One week ago, November 17, 2008, UNC Deputy Political Leader Jack Warner called for change within his party to meet the challenges ahead. He was speaking on the WINtv program POLITICAL PULSE with host Sunil Ramdeen. His comments have offended some of his colleagues but Warner stands by his statements and believes until there is change to create a truly national party the UNC would become irrelevant.Here is an edited transcript of Mr Warner's comments to put some of his more controversial comments in their proper context.
"One of the things that I know is that we find ourselves locked into a time warp; into believing that we are a sugar cane Party. We are not a sugar cane Party anymore; we are a national Party that believes seriously that we are an alternative government.
"That's the first point for me. The second thing is that we have to make sure is that the members who are in Opposition, at least those of us who are there now, at all times must keep the government on their toes, and we must be in a real sense, shadow ministers for every Ministry in the country.
"We should almost on a weekly basis, talk about the problems in education, in works and transport, in agriculture. How can you have a Minister of Agriculture saying to us that our constituents plant their gardens on the river edge so as to get money? I mean, this is absurd, this is insulting.
"And I ask myself what we have said today as a Party? What has been our response? We have not gone on the attack, and if we are a Party and in a sense a rural based Party, a Party that has come through the bosom of agriculture, what are we saying to that kind of insult? Those are the kinds of things that worry me.
"The fact is that it is we who are in the Party and the Party leadership who must be the first persons to initiate change…I hate to say this, but change is a form of life, without change we are dead, and therefore we cannot be a Party of the past; we have to be a Party of the present and future; and we have to understand that change is real, we have to therefore be the ones to initiate change.
"We must be the ones, who in a sense be able to use institutions of the Party more effectively, and make sure that the Party and the Party organs and institutions are functioning effectively to create the change that we need.
"I hate to say this, but unless we begin to do this, we shall not be relevant as far as the vast majority of our constituents are concerned. We have to be relevant; we have to be relevant and we have to respond to the needs of the people, and they must see us always, always at all times as an alternative government.
"Sadly I must confess, I don't think people see us in that light.
"I have raised these issues, and I will continue to raise these issues. You have to bear in mind for many people Jack Warner is a Johnny-come-lately, and guys will tell you what they used to do twenty years ago and fifteen years ago, as if that makes it right.
"There are guys in the Party who tell you this and I am telling you they are locked into a time warp. I repeat this to you. They don't understand that change is necessary. We cannot, we cannot be successful as a political party and to obtain Government if we continue to do the things of yesterday. We can't!
"And far too often for me, our Parliamentary caucus, I go to it and I leave sometimes very frustrated. Our executive committee meetings - I ask myself, I say now after three hours, what have I achieved? I always ask myself this - three hours what have you achieved? What have we done? If I didn't come to this meeting would I have missed something?And always, I get the answers telling me that I have not missed anything.
"And this has me worried, because unless we begin to do some introspection and ask ourselves questions, we shall be left wanting; we shall become irrelevant. Even with fifteen seats, we shall become irrelevant. PNM is already irrelevant; the PNM is irrelevant to the country and to a vast majority of people. We must not fall into that same situation, and we can avoid it if we of course, embrace change and embrace change quickly.
" know that I will be stepping on some corns. I know that in some ways that I may be getting some people angry, but I have to do that. I have to say which is the greater danger? To stay quiet and do nothing or of course, begin to talk and articulate, to get people to respond to the issues of the day.
"I can do two things; I make the point clearly. I said before, I say again; there is nothing that politics has that I don't have. Politics, in no way politics can give me anything that I don't have. I have not drawn a month's salary for the last twelve months. I have paid myself one dollar a month as I have promised. I have not bought any government tax-free or SUV vehicle. I don't need it, and therefore in some ways I didn't come to the Party and the government to make a living.
"I came to improve the lives of our people; I came to give people a living; and when I walk Endeavour, Felicity and Charlieville and see the suffering, and see the conditions which my people live, it pains me because I know we can do better.
"I challenge anybody to try to drive through Chaguanas on a Saturday morning, in fact on any morning, or come through the flyover at Price Smart on any morning, and tell yourself it need not be so. We could solve that traffic problem overnight. There are plans there to do this, but to whom do we speak?
"As I talk to you, the Magistrate's court where they are paying rent for the past two years is still there; rent is still being paid. It is a scandal!! To whom do you speak?
"Where it is of course, where is the outrage in this country? Where is the outrage and equally in this Party where is the outrage? I have expressed my concerns and I will continue to do so, however much I may be disliked in the process, because I will be failing in my duty to my constituents and the people in the country as a whole if I remain quiet.
