Dear Editor,
Winston Dookeran is a lot of things, he is tall, he is somewhat knowledgeable in economics and he has the ability to put anyone to sleep after just twenty minutes of listening to him. These are his more positive attributes. What Winston Dookeran is not, however, is a good politician or a good Parliamentary representative. While people like to draw attention to the fact that as a political leader, Winston Dookeran was able to quickly amass a voter base of over one hundred thousand people for the 2007 general election, the reason he was able to do so was less because of his own personal attractiveness, and more to do with the fact that the majority of the COP was made up of persons excommunicated by Basdeo Panday from the UNC at the same time as Winston.
As I see people and newspaper editors criticizing the candidates and coalition partners being courted by Kamla Persad Bissessar ahead of the 2025 general election, it’s interesting who and what they are choosing to focus on, and what they’re trying to ignore. Because the implication that the persons who are now being given a chance to serve at a Parliamentary level are somehow lesser than Winston Dookeran is an absurdist notion that displays the lack of mature judgment that some people have when choosing their Parliamentarians in an election. Moreover, it demonstrates the elitist bias that has been perpetuated throughout our history and which has kept the Parliament chamber out of the reach of the working-class citizens of this country.
While there are those who glorify Winston Dookeran and the COP of 2007 and 2010, somehow, it is lost that many persons who served on that slate call the UNC their home today. So I have to ask the question, what makes Anil Roberts an exciting pick as a candidate under the COP but a boring one under the UNC? Why are David Abdullah and the MSJ considered a proper representation of the Trade Unions, but Roodal Moonilal, Rudranath Indarsingh and Ancel Roget are not? Why is Gary Griffith fawned upon as a red-skinned man but Damian Lyder and Phillip Edward Alexander are not considered the same way?
But more importantly, why are these considerations never put upon the PNM candidates chosen for any election since Independence? Why is no one on their slate being compared to Winston Dookeran or Eric Williams to determine their leadership potential? The reason goes back to a quote attributed to Eric Williams himself, that posited that a crapaud in a suit could win an election for the PNM, and that’s what the nation has come to expect. For this reason, the PNM have been churning out the most mediocre politicians which is why their governments are unable to produce any results.
The lesson learned by Kamla Persad Bissessar in 2010 however, was that there are essentially two types of people who enter into politics, and those are the ones who want to lead, and the ones who wish to serve. And when you stock your slate with people hungry to be leaders, those persons might not have the best interest of the electors who voted for proper representation. For this reason, since 2015 Kamla has been restructuring and reforming the UNC with people who are more qualified and suitable to tend to the needs of those constituents who might have been ignored by Winston Dookeran and other politicians of his ilk. For this reason, while none of the candidates being chosen might have the resume of Winston Dookeran in a corporate sense, those supporters voting for the UNC might contend that representatives like Arnold Ram, David Lee, Dave Tancoo, and even Senators like Jearlean John, Jayanti Lutchmedial and whole of the UNC bench are worth their weight in gold and have much more to offer than the COP or the PNM ever did.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj