The major controversy last week was the furore that erupted between the COP and the UNC over the announcement of Marlene Coudray, the Mayor of San Fernando, as a candidate on the UNC Nationalist slate.
COP chairman Joseph Toney regarded the matter as one in which the UNC Nationalists had poached Coudray from the COP. Dr Roodal Moonilal, leader of the UNC Nationalist slate, hit back at the COP reminding them that their party had been born out of the UNC and they were the first poachers.
By mid-week, the matter had reached the level of the political leaders and one got the impression that there was a full-blown fissure about to erupt. However, the reality is that membership of a political party and standing for election to the executive of a party is a personal matter that is not governed by organisational directives.
Perhaps the real matter was that the COP has had its share of the partnership pie diminished as there was consensus to appoint a mayor of San Fernando who came from the COP.
COP chairman Joseph Toney regarded the matter as one in which the UNC Nationalists had poached Coudray from the COP. Dr Roodal Moonilal, leader of the UNC Nationalist slate, hit back at the COP reminding them that their party had been born out of the UNC and they were the first poachers.
By mid-week, the matter had reached the level of the political leaders and one got the impression that there was a full-blown fissure about to erupt. However, the reality is that membership of a political party and standing for election to the executive of a party is a personal matter that is not governed by organisational directives.
Perhaps the real matter was that the COP has had its share of the partnership pie diminished as there was consensus to appoint a mayor of San Fernando who came from the COP.
Given that the COP already holds the San Fernando West constituency in the national Parliament, the shift of Coudray from COP to UNC could represent an attempt by the UNC to make inroads into San Fernando at the expense of its partner in government, the COP.
At the end of the day, that is what coalition and partnership is all about. The parties agree to share power, but simultaneously seek to build their own individual political parties because individual party strength translates into negotiating power at the bargaining table of power sharing.
The Partnership is young and the concept of power-sharing is new. Political enemies have to accept each other as friends, while maintaining their desire to remain separate from one another. It is not an easy task as the People’s Partnership goes about the task of changing the political culture of the country.
There are some who continue to analyse the People’s Partnership through single-party lenses when clearly multi-party lenses are required. The challenge for the Partnership is to formulate a way to treat each other as friends and enemies at the same time.
At the end of the day, that is what coalition and partnership is all about. The parties agree to share power, but simultaneously seek to build their own individual political parties because individual party strength translates into negotiating power at the bargaining table of power sharing.
The Partnership is young and the concept of power-sharing is new. Political enemies have to accept each other as friends, while maintaining their desire to remain separate from one another. It is not an easy task as the People’s Partnership goes about the task of changing the political culture of the country.
There are some who continue to analyse the People’s Partnership through single-party lenses when clearly multi-party lenses are required. The challenge for the Partnership is to formulate a way to treat each other as friends and enemies at the same time.
The corridor between the UNC and the COP has been a well-travelled one. The January 2010 UNC internal election had as one of its biggest story lines the fact that many former UNC members who had joined the COP had not resigned their membership of the UNC and were planning to vote in the UNC internal elections of that year.
Many of them did and they helped to elect Kamla Persad-Bissessar as Political Leader of the UNC while they continued to wear both their COP and UNC credentials easily.
Many of them did and they helped to elect Kamla Persad-Bissessar as Political Leader of the UNC while they continued to wear both their COP and UNC credentials easily.
If the margin of victory had been a slim one, both Basdeo Panday and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj may have complained about the influence of the COP-UNC members whose votes would have made a difference. However, the margin was so overwhelming in favour of Persad-Bissessar that such a debate could get no traction.
Nowadays the election of an executive for political parties within the Partnership has a two-fold purpose. One is to ensure that the party has an executive that can help to advance its party’s cause and growth, while the other is to ensure that the people elected are committed to the principle of power-sharing.
Without the latter virtue, the Partnership will have little chance of survival into the future.
Nowadays the election of an executive for political parties within the Partnership has a two-fold purpose. One is to ensure that the party has an executive that can help to advance its party’s cause and growth, while the other is to ensure that the people elected are committed to the principle of power-sharing.
Without the latter virtue, the Partnership will have little chance of survival into the future.
This has to be contrasted against a political party like the PNM where the core virtue is “Great is the PNM and it shall prevail!” There is no doubt that the PNM value system will not tolerate power sharing and that the party will stand alone, win alone or lose alone.
Last week’s spat between the COP and the UNC over the Coudray poach was an expression of party individualism that was inconsistent with partnership (are we not all on the same side?) and was reminiscent of the split of 2006 (Dookeran’s new politics and Panday’s corpse). The latter split facilitated a PNM victory in 2007.
The delay in working out the matter at the level of the political leadership between the COP and the UNC perhaps has something to do with waiting for the UNC internal election to be over.
Last week’s spat between the COP and the UNC over the Coudray poach was an expression of party individualism that was inconsistent with partnership (are we not all on the same side?) and was reminiscent of the split of 2006 (Dookeran’s new politics and Panday’s corpse). The latter split facilitated a PNM victory in 2007.
The delay in working out the matter at the level of the political leadership between the COP and the UNC perhaps has something to do with waiting for the UNC internal election to be over.
The COP is clearly upset over the fact that their stock in the Partnership has gone down as they have lost a mayoral position through defection in an environment where crossing the floor is supposedly acceptable as long as you stay inside the Partnership tent.
It is much like Labour Minister Errol Mc Leod contesting the general election under a UNC symbol in May 2010 while not being a party member and then crossing the floor (inside the Partnership) to become the short-lived political leader of the newly-organised MSJ in May 2011.
It is much like Labour Minister Errol Mc Leod contesting the general election under a UNC symbol in May 2010 while not being a party member and then crossing the floor (inside the Partnership) to become the short-lived political leader of the newly-organised MSJ in May 2011.
The UNC stock went down, but Mc Leod is still in the Partnership with the MSJ now rumbling.
(The above column has been reproduced from the Sunday Guardian with the permission of the author)
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