"I have remained quiet far too long, and let hasten to tell you it is not only the Party of which I am a member that is a problem. It is the party also of which I am not a member, and I am talking here now about the COP, the COP they are equally, equally as culpable and possibly worse than the UNC-A.
"The fact is that we have our two parties, imagine our two parties have a common enemy in a real sense, a common enemy the PNM, and yet the two parties can't get together, and our two parties cannot subordinate their dislikes for this country's remoter interest.
"We have two parties, one that believes that 150,000 votes that they got a year ago are still there in their in their back pocket waiting for them. They don't understand. Two weeks ago the COP had a fund-raising venture in Port of Spain in Country Club...two weekends ago...they give away 50 tickets, and the whole event had seventy persons. Does that tell you something?
"It tells you in some ways that people are frustrated, and that the enthusiasm, which they had a year ago no longer, exists.
"I am not happy. I will continue to talk in the Party and out the Party. I'll continue to ask for change and I will continue to articulate the concerns of the people who I meet on the streets every day. Businessmen, young people, middle age, old people.
"I'll continue to make the point that we have to find the mechanism to bring all our people together, to fight the common enemy, because the common enemy in this country, the common enemy that is against change, against progress, the enemy that is having this country in a sense going in a very backward position, very retrogressive is the PNM.
"That's a concern I have heard from people and I have heard the same thing about Mr. Dookeran also from the COP, and I am saying to you this evening here, that if this is the case, let the people decide what they need.
"For example, even in the UNC, for me where I am, it is time we put our house in order and hold Party elections, and if the Party and the Party membership choose Mr. Panday or anybody else so be it.
"But we have not had elections in the party for over three to four years. And we find all kind of excuses we cannot hold elections - local elections next six months, next six weeks. I mean who is fooling whom? Who is fooling whom?
"And while all this is happening, the very lifeblood of our nation is just ebbing away, and who is concerned?
"What about you as a young man Sunil? What about your children if you have any; what about my grandchildren; what about them? Are we not concerned?
"Would we allow Mr. Manning to rape and plunder this country, and then of course cry and say we didn't know, when we can make a difference now, when we can bury our egos? And if it means that Mr. Panday and Mr. Dookeran both have to go, then so be it.
"At the end of the day something or somebody will emerge, but to do this, once again it has to be a cohesive force, a united force that is fighting against the PNM and their excesses.
"Let me tell you something - 26-15 - all the brouhaha of Mr. Manning - 26-15 may seem to be formidable numbers, but that is only based on a result of 3,000 votes... 3,000 votes... 3,000 votes caused 26-15. 3,000 votes and a split between two parties. If there wasn't a split, Mr. Manning would have gone the way of all the political leaders in the Caribbean.
"Look at the whole world today, from Israel to the US; throughout the Caribbean, except here, is a sea of change. What makes Mr. Manning different?
(Editor’s note: The PNM received 299,813 votes in the 2007 election, 51,950 fewer votes than the combined opposition- 45.85% of the popular vote)
"Mr. Manning by his performance is the worse Prime Minister I know that is alive. Worse, don't talk about his Minister of Sport, he is a walking disaster, but having said so, what has given them a breath of life?
"They have gotten a breath of life because we as the people who oppose them couldn't put our act together, and oppose them as one.
"Some people like to know that they are a Member of Parliament. For example, that they have an MP sticker and they could drive on the bus route….And we take pot shots at the government, pot shots at the institutions, but we have not done any serious introspection, and we have not sat down and said look guys let's talk openly and frankly and freely without any acrimony; let us analyze ourselves and let us come up with a model that could succeed.
"In the Party I have my grievances. I will continue to fight them inside the Party, not outside. I will continue to make my voice be heard.
"I will try to impress my colleagues that we should lift all of our voices, because if we don't Sunil, if we don't, it would not only mean the end of the Party as a Party, but trust me the end of this country; the democracy as we see it, because in no other country a Government can get away with what Mr. Manning and they are getting away with today, and that is only because, Mr. Manning besides his arrogance, Mr. Manning believes he can walk on water; he believes he can fly.
"And I have told you before and I say again, what can fly can fall, and we must make sure collectively, that we help him to fall.
"Let us bell the cat, politically. Let us sit down and analyze our Party to see if we are ready to be the alternative government; let us quickly correct the errors and institution in the party and make this Party a Party of the future; a Party of change; let us go out and embrace all the people seriously, not of course by mouthing empty and vacuous phrases, (but) by embracing them seriously, and giving them a reason to believe in what we are doing; but most importantly, most importantly, I ask my colleagues to embrace the ethos of change, because without change, we dead."
Jack Warner in a TV interview with WINtv's Sunil Ramdeen on Nov. 17, 2008
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