http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161590630 The new UNC agenda William Lucie-Smith
Wednesday, February 3rd 2010
First we must all congratulate Kamla Persad-Bissessar on her outstanding landslide victory in the UNC leadership elections. Many people thought the election would be close, not least because Basdeo Panday had controlled the party apparatus for so long.
Jack Warner and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj knew that a change of leadership was essential to the future of the UNC and campaigned for change. NACTA’s polls, however, were inexplicably misleading and the final margin of Kamla’s victory was overwhelming. It was a gross humiliation for Panday and proof that he is finished as a force in politics.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar must however be intelligent enough to realise this was a stinging rejection of Basdeo Panday rather than a personal endorsement. It was certainly an endorsement of change and the desire for a unified coherent opposition and the rejection of Panday’s vituperative style that has caused so many rifts in the party. Many correspondents have been giving Ms Persad-Bissessar gratuitous advice including the need to reconcile with the Panday faction and that the COP is now irrelevant. This is poor advice indeed. Mr Panday has been roundly rejected by his own party members and needs to be politely ignored.
Many have joined the bandwagon of praising his long service and contribution to national service. I disagree and believe that he will be remembered as a mountebank populist demagogue of dubious integrity, who contributed little to Trinidad and Tobago. The poor grace with which he took this defeat was on a par with his disgraceful concession speech at the last general election. Kamla need not worry about the support of the parliamentary party or the Panday faction, because they are now irrelevant and have nowhere to go. Any sensible UNC parliamentarian should respect the democratic vote and now pledge his full support to her and quickly. Those who fail to do so are saying, in effect, that they wish to join Basdeo Panday on the back benches and do not wish to be endorsed as a candidate in any future election. It may take a few days for the penny to drop but they should certainly want to be one of the first eight UNC MPs to declare loyalty to the new democratically elected leader.
This victory however, is only a first step if the true goal is to win a national election. The small minority of the UNC who did not support Kamla will fall into step very quickly. Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was a very hard-working Attorney General and despite his lack of popular support he would make a good whip once he pledges support to the leader.
However, those who suggest the COP unity talks are now irrelevant are quite wrong. While it is true that many COP supporters will return to the UNC and that COP now has no realistic chance of displacing the UNC, their support is still important. By doing nothing Kamla may get 70 per cent of the COP support that fades away from that party. By achieving a merger (not an alliance) and offering front bench positions to Winston Dookeran and Prakash Ramadhar, Kamla can capture all those 150,000 anti-PNM votes.
If the UNC can successfully merge with the COP and obtain the support of vast majority of COP voters they will become a credible alternative government. This, however, will not be enough to defeat the PNM, who should never be underestimated. In order to win Kamla will have to achieve three further things. First of all she must show herself to be a stateswoman and an inclusive leader quite unlike Mr Panday. Secondly, she must appoint a ’shadow’ cabinet of credible leaders to show the people that there is an alternative government to the PNM. Thirdly she must demonstrate an alternative political philosophy that can differentiate the UNC from the PNM.
In many respects the previous UNC administration performed well, but was brought down by the perception of corruption (since proven at the airport) and internal strife. By concentrating on mega projects and on State ownership of businesses (smelter plants, hotels and international financial centres) the PNM have opened a space for a social democratic party that will eschew state mega projects to favour health care, education and infrastructure and the needs of the people. If Ms Persad-Bissessar can achieve all these things, which are by no means easy, the UNC will be in a position to give the PNM a real run for its money. It may come as a major shock to Patrick Manning that he may be only marginally more popular than Basdeo Panday. It may also be a shock that many people are dissatisfied with the PNM’s performance and their economic policies.
However, they are all waiting for an opposition party that can ’get it together’ before deserting the PNM the way the UNC deserted Basdeo Panday. Ms Persad-Bissessar’s election is only the very first step on a long road, but we will see some very interesting politics in the near future. Kamla and Jack may be an odd couple, but together they make an interesting team.
That highlighted part is exactly how I feel. I does hear people talking about Panday's great legacy and how he was the best PM we ever had and on and on....steups!!! He was the most vile, unstatesman like drunkard that ever rule over we. Legacy my eye!!!!.....