(click on image to see full poster in a new window)Boodhan is taking a bold step that so far opposition politicians have failed to make.
Basdeo Panday said during the 2007 general election campaign, and again after the vote, that unity in the opposition ranks is vital if there is to be change in Trinidad and Tobago. And he said if the leaders fail to come together on behalf of the people, the people would do it themselves.
Both Panday, who leads the United National Congress (UNC) and the UNC-Alliance, and Congress of the People (COP) Leader Winston Dookeran have talked about the idea of a united opposition but so far there has been no further development, at least as far as the public knows.
Panday told a recent congress of the UNC that the only way to defeat the government of the day is to unite since the nation's political history has shown that a divided opposition only splits the vote to give the ruling party the advantage. He offered to bury the hatchet and work with Dookeran.
The COP leader had previously spoken about unity in the context of what he called a grand coalition involving not only political parties but other interest groups in the country that are united against the government.
While Dookeran himself has not directly responded to Panday's olive branch, his party's chairman, Roy Agustus, rejected it outright. Augustus did say, however, his response was not an official party position.
Still, the issue remains hanging.
Panday's case was that the result of the 2007 election clearly demonstrated that it might have been possible to win the election if the opposition had united, since the PNM won 26 of the 41 seats without winning a majority.
The results show that the PNM won 299,813 votes or 45.85 per cent of the popular vote, while the combined support of the UNC-A (194,425 - 29.73 per cent) and the COP (148,041 - 22.64 per cent) was 52.37 per cent with the rest going to smaller parties.
See the full results for the 2007 election and previous elections in T&T
Political experts have argued that the result cannot be seen in such black and white terms since there is the possibility that if the COP had united with the UNC-A many disenchanted COP supporters (who were really UNC deserters) would have either voted for the PNM or not at all.
On the other hand there might have been a clear vote against the PNM. No one will ever know the answer. However the statistics show clearly that more people voted against the Manning government than for it.
What Boodhan is trying to do is seize the initiative that Panday had outlined - a people's movement for unity.
There has been tremendous change in the country since Manning was returned to office just over one year ago. Crime and the state of the economy continue to be major national concerns. In both areas the country has unflattering records.
In crime, the homicide rate is the highest ever for the country - more than 471 with just over a month to go. And with record inflation at 15.4 per cent and no end in sight for escalating food prices even people who voted for Manning and the PNM are wondering where the nation is heading.
The global financial crisis and Manning's late admission that there is a problem has created more uncertainty.
Boodhan's position is that the government is heading into a perfect storm with little hope of survival and taking down the country in the process. He feels frustrated that the opposition has the greatest opportunity today to become proactive, to unite and to demonstrate that it has the capacity to lead the nation out of the crisis and into a promising future.
But he is disappointed that the opposition seems to be stuck in political quicksand. He is concerned that the window of opportunity for change might not be open for much longer.
He is encouraged by some MPs, including his own representative in Chaguanas West, Jack Warner. But he fears that there is no great effort at the leadership levels in the opposition to unite; his main complaint is that the best opportunity is passing by and the opposition is not seizing it.
His Christmas initiative is intended to make the point that there is still hope, if only the politicians could set aside the things that separate them and work with the issues that unite them - issues such as runaway crime, record inflation, misplaced government priorities, allegations of corruption in high places, a breakdown in social services, escalating food prices and an alarming rise in poverty, to name a few.
He is not sure whether his initiative would achieve the intended result. But he hopes that it would reach citizens who would force their representatives to act.
Boodhan's mission is to raise the issue, push it to the front burner and to keep hope alive.
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