Letter: Give Kamla, Jack a chance to perform

The KamJack (Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Jack Warner) UNC executive will be tested over the next six months in preparation for the local government elections.

We don’t know if it can match the performance of the RamBas (Ramesh Maharaj and Basdeo Panday) team of 1991 through 1995 that landed in government. But the only way to find out is to give it a chance to organise.

So far, it has only made missteps but it will learn along the way and correct its errant ways. If not, it will sink just like Panday.

In the heyday of the UNC’s rise, it took the astute leadership of Bas and Ramesh to mesh the gifted players of the day into a winning machine.

Ramesh is an outstanding organiser in the opposition and political strategist. Panday wisely put him in charge to prepare the team and he mashed up the PNM, forcing Manning to call early elections and bowling him out.

Ramesh would have done it again, but Bas pulled the rug from under Ramesh. The UNC slipped and could not face up to the PNM’s fast bowling and was repeatedly defeated at the polls.

Kamla has not shown skills at organisation but she has the looks of a leader and is willing to take advice, unlike Bas and Ramesh, who like to do their own thing and is the main reason why they were defeated in the internal elections. 

But Kamla has Jack as a back-up, just like when Bas had Ramesh as his back-up. Jack is among the best in the business of organisation. He is efficient and knows what needs to be done.

He is a fast learner when he slips and is willing to change direction when he faces obstacles. He is not shy at admitting mistakes and doing what is right.

RamBas lacks that quality, refusing to admit errors when they were glaring.

Leadership is crucial to success in the political game of capturing the winning prize. Ramesh was a good, sound leader who took individual abilities and blended them into a working unit.

Kamla lacks that kind of skill and although she started off with a faux pas, she will adjust and stop flashing outside the off stump to get caught behind.

The KamJack team is inexperienced and does not have many gifted players like the RamBas team of the 1990s. But once the team listens to Jack and Kamla provides good captaincy, it should do well. 

The team should be given a chance to see if it can play ball against a superior team. KamJack should request RamBas duo to offer its coaching skills to this young team to help build it.

Rohan Sewgobin | via email