Looking on at the internal elections of the United National Congress, it seems clear to most that Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar will convincingly prevail as political leader. And rightly so.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar is by far the most competent, capable and skilful politician to take on what is clearly becoming a secretive, arrogant and incapable PNM administration. She is also one of the few politicians remaining in T&T who still stands as a unifying force, capable of attracting and managing diverse support.
That assumption, however, does not eliminate the anxiety that surrounds the internal elections. The UNC is the alternative government in its role as the Opposition and must always be ready and capable of assuming control of the Government, at any time.
Yet, while Mrs Persad-Bissessar focuses on the future of the party, as well as issues created by the PNM’s early failures as a government, the other leadership candidates are doing just about any and everything to destabilise the party and the Opposition.
Dr Roodal Moonilal is firing from the hip at every turn, and appears more and more desperate in the way he is talking down to the UNC membership and support base.
Mr Vasant Bharath is following that lead, doing and saying just about anything to ‘make the news’, making accusations that are both unfair and unsubstantiated, and making clear that he cowardly sat in Government to enjoy the benefits of power, but was too afraid to raise his voice on issues which he is now complaining about.
I would therefore like to call on all leadership candidates for the UNC internals to make a clear commitment before December 5, that when the party membership makes its decision, they will accept and abide by that decision.
I say this because we have seen too many times how some UNC officials attempt to destabilise and fracture their own party even when members make their wishes clear by their vote.
We have seen Basdeo Panday refusing to let go of the post of Opposition Leader, even when he was no longer political leader. We have seen Opposition MPs run to the media to discuss internal issues without ever raising the issues with the national executive. We have seen people talking out of turn, contradicting themselves and weakening their public image as a political organisation.
For these reasons, all candidates for leadership must make a clear commitment to the UNC membership that they will abide fully by the result of the December 5 election. They must make the commitment that they will not attempt to upset the focus of the Opposition by using technicalities and transient majorities to split the leadership.
In fact, any of the candidates refusing to make this commitment must be seen as having one intention—to destroy the parliamentary Opposition for selfish purposes, rather than build it.
If they cannot commit to abiding by the decision of the membership, then they cannot be trusted to ably lead a party, or a future government. It’s as simple as that.
Angela Maharaj-Lashley
Via email