COP's curious campaign - The Peter O'Connor column

One cannot help but wonder for what the Congress of the People (COP) is currently campaigning. Is there a general Election in the air, for which they are preparing, or are they under the delusion that they are actually in opposition and not the government?

To be fair to those who sit in parliament, there appears to be closer cohesion to the tenets of the People’s Partnership among them. 

Indeed, while there is considerable public disagreement among cabinet members of the Partnership, the COP members of the Partnership do not seem to be more active in this as the persons identified as UNC. 

But we must accept that it was never going to be any easy task to create a unified team, on no notice, to win an election and then govern the country.

The UNC was already split to its core when Manning decided to demit government and hand over to whatever entity was pulled together by several competing interests. 

The election result could well become a victory for Manning’s long range scheme, given the problems with which he had burdened the country. That the UNC, COP, TOP and others were able to pull a team together out of their competing interests is a credit to all of the parties concerned.

My current concern, and I am not alone in this, is to understand what is the role of the “non-parliamentarians” in the Congress of the People? People like Vernon DeLima, Joseph Toney and others make it their official position to publicly attack decisions being taken by a cabinet where their own political leader and several others sit. 

In short, what is their agenda at this time? I have no doubt that they will defend their points of view, and they are entitled to that, even if their positions differ from the publicly-stated opinions of Messrs Dookeran, Seepersad-Bachan, Prakash Ramadhar, Anil Roberts and other COP members who sit in cabinet. 

But why are they rushing to the media to air their claimed dissatisfaction? Is there no forum within the Partnership, or even within COP to work out their differences?

These non-parliamentarians have complained about the cabinet appointees, the senate appointees, appointments to State Boards, and more recently, about policies and legislation. 

And all of this simply gives credence to the view of cynics, and the ranting of Rowley and Manning, that the Partnership will not hold. And it bothers me that I considered the COP as the leaders in good sense and political compromise out of all of the elements of the Peoples’ Partnership. 

So why are they now working to destroy what they helped to create, and in so doing, giving Manning comfort?

As I have pointed out many times, the PNM is working, using fair means and foul, to destroy the Peoples’ Partnership government of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Their success in this can be measured by the fact that they are no longer seen as the villains for the position into which they have put the country. 

Last April, we all accepted that they were, but today, because Dookeran cannot honour Karen’s “commitment” to CLICO victims (she having gotten her money and her bonus!) this government is the villain. 

And Peter Permell is announcing that there is a split in cabinet over how CLICO victims—to whom this country owes nothing—are going rewarded for their lost investments. 

Clearly Permell has an agenda here; to make the Partnership look bad, and this the PNM would encourage. The Partnership must not allow this issue to divide them, and the COP “outsiders” must support their government or don their balisier ties. The PNM have good reason to support Permell right now, and Permell has good reason to accept their support.

And Manning’s resurrection to slander Kamla is a demonstration of the use of distraction to deflect attention away from his personal spy network as it has been exposed. 

I am personally shocked that Vernon DeLima would have criticized Kamla’s “outing” of this insidious network, which had nothing whatever to do with the fight against crime. 

Manning, who hid the facts surrounding what he now blasphemously calls “God’s Church” at Guanapo is calling upon Kamla to ‘be transparent” about the home her husband is building for her!

And Watson Duke and the PSA are now being supported by the PNM, who would not talk to PSA while in office! And Watson Duke embraces this support, conveniently forgetting that it is the PNM wasteful term in office which prevents the PSA from getting what they deserve.

Our country cannot afford to fall on the intrigue of the PNM heaped upon their corruption and mismanagement while in office. And the people of COP cannot betray us by cutting the road for the PNM walk.