Warner wanted to mash up UNC, join COP: Ramesh

Ramesh L. Maharaj told the Sunday Express he believes his former Ramjack colleague Jack Warner lost patience and was leading to the Congress of the People (COP) during the campaign by the Movement of the People to effect change in the United National Congress (UNC).

Maharaj is one of three people seeking the UNC leadership in next Sunday's internal elections. The others are the incumbent, Basdeo Panday and Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Chaguanas MP Jack Warner is ruuning for chairman.

He, Maharaj and Mayaro MP Winston "Gypsy" Peters campaigned for more than a year for reform in the UNC, demanding accountability and internal elections.

Warner disbanded the Movement for Change when the elections were announced, saying it had achived its primary goal. But he didn't endorse Maharaj for leader, choosing instead to support Persad-Bissessar.

Publicly both men have said they respect each other's decision. Maharaj, while challenging Panday for the leaderhsip, is also saying that only he and Panday are fit to leader.

And he has expressed concern that handing the party to Persad-Bissessar would almost certainly gurantee she would destroy the UNC. He has made a connection between Warner and Persad-Bissessar although both of them have insisted that they are not a team.

In his interview with the Express, Maharaj said Warner was getting too close to COP. "He was assisting (Winston) Dookeran and the COP with technical resources. He brought Dookeran on his platform," he said.

"And my position was that while I totally supported unity, I didn’t support UNC being absorbed into any other political unit," he said.

Maharaj told the paper Warner had proposed that UNC should be dissolved and become a part of the COP. "So I took the position that we would disagree but we were not going to be disagreeable," he said.

He insisted that Warner promised to support him in the internal election and suggested that Warner's endorsement of Persad-Bissessar is contradictory.

"(He) had expressed the view that Kamla Persad-Bissessar was not even fit to become a Member of Parliament, far less political leader of the party. He went further and said he had a file," Maharaj said.

UNC leader Basdeo Panday has made the same point, but Warner has denied having any such file and has said his negative statements about Persad-Bissessar were made in the conext of political give and take.

But Maharaj insisted that he saw a file. He said Warner had the file at a meeting in Penal and said it was Warner who stated that its contents would deeply embarrass persad-Bissessar.

Maharaj claimed that he prevented Warner from making any disclosure or showing alleged incriminating photos. When asked about whether he shares Panday’s assessment of Persad-Bissessar’s alleged vulnerabilities Maharaj said he would not wish to pass judgment.

"I do not have all the facts. I think members of the public would have over the years got some information. But I am not prepared to pass judgment." However he said if the "weakness" that Panday has discussed openly in public is a valid one, it would be a concern for anyone seeking the leadership.

On the campaign itself, Maharaj has said it is a two-man race although many see him as the underdog. He told the Express his stratgey is to meet one-on-one with people and that most of the people with whom he has met are supporting him.

"The only two persons this electorate is talking about is Panday and Ramesh. Kamla is not in this race," he said.

Maharaj dismissed concerns that Persad-Bissessar's campaign has been attracting greatest interest, suggesting that it is a media hype. And he said COP members are padding the crowds at her meetings. He also accused the media of suppressing the truth about his campaign.

He was vague about whether he would win. "At this stage I think that we are neck and neck. I do not know what would happen in the next few days. But contrary to what is being published in the media, do not write off Mr Basdeo Panday. People have supported him for over 40 years and it is not easy for them to let him go," he said.

Maharaj denied that he is collaborating with Panday. His whole campaign so far has been focussed on bashing Persad-Bissessar while he has always presented himself as a fighter for the people along Panday.

He said there is only one quesstion for the UNc membership to consider. "You have to consider whether there is need for a new vision, a new person, whether the party needs to be rebranded and re-directed," he said.

"If you decide that the party needs a new leader, then you have to look at the track record of Kamla and myself and examine the battles we have fought and determine what kind of leader you want," he said.

He said "Sister Kamla" has a role to play but insisted that she is not a suitable leader.

The Express asked Maharaj why he shifted from attacking Panday. During the campaign with the Movement for Change Maharaj had repeatedly pounded Panday on such issues as corruption and accountability. Those were the same issues he used to help topple the Panday government in 2000.

"Why it is the media would like me to condemn Mr Panday every day? Why it is the media would not ask ’What has Kamla done to become leader of the party?’ Why is it that the media is only interested in what I say about Mr Panday and what I do not say about him?" he retorted.

He dismissed talk of a deal. "If I talk to Mr Manning, I have a deal. If I talk to Mr Panday, I have a deal. When I am even by myself and doing nothing, I still have a deal," he said.

"I want to assure you that I have no deal with Mr Panday," he said.

Asked about whether he regrets what he did in 2001, Maharaj said all that is now irrelevant."The people in the party are not interested in those matters. Wherever I go and I attempt to raise it, they stop me and say: ’Mr Maharaj, that is not an issue’," he said.

Maharaj denied that he and Manning had made any secret deal and again suggested that the media are insiting of injecting the issue in the agenda.

"What is the issue now? The issue is that the PNM is corrupt and you need a strong opposition to fight this Government. And the leadership of the UNC must be able to demonstrate that it is able to fight the Government on this issue of corruption.

"What happened in the UNC Government when we had the fight against corruption? Did Kamla stand up? That is what you all should be talking about," he said.

"Did Mr Panday stand up? Well I am not at this stage concerned with that. I seems to me that the criticism which the media wants me to make is to just attack Mr Panday. And I am not prepared to do that. The media is not prepared to deal with the values of leadership. Some of them are just prepared to promote Kamla as leader without discussing whether she has fought for any of the values of leadership," he charged.

Read the full interview in the SUNDAY EXPRESS