Don’t Vote for nominees who are a liability to UNC! Send a Message!
Dear Editor,
After my last email, I received a number of calls from people who were curious regarding my “cryptic writing” but more so, from those who simply wanted to know who might fill the shoes of Kamla Persad Bissessar after she hung them up. But what’s more interesting is that, in all of my conversations, no one disagreed with my assessment, which is both encouraging and disheartening at the same time. But the truth is that the reason I put it out there was really to prime everyone for what I really wanted to say, but I can already anticipate that there might be more of a pushback to this regardless.
So here I go.
Going back to the 2001 internal election first, however, Basdeo Panday made the infamous decision to not “publicly” endorse any candidate or slate since his position as Political Leader was not being contested. Of course, for those who were in the know, and even some casual members, it was understood that behind the scenes he was supporting the slate led by Carlos John. It was somewhat humiliating, therefore, when Carlos’ entire slate not only lost to Team Unity, led by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj but he came in third in the race for Deputy Political Leader, as he was also beaten by Kamla Persad Bissessar. So my question is this: had Basdeo Panday openly endorsed and canvassed for the Carlos John slate, would that have propelled some, or all of them to victory in that internal election? But the answer to that we’ll never know.
Now I can only speak from my personal experience, but it is becoming quite frequent that whenever I am in public, complete strangers will approach to me discuss politics, and more times than not, that conversation will include a line from them that goes as follows: “You know, I really like and support Kamla as the leader, but she has some people around her who I really can’t stand.” And the names fluctuate enough that there’s no way of knowing whether the claims are legit criticism or just personal biases. But that doesn’t mean they should be ignored outright either. But how can it be decided whether a member of the executive is truly unpopular enough to warrant any real action, given that they have often found favor during these elections?
Well… this leads to my suggestion.
Now I want to be clear that I support the Star Team and Kamla Persad Bissessar as the UNC moves ahead to the next general election, and I am not suggesting that anyone cast their vote for the opposing slate. HOWEVER. That also doesn’t mean that you have to vote for every single person on the Star Team, if you think that they might be a liability to the party in the long run.
What I am simply proposing is that we use this internal election as a litmus test to determine which members of the Start Team truly have the full support of the membership, and which ones do not. And when you look back at all previous internal election results, you will find that there is already a pattern among voters to exclude members from their ballots, hence the reason that the results have always fluctuated among the candidates of a slate.
That said, instead of depending on random people to decide on their own, if there is a concerted effort to use this election to send a message of who we want to lead this party into the future, not only will this assist in the national election campaign in 2025, but it will also help strengthen the party moving forward.
There is no doubt that the Star Team will be victorious in these internal elections, but if certain candidates end up with a few hundred votes less than their colleagues, I think this can send a message that change either needs to come from within them, or about them.
Or I could be wrong and all of these candidates are liked equally, in which case nothing needs to be changed in regard to them. But I think using this internal election to test that theory is the best chance to ensure that the people elected to these positions have reached there on their own merits, rather than merely being chosen due to their affiliation to Kamla Persad Bissessar. Because at the end of the day, it is her credibility that is being compromised when those persons do not live up to the expectations being put upon them. And at the end of the day, I think we can all agree that nobody really wants that.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj
Mob: +1 868 476-6181
Email: ravibmaharaj@gmail.com
Skype: ravibmaharaj