Sudama has lost his way

THE EDITOR: As a founder of the United National Congress (UNC) and a long-time political thinker and activist, who inspired me when I was younger, I owe Trevor Sudama some respect and gratitude.

Unfortunately, however, he has lost his way for many years, ever since his role in bringing down his own UNC government in 2001. This allowed Patrick Manning and the PNM to return to government, turning our country into one of the most murderous in the world, seeing massive corruption with the likes of Calder Hart, and undermining the Constitution in so many serious ways.

His latest letter, “Kamla’s delusion,” reflects his myopia, misplaced priorities and lack of perspective, revisiting the Opposition Leader’s two-week-old congratulatory message to US President Donald Trump, while being silent on the major issues facing TT during this state of emergency, including the assassination of former SSA attorney Randall Hector, the anointing of Stuart Young as PM-in-waiting, and the arrest and replacement of CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher.

His obsession with US politics above matters at home may seem perplexing. Perhaps Sudama is in favour of the woke agenda or finds it unobjectionable. However, the overwhelming majority of Americans, and Trinidadians and Tobagonians, do not.

Unfortunately, it just seems to be yet another avenue to attack Kamla Persad-Bissessar. If Sudama believes the congratulatory message to Trump is some cynical political ploy by Persad-Bissessar, he is absolutely wrong. Her message was based on principle, and certainly not on finding favour with elitist opinion.

Even when it did not appear at all likely that Donald Trump would return to office, the Opposition Leader constantly spoke against the spreading woke agenda, including fake outrage, virtue signalling, and cancel culture, since 2020. It is not a new position.

His obvious hurt at the Democratic Party's loss and repetition of their talking points do not need refuting here, as the election results and the latest Quinnipiac poll show the Democratic Party to have hit an all-time low level of support, across almost all demographics.

Sudama also makes reference to the ideological positioning of the UNC. However, the “left” and “right” ideologies that he refers to not only make little sense in TT, as the late Lloyd Best had long argued, they make little sense in the US and Europe as well, where those terms originated.

The “left”/“progressives” used to be for the working class. They now look down on, or even actively despise the working classes.

The “left”/“progressives” used to stand for free speech. They now stand for government censorship of speech and opinion.

The “left”/“progressives” used to be anti-war. They now support unlimited war, even against nuclear powers.

The UNC still stands for the ideals in its constitution, which Sudama helped to draft. When those principles were drafted, those values were mainly seen as “left-wing.” Today, they do not necessarily all align on one side of those global divides. If the global “left”/“progressives” have changed their positions, the UNC sticks by its founding principles, and does not shift to the dangerous and globally impoverishing agenda that the global left has embarked upon.

In his long article, Sudama recklessly repeats anti-UNC talking points about its alleged inability to remove the PNM. The facts show differently.

Over the past ten years, in particular since 2020, the UNC has established itself as the most popular party in Trinidad. In 2020, votes for the UNC in Trinidad were 309,180 while votes for the PNM in Trinidad stood at 305,850. The PNM lost more than 56,000 votes from 2015 to 2020. The UNC defended all its marginal seats from aggressive PNM attack, and took one marginal away from the PNM.

This trend continued in local government elections. In 2016, the UNC received 49.9 per cent of votes and the PNM 48.2 per cent. The 2023 polls saw the UNC receiving 52.5 per cent and the PNM 39.5 per cent. It is clear that the UNC has been gaining ground while the PNM has been losing significant ground. This is a long battle, and to win we need fortitude and endurance.

If Sudama were as concerned about the future of the country as he claims – as opposed to nurturing personal animosity – then he would be concentrating on these objective facts. He would place any differences of opinion on smaller matters in their larger perspective, and focus on rescuing the country from the PNM. Unfortunately, the record of Sudama’s later years demonstrate that he may not be able to do so, no matter what the cost to the country’s future.

DR KIRK MEIGHOO

PRO, UNC