the party but who are sidelined, while loyalty to Persad-Bissessar, not competence, dictates political survival.

This is no longer an opposition. It is a decaying apparatus, purging dissenters while clinging to social media antics, conspiracy theories, and racial dog whistles like “Oreos” to distract from its failures. Persad-Bissessar’s bizarre attacks on former US president Joe Biden and her embrace of inconsequential political troll Phillip Alexander illustrate the party’s descent into irrelevance. Governance, crime policy, and economic recovery are afterthoughts if they are considered at all.

Ragbir’s experience confirms what many have long suspected: the UNC does not tolerate independent thought. Dissent is punished, accountability is rejected, and a once-powerful party has degenerated into a personality cult propping up an increasingly decrepit leader who refuses to step aside despite repeated failure.

Two consecutive election losses tell only part of the story. The deeper rot lies in the UNC's transformation into a directionless, infighting-ridden entity incapable of mounting a serious challenge to the PNM.

UNC supporters must face reality. A party that rewards sycophants, shelters the corrupt, and suppresses reform voices cannot serve as an effective opposition, much less a government-in-waiting.

Ragbir’s departure is not just a resignation, it is a warning. Trinidad needs strong democratic institutions. Instead, it is saddled with an opposition that has lost its purpose and abandoned its responsibility to the nation.

MICHAEL E DHANNY

via e-mail