By Seeta Persad
November 13, 2017 – newsday.co.tt
Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she remembered outlining to UNC members of a conspiracy to undermine former PM Basdeo Panday long before she became the leader of the UNC and her instincts were correct. Shortly after that meeting with supporters and voicing her concerns, the Congress of the People (COP) was formed with supporters of the UNC. “I was right about these people,” she said.
Speaking at a cottage meeting at the Rio Claro Presbyterian School on Saturday night, Persad-Bissessar referred to her opponent MP for Cumuto/Manzanilla, Christine Newallo-Hosein, as one of the people who supported the COP. “I do not know what people are up to right now. What I know is we have to stay united and strong as some of the same players are in this scenario of challenging me now,” she said, adding that their plan is to mash up the UNC as they are not forming a party of they own.
Newallo-Hosein, is challenging her for the leadership on the UNC, at the party’s internal election on November 26. She noted that her opponents are saying they cannot win the internal elections of the UNC. “So I ask what is their role now.
If these people are saying they cannot win then their aim is to mash up the party,” she said, adding that the PNM is instigating this. She told supporters she has spent half of her life in the UNC and she has never left “and when the time came for me to challenge the leader I did so fairly – one man one vote.”
Urging supporters to remain focus and do not allow anyone to divide the party, she said people were successful in dividing the UNC more than once. “It seems to be the history of the UNC story. Way back when we had the division with Raffique Shah and Panday, then came the COP. and later on we had the ILP,” she said, adding that she does not know what is coming. Whenever, Persad-Bissessar said supporters are divided they lose elections.
Full Article : newsday.co.tt
The UNC has always been a “crab n barrel” politics party. And cuchur is the order of the day. People vex, they leave and bad talk the leader and the party to keep the leader out of power. Jack Warner left and everyday during the last election he was bringing out personal stuff about KPB. He wash he mouth on her and took a large number of UNC supporters in the process.
The divisions within the UNC gave birth to COP, ILP, and Team Unity. The divisions within the PNM gave birth to ???. The leaders within the UNC fall victim to the Le Couteaux demons and a press obsessed about dramatic headlines. The COP despite not winning a damn seat is now regrouping. Trinidad only has two party, the PNM and UNC. There is no room for other parties. People must understand that and work to build the UNC instead of attempting to destroy it from within.
Be careful what one ask for, he/she will in most cases receive. At least Mr Vasant is man enough to say that Indian males in Trinidad, are really “MANICOU” men, that after 5 consecutive election loses and more to come, MS KPB refuse to resign, while hogging the UNC leadership. Truth be told, it’s all she have to hold on to, cause she can only resume her law practice, 10yrs after leaving political office. Kamla, the UNC has been long dead, your personal act, plus casting the creator of the UNC into oblivion is well documented. Say what you may about Mr Panday, he created a road for a monkey like you to run on. the primary school story of the Crocodile helping the monkey cross the river, well we all know how the monkey treated the croc in return. Ms KPB’ political platform message,”if you come to shoot, shoot doh back back” shows her lack of quality as a Female leader, and if she is the best Female Trinidad has to offer in the position of leadership, murky flood waters will continue to flow. As a woman, Kamla should have been in a position to unite Trinidad’ women, but first, she must let go of her divisiveness, if you can look good in AFRO garbs, you must also able to open your door and unite the two major ethnic groups. During your National tenure, you aligned your self with all Indian males, you had to know that No Indian woman can have control over the masculine, all you really had was executive power, the Manicou males who held your coat tails held the real power of corruption. Gypsy and Jack Warner, learnt a very potent lesson that they will take to their GRAVES, supporting you in rail roading Mr Panday, was creating their own self destruction, it all played out like a script in a Trinidad made movie. Today, your UNC party looks like the DLP of an earlier time 99.9% HINDUS, nothing national about it. It seems that Mr Panday is having the last laugh, watching you self destruct, while lacking the vision and wisdom to lead.
Within the UNC, there is the knife and folk Indians represented by Newallo and Bharat. Their appeal is the upper class Indians and disgruntled Africans. It is the same appeal that COP/ Dookeran had on the electorate.
The UNC heartland belongs to KPB, Newallo and Bharat are aliens to the former rice planters and cane cutters. The ILP has taken some of the knife and fork Indians making it impossible to form a base by Newallo and Bharat. Along with that and the COP rears its corpse to challenge the UNC.
Politics is a strange thing. The PNM only exist on the basis of their hatred for KPB and the UNC. Without the external hatred the PNM will be an empty shell of a party. It offers no vision, but lots and excuses and endless complaints against the UNC. Finding creative ways to blame the UNC. They have taxed, taxed and taxed, on the chopping block is UTT with 1500 employees facing the breadline. GATE is now for their privileged supporters, UWI south & the Children Hospital along with the Point Fortin Highway all closed. The PNM supporters protect the 1% and raid the treasury whilst blaming KPB. As MP Surujrattan Rambachan says all we do in parliament is talk, the people not getting help….
Some of these comments are asinine or even asiTEN, and the writers know it. A few are simply trying to portray their political party as lesser bandits. They do not address issues properly and some are like trolls.
The UNC raided the treasury much the same as others have done and they are not better suited to lead the country than the PNM.
As a matter of fact, Africans supporters of the PNM do not have a culture that teaches them they are more entitled and superior to others. For the most part, PNM supporters and African people, in general, are the real victims of PNM loyalty.
PNM politicians have always neglected their base – providing them with tokens and taking them for granted — while they see about themselves, the Whites, Syrians and Indian business elites.
The Indian business and political elite use their Indian supporters’ Caste System mentality to maintain control, while they too raid the treasury.
There is no way people can be taken seriously with their dishonest and racist comments.
Just an observation.
Grassroot PNM supporters and undecided voters have been known to vote for the UNC and against the PNM, even voting them out of office for any of several reasons, corruption being one of them.
Not so with grassroot UNC supporters. You hear it in the UNC Heartland all the time, WE KNOW DEY CORRUPT, WE KNOW DEY DOES TIEF BUT WE GO STILL VOTE FOR DEM. IS BETTA INDIAN LIKE WE TIEF THAN DEM CREOLE”
Can people like me be faulted for thinking that the average UNC grassroots supporters, quite apart from being fanatically tribal subscribe to a different code of personal ethics and morality than the rest of the electorate?
In other words, ‘tiefing’ ent no big ting to dem
The leadership and political composition of the UNC is challenged whenever the Party gravitates excessively toward a narrow Sat-like Hindu agenda.The UNC, when in Opposition seems to suffer from an identity crisis, making it very uncomfortable for non-Hindu members to fit under the big umbrella.
When in power or to gain power, the UNC conveniently broadens its tent to remain in power or to succeed on the national stage.
The Leader of the Party should welcome the challenges to her leadership as a reminder and revival of the Party to become more inclusive and welcoming to Christian Indians,Muslims, knife and fork Indians, swing voters and Afro Trinidadians.
The UNC will never form government unless true inclusion is achieved.
Kamla’s juvenile reaction to her challengers and accusation that the PNM is instigating these challenges shows her insecurity and inability to lead.Challenges of this nature provide opportunities for revival and renewal.
This Lady need to step aside for the good of the Country….We need a viable opposition to strike a needed balance.She has not produced anything but failure after failure in ALL recent Elections since PNM came back into power.A change is in Order..