Winston Dookeran delivered a powerful speech Tuesday night at a Congress of the People (COP) public meeting at Asja Boy's School in San Fernando in which he delivered a broadside against UNC leader Basdeo Panday and drew a political connection between Panday and Prime Minister Patrick Manning. The COP leader referred to Panday's comments a few days ago about COP not having any seats in Parliament and used it as an opportunity to present COP as the political vehicle to speak not for a single constituency but for all of Trinidad and Tobago.
And he also offered a report card on the Manning administration's performance since it was returned to office in 2007. Dookeran also gave a political lesson on governance and the role of a prime minister, who he said must:
- preside over the development of the country
- preside over steps that will improve the quality of life for the people
- preside over the provision of basic amenities so that the people would have a decent life
- preside over creating a civilization that is better than the one that existed before taking office.
He said on all scores Manning has failed and instead of getting a better, more progressive society, Manning has given the nation a criminal industry "that is larger in its growth than the whole economy".
Dookeran said, "Today we know we cannot walk the street with any sense of comfort...So this Prime Minister has presided over the escalation of criminality in this land and the breakdown of law and order in this society and you know what makes it worst, he is happy about it."
The former planning minister offered a glimpse of what he would offer the nation as prime minister:
- create a better society to make sure that the underprivileged have a better deal
- start to end the cycle of poverty
- a program of action to increase the empowerment opportunities for the young
- opportunities for large and small businesses
Dookeran accused the Manning government of stealing people's pensions while allocating more and more money for so-called poverty reduction programs.
"They are using the money in the name of poverty in order to create clients of the state and vote banks for all times," he said.
The former Central Bank Governor pointed to World Bank statistics that show Trinidad and Tobago at number 81 in business competitiveness among 183 countries and at the bottom - number 183 - when it comes to enforcing contracts.
Dookeran said contrary to what the government preaches its policies are creating under development, not taking the country forward.
The COP leader saved a portion of his speech for dealing with Manning's attacks on his former cabinet minister Keith Rowley in Parliament last week and suggested that there is more to what Manning stated than just an attempt to knock down his opponent.
"As he described Mr. Rowley as a raging bull, he said that he was part of a new relationship between the Ramjack fraction and himself to bring down the UNC and PNM.
"Probably it went unnoticed, but here was the prime Minister defending the UNC and the PNM from the threats from the Ramjack Rowley fraction. What is happening is he is defending the UNC and the PNM," Dookeran said.
He said Manning and Panday are "gatekeepers" of two traditional political groupings. "One of them holds the view that their main support, which is mainly afro-Trinidadians, will always vote for them regardless because they have the power of the treasury in their hands and that is what they hold on to.
"And the other gate keeper who believes, not that the Indians support him but that the Indians owe it to him to support him, that he must get their votes because they are now the victims of what the government does," he said.
He said anyone who pays close attention to Manning would hear him defending "the PNM and UNC against the attack of RamJack and Rowley."
He suggested that Manning betrayed himself and the secret is out that he wants to prop up the UNC because "the presence of the UNC is important for the retaining of power by the PNM."
He continued the connection by referring to Panday's support for an executive president. "He used some words about conditions under which he will support it, which we know can always change - but there were some coded messages that were passing through Parliament and Rienzi.
"In parliament the Prime Minister was saying that I will defend you in the UNC and I will defend the PNM; we shall not fall - meaning the UNC and the PNM.
"And Mr. Panday returns the favour and says thank you very much, I will now support the executive presidency in Trinidad and Tobago," he said, calling the charade high level diplomacy.
"Their interest now is the preservation of their gate keepers’ position. So they are saying, you give me this and I will give you that and we will stay together," he said.
Dookeran said Trinidad and Tobago is a a dynamic country and the arrival of COP on the political landscape increased that dynamism, moving it to a higher level.
He said, "The gate keepers cannot hold back their flocks - whatever flocks they feel they have - because there is now a new political organization that is expansive, open and flexible that is bringing all the flocks together under the COP for a new Trinidad and Tobago."
He dismissed as a "myth" suggestions that COP cannot win the support of the grassroots supporters. He said COP has been meeting the people, helping them through clinics and other outreach programs, demonstrating that "we want to bring people together, not divided by race, not divided by geography, not divided by anything else."
He predicted that COP will bring about a renaissance in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago.
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