COP sending top officials to UNC Congress

The political leader of the Congress of the People has accepted the UNC's invitation to attend Sunday's congress of the United National Congress (UNC) in couva but he won't be attending.

Winston Dookeran says Deputy Political leader Robert Mayers and Timothy Hamel Smith will represent the party to "share and discuss" the COP's People's Charter, which the party launched in July.

Speaking at a political meeting in Guico in north east Trinidad Dookeran said he sees the UNC's invitation as "an opportunity to engage that party into an open, transparent and candid discussion on the people’s charter. In it are the principles for the new Trinidad and Tobago politics."

Dookeran said the invitation is another step in the discussion about politics in Trinidad and Tobago "to have a firm dialogue about the principles on which politics in this country should be built upon in the future."

He said the COP has been holding similar discussions with other important organizations like the Inter Religious Organization (IRO) "and plans are afoot to have more dialogue with civil society and organizations about building a positive foundation for politics and governance in this country."

Dookeran himself has been meeting with UNC Deputy Leader Jack Warner, who heads the Ramjack faction of the party. Warner and Dookeran shared a stage last Sunday at a Divali celebration in Warner's Chaguanas West constituency.

In an address, the COP leader stressed the need for political unity and pledged to relaunch his mission to unite the country's political groups.

Read the story: Dookeran praises Warner, launches new search for political unity

The COP's People's Charter contains the party's views on the principles and codes of political conduct that it says can serve as "a tool to ensure that principles of honesty, integrity, openness and accountability is embraced in the political culture of this country, to stem the decay that have been taking place."

The party is convinced that its charter is a practical and needed tool "if we are to permanently remove the politics of lies, personal assassination and racial disharmony from our land, and instead focus on discussing issues and offering ideas to the people that can underpin the development of our blessed land."

UNC Leader Basdeo Panday has been reaching out to the COP in a bid to find common political ground. Earlier this year he sent a delegation headed by Deputy Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to a COP congress, at which delegates booed when she mentioned her leader's name.

Last year, Panday offered an olive branch to Dookeran in what sounded like an apology for the attack he launched on the COP leader on the night of the 2007 election.

"There is no point in crying over spoilt milk," the opposition leader said. "We cannot undo what was done on Nov. 5, 2007 but we can make sure that it does not happen again. That is why we must make sure that we never again divide our votes," he said as he appealed for opposition unity.