IN light of some heavy handling by the major partner in the People’s Partnership in recent times, both past and current members of the Congress of the People have to be asking the same question and it needs to be answered quickly by the leadership if the party is to survive – is the COP a political organisation in its own right with plans, policies, hopes and aspirations of its own, or is it to be forever linked as a junior partner to the UNC?
In many ways the COP is like an abused woman stuck in a loveless marriage trying desperately to hold it together for the children all the while hoping that the neighbours don’t see. In situations such as these sometimes what is not said or done is more telling than what is, and the slights being perpetrated against the party’s leader is a clear indication of the level of contempt if not outright disdain with which the relationship is held.
Sometimes what is best for all concerned is knowing when to confront and resolve and when to cut your losses and leave.
The Prime Minister and the leadership of the UNC goes to great lengths to remind the public every chance they get that it is in fact a partnership and that decisions must be made after consultation, but tell me how could that particular bit of consultation have gone where the appointment of the Acting Prime Minister is concerned? While it is her Cabinet from which to pluck whomever she deigns to exalt, it still is a coalition of interests and while Mr. Winston Dookeran is a Minister in her Government he has a leader and to appoint him (Dookeran) over his leader is a lack of respect if not a clear insult. Do they not realise how this looks to outsiders looking in, or is it that they could not be bothered to care any longer?
It is time for Prakash Ramadhar to publicly enunciate his vision for the party he now leads and until he does the party cannot go forward. The inertia and malaise that has gripped the party since May 2010 and which was reflected in the abysmally low voter turnout for the internal elections are all symptoms of a dying party that can only be changed by a leadership that possesses a clear and exciting vision both for the party and the country and has the courage to act on it. Victory at elections require the capturing of hearts and minds and sad to say the COP cannot do that in any meaningful way until it distances itself from some of the retrograde PNM policies being practised by the UNC. The public is no longer interested in being fooled, and while politics in this country will remain something of a numbers game based on race forever, if the only reason for the COP remaining partnered to the UNC in this dysfunctional union is to keep the PNM out of office then the members of the COP will remain second class citizens whose votes are a misdirection at best and leverage.
The voters cannot know what the COP is about if the COP does not know and this is the cat that needs to be belled. The national executive of the party needs to decide if it is interested in contesting the next general elections on its own or if it intends to remain wed to a partnership of which few have any further use.
My advice to Prakash remains the same – You need to choose where the Congress of the People goes from here. If your ambition is to lead the COP to victory at the polls then this must be clear to all, including your partners in the partnership. It must also be made clear to the electorate by not only what you say but what you do. Where the policies of the government deviates with the principles of the Congress of the People you must say so. In many ways the people elect a Prime Minister and if your ambition is to be Prime Minister then it is time you stepped into the role. A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn’t like the tune.
