Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath sits with Basdeo Panday on the opposition back benches and refuses to acknowledge the authority of the new leadership of the United National Congress (UNC).But he is still interested in running for the party in the seat he has held since 1976 except for a break when Panday kicked him out in favour of Ramesh L. Maharaj.
"Yes I will be seeking nomination from my constituency and I trust that the Executive of Couva South will nominate me. I think it is time Manning goes and I will be contributing towards that," Ramnath told the Trinidad Express.
And what about Panday?
The Express said its sources have confirmed that Panday has no intention of stepping down. The Couva North MP and founding leader of the UNC was voted out of office in January.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is the new UNC leader and leader of the opposition but Panday has not given her the recognition that comes with the posts she holds.
He, along with Ramnath, Maharaj and Mickela Panday have refused to attend the party’s weekly meetings at Rienzi Complex, Couva.
The Express said it asked other incumbent UNC MPs if they will seek nomination.
Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma told the paper, "All MPs would want to continue to serve but it all depends on the party groups and the support they receive. Yes, I am ready and willing to continue representing the people," said Sharma who narrowly won his seat in 2007.
Others who are interested in running again are Nizam Baksh (Naparima), Dr Roodal Moonilal (Oropouche East) and Winston "Gypsy" Peters (Mayaro).
Most of the other sitting MPs are expected to run. Persad-Bissessar, who is in Florida for a party fund-raising event, has said the party will soon begin screening candidates.
The paper said Maharaj, Dr Hamza Rafeeq and Dr Tim Gopeesingh said it is premature to say if they intend to run since there is no date for an election.
For his part Panday doesn't think there is going to be an election anytime soon. He told the Express he thinks talk of an election is another distraction by Manning to shift the focus away from the UDeCOTT scandal.
He told the paper he keeps "a close eye" on the UNC and reiterated that he would not allow anyone to destroy the party he founded.
He suggested that Persad-Bissessar lacks leadership abilities, adding that people are looking for change and not getting it.
"I think people are very disappointed they want to see change and instead they are seeing people being pulled out from the political cemetery," he said in reference to Saturday's Voice of the People rally in Chaguanas.
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KAMLA HELPING MANNING CREATE A PARTY STATE ?
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: "the State represents violence in a concentrated and organized form.The State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owns its very existence," and that is why the decision of the Prime Minister to have a demonstration in Port of Spain on April 9th is intended to obliterate the Opposition because it considers the UNC to be at it's weakest, having regard to the problems of a fragmented opposition and the emergence of a triple headed hydra of leadership. Faced with unpopularity within his own party, the Prime Minister is now gravitating toward the state agencies which is his last fulcrum. He is trodding the path of using state power to buttress flagging party power and in the process could be leading us in the direction of creating a party state. It should be noted that the most conspicuous political innovations of the last century were:the unopposed single party, the party state and political police - SAUTT. In the party state the leader is supreme and the citizens are beholden to him. State power is used to quell opposition and freedoms are endangered.
One of the most loved women Burma's Opposition Leader -Aung Sang Sui Chi- landed herself in "hot water" when she remarked that "no war was ever started by women". She immediately found herself under house arrest by the military rulers there, and has been in that state ever since; and it is Roman Emperor Caligula who remarked: "let them hate so long as they fear."
Having already weakened the independent offices of the Solicitor General ,the DPP and the Integrity Commission and with the active support of some Independent Senators, one can expect a rough road ahead. A robust Opposition is required in this perilous time. Yet in the midst of this peril the Opposition leader has abandoned leadership and left the country.This is too serious a time for an Opposition Leader to leave the country. What would happen if the Prime Minister calls a special sitting and announces the date for a General election ?
P.S. A Composer hears melodies where no one else can find them.
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