THOSE (PESKY) UNC ELECTIONS … THE AFTERMATH

Well, it’s all over and Kamla is now “Queen”, or is she? The latest coming out from the UNC camp is that she has only five M.P.’s (including herself) who are prepared to support her as Leader of the Opposition. The magic number is eight. The five M.P.’s are Kamla (of course), Jack Warner, Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters, Nizam Baksh and Harry Partap. All the rest are sitting in Panday’s camp. Or at least that is what they are saying. But I have it on good authority that three of the M.P.’s are playing some sort of game in that they are what you might describe as “floating”. By that I mean that each of these three are prepared to “cross over” to Kamla’s side, but each one wants to be the last (and therefore the most important or critical) one to do so. As a result, these three chickens (for what else can you call them?) are sitting on their hands. So we shall see what we shall see. My bet is that when this bit of information seeps into the public domain there is going to be a lot of anger at all the recalcitrant M.P.’s and especially towards what I am calling the three chickens (and, yes, I do know who they are, but it is probably better for me not to call their names at this time).

Even staunch supporters of Basdeo Panday must be dismayed at this latest turn of events. All that this behaviour is going to achieve is that the Party and its supporters will have to face the continuing lack of trust from the general public who definitely do not want to vote a Party into government that does not appear to be behaving in a civilised manner or that does not respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of its memembers. Panday and his chicken M.P.’s are condemning the UNC to permanent opposition … at least while Panday is alive. To try and argue that the M.P.’s are not bound to follow the vote of the membership is the most ridiculous and most dishonest argument that I have ever heard made in the history of politics in this country.

In the meantime, Patrick Manning and his PNM must be breathing a huge sigh of relief. After all, if there had been a smooth transition of the leadership to Kamla, especially after Sunday’s tsunami, she could well represent herself as the change that Trinidad & Tobago is urgently crying out for. And then Mr. Manning would have to make some difficult decisions including whether or not to go for an early general election. As it is, with the continuing strife in the UNC camp thanks in large part to a selfish old man who is no longer a force even in his own backyard (he was beaten by Kamla by somewhere in the ratio of 13 to 1), and the cowardice of certain M.P.’s who are clearly not thinking of anybody but themselves, the confusion continues. And you think that these jokers really should or could be trusted with government? If they don’t get their act together quickly then expect that the UNC will lose the next elections big time despite the heroic effort of Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The country deserves a real contest between two opposing political parties each of which ought to be capable of forming a government. But how can we trust these cowards to do the right thing for us then if they won’t do the right thing now? There will be no choice …. Again!!