Robinson invites Kamla to lunch

Former President Arthur N.R. Robinson has invited UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to lunch at his home in Ellerslie Park, according to a report in the Newsday newspaper.

The report said the invitation for Thursday follows the rising popularity of the opposition leader and her acceptance by large crowds in Tobago.

On Tuesday night Persad-Bissessar was mobbed by jubilant Tobagonians in Scarborough as she arrived for a political meeting of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP).

Former MP Pamela Nicholson was among those who greeted her. In turn, Persad-Bissessar acknowledged Nicholson as a true patriot.

In 1995 Nicholson and Robinson joined with the UNC in a formal coalition following a general election in which the Manning's PNM and the UNC under Basdeo Panday each won 17 seats; Robinson's National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) won the other two.

Panday and Robinson had a stormy relationship that began shortly the 1986 landslide that removed the PNM from office for the first time in 30 years and installed a NAR government headed by Robinson.

Panday and some of his colleagues from the former United Labour Front left the NAR government, founded CLUB 88 and eventually launched the UNC as a new party in 1989.

Political expediency brought the two men together again in 1995 but the relationship didn't last. Panday chose to remove Robinson as a member of cabinet by making him president but that strained their relationship even more.

In 2001 when there was an 18-18 tie in the general election Robinson fired Panday and hired Manning who governed for nine months without being able to convene Parliament, eventually winning an election in 2002.

Robinson, who entered politics as a PNM candidate for Tobago in 1961, fell out with then Prime Minister Eric Williams and formed his Democratic Action Committee (DAC).

In the 1976 general election he and his DAC colleague Dr Winston Murray won both Tobago seats.

In 2010 TOP is trying to achieve the same result for the People's Partnership, which is headed by Persad-Bissessar. TOP's support base comprises many people who were strong Robinson supporters.