Last Sunday I touched briefly on the fallout in the Peoples’ Partnership over the Marlene Coudray affair. What surprised me, following publication, were some of the comments I received.
And the comments came from both ends of the issue. My surprise stemmed from the fact that some of the respondents are people whom I consider able to see both, or all, sides of controversial issues. So, why now are they all “hardening” their positions?
In my opinion, everyone in the COP and in the UNC who has been involved in, or spoken about the Marlene Coudray issue, has been provocative, injudicious, and indeed, wrong. There is almost no rational debate, just hard-lining of existing positions.
And it is not only between the UNC and COP, but between COP and COP, UNC and UNC, and is all built on a foundation of unseemly bickering and an inability to understand consensus, all from the day the PNM lost the last election.
I suppose many people in the Partnership believe that they won that election, when in reality, it was Manning who threw the government into the flooded gutters and Kamla and company had to don tall boots and go to try to retrieve it. And strangely, from that day to now, Kamla’s detractors cannot stop talking about her footwear. But I digress.
I am very tempted to list the transgressions of the Coudray affair from when it was first announced (and that to the surprise of UNC members apparently) that she was a “slate candidate” for Deputy Political Leader of the UNC.
And the comments came from both ends of the issue. My surprise stemmed from the fact that some of the respondents are people whom I consider able to see both, or all, sides of controversial issues. So, why now are they all “hardening” their positions?
In my opinion, everyone in the COP and in the UNC who has been involved in, or spoken about the Marlene Coudray issue, has been provocative, injudicious, and indeed, wrong. There is almost no rational debate, just hard-lining of existing positions.
And it is not only between the UNC and COP, but between COP and COP, UNC and UNC, and is all built on a foundation of unseemly bickering and an inability to understand consensus, all from the day the PNM lost the last election.
I suppose many people in the Partnership believe that they won that election, when in reality, it was Manning who threw the government into the flooded gutters and Kamla and company had to don tall boots and go to try to retrieve it. And strangely, from that day to now, Kamla’s detractors cannot stop talking about her footwear. But I digress.
I am very tempted to list the transgressions of the Coudray affair from when it was first announced (and that to the surprise of UNC members apparently) that she was a “slate candidate” for Deputy Political Leader of the UNC.
This list would have included all the public statements, complaints and rebuttals by everyone on every side. While such a list (shameful though it would be as reading!) would show how indiscreet and counterproductive everyone had been (and are still being!), it would have added nothing to a resolution of the dispute.
Indeed, and more importantly, it would add nothing to the deeper and wider problem within the Peoples’ Partnership: The proven inability of anyone to understand consensus, to discuss issues internally before going to the media, and then to accept consensus when that has been established.
And bear in mind that I am not only speaking about stupid statements and forced rifts between the various constituents of the Partnership, but also about attacks by members of each constituent Party on their own people: Ministers attacking the performance of people working in other Ministries; Ministers and party officials attacking each other in the media, and the never-ending responses.
All of this gives the impression of a team in disarray. I know that many supporters, including those who ought to know better, claim that “this is better that the silence/ blind loyalty we experienced under the PNM, where Manning appointed his wife a Minister, and boldly supported Calder Hart’s transgressions, and not a damn dog bark” (sic). But that is not the issue here.
And bear in mind that I am not only speaking about stupid statements and forced rifts between the various constituents of the Partnership, but also about attacks by members of each constituent Party on their own people: Ministers attacking the performance of people working in other Ministries; Ministers and party officials attacking each other in the media, and the never-ending responses.
All of this gives the impression of a team in disarray. I know that many supporters, including those who ought to know better, claim that “this is better that the silence/ blind loyalty we experienced under the PNM, where Manning appointed his wife a Minister, and boldly supported Calder Hart’s transgressions, and not a damn dog bark” (sic). But that is not the issue here.
I am no longer interested in comparisons with the worst government we had ever experienced. I am interested in the proper governance and leadership of my country.
And I cannot accept, and I am sure that none of you really can either, despite recent “hard-line-side-taking” in the Coudray affair, that what we are experiencing is leadership, governance or management of our affairs.
And I cannot accept, and I am sure that none of you really can either, despite recent “hard-line-side-taking” in the Coudray affair, that what we are experiencing is leadership, governance or management of our affairs.
If the people whom we elected to manage our country are now spending more time attacking each other than running their ministries, what can we expect for our country?
We are seeing strange happenings in our politics. All of a sudden constituents are rising up against their representatives. Frankly, I think these are totally “staged” affairs, organized to make trouble.
We are seeing strange happenings in our politics. All of a sudden constituents are rising up against their representatives. Frankly, I think these are totally “staged” affairs, organized to make trouble.
We as a people are far too disinterested politically to take the kind of actions we have seen against Lincoln Douglas, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, or even Kamla. So, who is stirring this, and why?
Can it be the PNM, up to their usual dirty tricks, which worked for them in the 1980’s and led to the attempted coup in 1990?
Or is this being driven by elements in the UNC, who, now looking to 2015, are trying alternatively to seduce and sabotage the COP, hoping to remove COP from the scene?
Can it be the PNM, up to their usual dirty tricks, which worked for them in the 1980’s and led to the attempted coup in 1990?
Or is this being driven by elements in the UNC, who, now looking to 2015, are trying alternatively to seduce and sabotage the COP, hoping to remove COP from the scene?
I know there are holdovers from the 1995-2001 UNC government (the second most corrupt in our history) who believe that the 21 seats won by UNC in 2010, were “won” solely by the UNC. But they are quite wrong.
The over 100,000 voters who deserted the UNC for COP in 2007 did not all “return” to the UNC in 2010. They voted for the Partnership, and for COP’s participation. Had COP contested the Diego Martin seats we would have been rid of Rowley today!
The duty of the people in government today is to rebuild T&T, not to be copping out by playing games with 2015 in mind.
The duty of the people in government today is to rebuild T&T, not to be copping out by playing games with 2015 in mind.
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