Dear Editor,
Reading the column by Roy Mitchell in the Trinidad Express this week, never before have I come across unadulterated sludge posing as meaningful commentary. That isn’t to say that some of the points are not relevant, as Roy desperately repackages talking points that have been repeated by every challenger to Kamla’s leadership since 2015 in an attempt to appear as though he is knowledgeable about UNC’s internal politics. And I want to ask Roy Mitchell what was the point he was trying to make in this article, but before I get to that, there are some things that need to be said.
When Basdeo Panday formed the UNC in 1989, it was after he had already dissolved the ULF in 1986 to join the NAR coalition. The question is therefore, why did he dissolve the ULF? In 1981, he had already created an accommodation between the ULF, DAC and Tapia House and as such, the only new inclusion into this alliance was the ONR, which was the up-and-coming political party. Well, the reason he did this was because it was the feeling of all parties involved that there needed to be a unified brand identity and awareness in order to entice a larger number of the electorate to support their bid for governance. It then worked and all was well with the world…
Here’s the thing though, when Basdeo Panday had his falling out with the other members of the NAR in 1988, the first entity he created was Club 88, which mainly consisted of former ULF members who shared his opinions, but then he created the UNC, which was a different beast entirely. Whereas the ideologies and support of the ULF had mainly centred around trade union movements and worker’s rights, the UNC was an attempt to reach a broader base, essentially creating a coalition party, but one that was under Basdeo Panday’s absolute control.
I say all of this because a lot of people seem to have forgotten that during Basdeo Panday’s rule of the party, if you asked the common supporter on the street, what the UNC stood for, or what it represents, they would probably have said either unity or equal opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, these are lofty ideas and the Basdeo Panday-led administration strived to make these goals a reality, but, for whatever reason, these concepts spoke to people as individuals rather than as a group. Then as an Opposition party, the party switched its messaging to focus primarily on socialist talking points, which appeared as though Basdeo Panday was revisiting his ULF roots, but this wasn’t the ULF party.
Slight tangent here, and just by show of hands, how many of you think that Basdeo Panday would have won the seventeen seats necessary to enter into an arrangement for government in 1995 if he had contested that election under a ULF banner rather than the UNC? Anybody? No? Ok moving on then…
But compare all of this to Kamla Persad Bissessar. If you were to ask someone in the UNC today what the party stands for, what would they say? Heck, what would you say? I imagine a lot of you might just be waiting for me to tell you what it is because you can’t really think of it. Eventually, you might think hard enough hand come up with social justice, national security, or legislative protection or something like that, and you’re not wrong. But the truth is that there is no right answer because under Kamla the UNC is whatever you want or need it to be. And that might sound cheesy and extremely lame, but because of this, because of the hope that Kamla and the UNC provide for its supporters, that is the glue that binds the UNC stronger today than it has ever been before. As such, what the UNC under Kamla Persad Bissessar truly represents are its supporters and its constituents, and they all recognize and reward it with their loyalty.
Now, getting back to Roy Mitchell and asking him the point of his article, the real question behind it is, so what? The people who support Kamla and the UNC do not do it because of what they might do if they get into government, they support Kamla because of what she is giving to them today, while in Opposition. When members of the Opposition bench refer to themselves as a shadow government, in actuality, they accomplish more in some instances than the actual government. Through the motions that they have introduced in Parliament, the debates that they have argued and the matters that they have brought before the courts, Kamla’s UNC is not offering their supporters a list of promises for when they get into government, but rather, a list of accomplishments that are achieving today. This is why the dissident actions of Rai Ragbir and his collaborators are a betrayal to both the party and his constituents because it goes against the promises that being a UNC member means to its supporters.
You know, for all of the things that have been said about Kamla, the one thing that is still overlooked is the fact that she is the only person to have successfully replaced the founder of a political party as its leader and carry on in that role for multiple elections. The DLP collapsed after Rudranath Capildeo, the NAR collapsed both with and without ANR Robinson, the COP disintegrated after Winston Dookeran, and even the PNM completely crumbled after the death of Dr. Eric Williams. If anyone cannot recognize the significance of this historic feat by Kamla Persad Bissessar, then they have no appreciation or understanding of politics in this country and should refrain from commenting on it going forward.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj