Manning dismisses opposition coalition

Patrick Manning doesn't think an opposition coalition will work.

In fact he told a meeting of his People's National Movement (PNM) Saturday night Congress of the People (COP) leader Winston Dookeran caved in to demands by the United National Congress (UNC).

He called Dookeran a weak leader who "has given away the baby and the bath water." Manning added, "He has given away the whole store and is every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost."

Without disclosing his source, Manning claimed that some COP officials walked out of the talks because the UNC refused to budge on COP's demands for some "safe" UNC seats and a few of the marginals.

"There was to-ing and fro-ing and they couldn’t agree. And the discussions became so acrimonious that the COP team walked out."

He claimed that the UNC team then appealed to the Persad-Bissessar, then appealed to Dookeran and "Winston Dookeran caved into every demand that Mrs Persad-Bissessar made, consistent with his weak nature."

He said, Dookeran "has angered the COP and the position as it now stands is kankatang in the COP and problems in the UNC...So any agreement they talking about is between Persad-Bissessar and Dookeran. It has nothing to do with the political parties."

Manning demanded to know about the seat allocation.

"I want to know - and the people have a right to know - if God forbid, yuh win the general election, who will be the President, the Minister of Finance, the Attorney General, which Minister will be responsible for URP and CEPEP, who will be Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs and all those youth programmes, who will be Minister of Science and Tertiary Education?" he asked.

"I want to know what would be the portfolio given to Prakash Ramadhar, Anand Ramlogan, Devant Maharaj, Tim Gopeesingh, Suruj Rambachan and Austin Jack Warner."

Manning said coalitions are unstable and create weak governments, adding that Trinidad and Tobago doesn't need such instability at this time and cautioned that the unity among the opposition forces won't last.

"It is a recipe for disaster," he said as he appealed to the PNM to reject the united opposition. He said the PNM is the only stable party in the country.

"Don’t play fast and loose with your vote, with the stability of Trinidad and Tobago, with our children’s future, with the social programmes that the PNM has put in place and with the integrity of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago," he said.