Griffith: Days of gutter politics over

NATIONAL Transformation Alliance (NTA) leader and former police commissioner Gary Griffith rang the death knell of gutter politics in Trinidad and Tobago on March 12.

He said two of his senior party members advised him that the country was fed up with gutter politics, fed up with people attacking and going on platforms and discrediting.

“What we are here to do is build, produce, to show the ideas, the policies and the plans and have the political will to make this a great country.”

Griffith spoke passionately to a solid crowd about his hopes for the political coalition of NTA, the Timothy Hamel-Smith-led Honesty, Opportunity, Performance and Empowerment (HOPE) and NGO, Community Reformation Network (CRN) could achieve in the upcoming general election at a rally at the NTA's headquarters, Eastern Main Road, Mt Lambert.

He said what he expected of members and candidates in the People’s Alliance and that he did not want “yes people” around him.

Griffith said the US had 47 presidents and 31 had military service.

There was a reason for that, he added.

“Being in the military gave us that ability to understand that you do not have to be the brightest person in the room at all times. You do not have to be the person that makes all the decisions.

“When you are a political leader or a Prime Minister and you only have ‘yes people around you, you are going to fail. You can walk around naked and they would say, ‘Yes, yes, you looking good.’

“That is not leadership, that is failure.”

The small car park was filled and had audience members like former UNC MP for Couva North Ramona Ramdial.

Griffith said the coalition would be the dominant force in the upcoming election.

“When I was commissioner of police I showed what police could do and, I give you the assurance, as of today, we are going to show to each and every person what the third 'pardies' (playing on Machel Montano’s 2025 Road March, Pardy) could do.

“Whatever we do continues to dictate the outcome of a general election.”

He added that independent voters would always have a part to play in TT’s governance.

Griffith acknowledged the presence of Congress of the People’s (COP) founding member Wendell Eversley, who spoke earlier.

He also welcomed Prakash Ramadhar back to the “political battle field” and hoped Ramadhar learnt from the mistakes of the past in which Griffith believed the COP allowed itself to be dominated by another party in a coalition.

“That is what caused them (COP) to move from 148,000 to 467 voters. It is hoped that he would understand that never again, never again must any major political party ever use any third party.”

Third parties were not there just to help bigger parties get into government, he said.

Size did not matter to People's Alliance and Griffith said he was pleased to be working with people like HOPE chairman and political leader Hamel-Smith.

“This is not any one party being bigger than the other. We are here to ensure equal representation, equal respect and, by doing that, you will have good governance.”

Griffith claimed the PNM and UNC were more fragmented than they ever were before.

Several of the NTA's candidates and supporters spoke at the rally, including Pastor Clive Dottin.

Dottin said, “I feel the best thing to happen to the country is if we could have a third force that is solid, that receives support, and it would help discipline the two major political parties.”

He said three issues were “asphyxiating” local politics: campaign-finance reform, racism and prejudice.

A lawless, indisciplined and corrupt nation could not fight crime and he urged the People’s Alliance to be careful from whom they took money.

Dottin said politics in TT was too divisive and had too much “revenge and hatred” and politicians were exploiting people’s prejudices.

He said TT felt it could not do without money from the drug trade as it formed part of the illegal economy.

TT was facing the reality that it could become “Haiti number two” if these matters were not addressed.