I know it have some pres men on this board. Doh know if this was posted.
‘I am a COP man’
By RIA TAITT Monday, March 19 2007
THE Congress of the People (COP) having previously been told to “take its jahaji bundle and go” is not now prepared to take its “jahaji bundle” back into the UNC.
That was the consensus view at yesterday’s mass rally of the COP at Trincity Mall carpark.
But the big “surprises” was that Brother Michael Samuels former Principal of Presentation College, the alma mater of both Prime Minister Patrick Manning and UNC leader Basdeo Panday, described both men as “disappointments” and condemned their political stewardships, saying they “had succeeded in polarising the population and keeping it in a chronic state of backwardness since independence.”
He caused an uproar when he said that “in defending the good name of the college,” he could only say that the two individuals (Manning and Panday) “were an exception to the rule.”
It was an ample crowd and while the atmosphere was for the most part buoyant, there were times when it was placid. But the crowd greatly appreciated the two political “surprises” – Samuel and former PNM candidate Sharon Gopaul-McNicolls.
Chairman Roy Augustus announced that among the crowd were former ministers Errol Mahabir, Anthony Smart, Emmanuel Hosein, Brinsley Samaroo, Morgan Job as well as Hans Hanoomansingh and Marjorie Thorpe. And on the platform there were Joseph Toney, John Humphrey, Jamal Mohammed.
On the issue of unity with the UNC, the platform and the audience were at one- a resounding no.
“They now saying take yuh jahanji bundle and walk back,” COP leader Winston Dookeran declared. “No! No!” the crowd shouted, pooh-poohing the idea of unity everytime it was raised on the platform.
Firebrand, Hulsie Bhaggan was more blunt. Stating that the COP would not be “pushed into any quick-fix alliances,” she reminded the crowd of the ill-treatment of the COP leader at the hands of the UNC leadership.
“Those who told our leader to take his jahaji bundle and go, then in September (when the COP was launched) they said they now cut the gangrene and then last night one of the convicted felons is saying (on TV) that this is the corpse. So you saying negative things on one hand but you want to unite. How is that possible?” She said the COP could not be part of such an arrangement.
She also said there was far to much confusion as to who was leading the UNC.
“One leader say ‘we have moved the head office to Port-of-Spain’. The next leader say ‘no, we still at Rienzi. We just extending the office’.
article in Newsday