Jack Warner and his colleagues Ramesh L. Maharaj and Winston "Gypsy" Peters have engaged in a battle for the soul of the United National Congress (UNC), an epic struggle that could have a tragic ending.It's not the first time Warner or Maharaj have crossed swords with UNC leader Basdeo Panday.
Maharaj's first run-in with his leader followed the internal election in which his Team Unity scored an upset victory against the Panday faction, followed by his deal with Patrick Manning and his political battle in the 2001 general election. By 2007 he was forgiven and again in Panday's inner circle.
Warner's first battle with Panday was also in the party's internal election, the one that saw Winston Dookeran elected unopposed as party leader only to walk out on the UNC and form his own party, the Congress of the People (COP). Warner returned to Panday and was warmly embraced.
Dookeran, who had "betrayed" Panday first by staying in the Robinson cabinet and later felt the wrath of UNC supporters by facing off against the UNC in Chaguanas, was also returned to the UNC family only to be soundly beaten again when he lost his safe St. Augustine seat to newcomer Vasant Bharath, who had come home to reclaim his father's seat.
Panday the survivor and deal maker is at war again, this time with the duo of Warner and Maharaj and there appears to be no turning back. And it gets even more curious, with overtures from the leader of the party that Panday has repeatedly derided as the CORPSE.
Who wins or loses is not the main point of this battle because unless the result of this struggle is single united opposition party the losers are once again going to the people and the true winner would be Patrick Manning and his People's National Movement (PNM).
And therein lies the real tragedy of this never-ending opposition political soap opera.
Panday is now talking about holding a congress that will decide whether to reverse the party's decision and hold internal election ahead of the Local Government Elections (LGE), which have now been postponed until at least June 2010.
Warner sees it as a conspiracy and predicts that the Congress will move to bring disciplinary charges against him, Maharaj and Peters. That would effectively remove them from running in an internal election, thereby handing Panday a double victory; he'll kick out the dissidents and get an endorsement from the party's rank and file to lead the UNC again.
But it is not that cut and dried.
Warner and Maharaj are not going to roll over and die. They have a valid argument that they will present to a court, hoping to block any attempt by the party to prevent them from running in the internal election.
The RAMJACK team is accused of bringing the party into disrepute by talking about party affairs publicly and by being critical of members of the party, including the leader and their other parliamentary colleagues.
There's no argument about that. The records are there; they have done it over and over again in their campaign to bring change to the UNC, to democratize the party and make it battle ready to face the PNM in an election.
But Panday and others in the UNC caucus have done the same thing. So the argument that Warner and Maharaj will take to court is this: what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If they are guilty of a breach of the party's constitution by their actions, then the leader and two other deputy leaders are equally guilty as are other members of the Parliamentary caucus.
And in such a scenario none of them should run for office.
But whether a court will interfere in a political party's internal affairs is the issue that will decide how this battle ends.
There is no precedent for this as far as I can tell and if the courts refuse to rule on the matter then the UNC can go ahead with its agenda and keep RAMJACK out. It's what Panday calls "High, low, hang-Jack, game", a battle cry he created for the 2003 Local Government Elections.
That leaves Warner and Maharaj with one of two choices: throw in the towel or ask the people to join them in a new political movement.
Dookeran and his COP appear to be dancing according to the music in both camps.
On Saturday, UNC Deputy Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her unity team are attending a COP congress in San Fernando on the invitation of Dookeran. Warner has turned down Dookeran's invitation to the event primarily because he considers it insulting for Dookeran to invite him as the Vice President of FIFA to talk sports when he has the same standing as Perad-Bissessar within the UNC as one of the party's three deputy leaders.
Warner is still hoping that he can unite the opposition but Dookeran's move and Panday's willingness to embrace him, which is typical of how Panday makes his deals, puts Warner's campaign at risk.
Another critical point that's working against Warner is an internal cancer. Some of his communications people have made it a habit of mudslinging, which works very well in Panday's favour. Unless he cuts off this cancer, it could spread rapidly and became fatal.
At the end of the day, unless Warner and Maharaj could get on the ballot for that internal election, we could consider this battle lost because neither RAMJACK nor Panday will win.
The people, once again, will be the losers.
And Manning will be back in Whitehall, possibly with his constitutional majority that would make him the absolute ruler that he wants to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment