Guest column: Partnership & Power - by Dr Hamid Ghany

With the People’s Partnership engaging in some soul searching spawned by the allegations of the COP that the UNC was poaching its members, there is every reason to believe that the People’s Partnership will stay together now.

This impression has been formed based on the public statements of the COP Political Leader, Prakash Ramadhar, who has moved from a position of reconsidering the relationship of the COP with the Partnership to one of denying that he ever made any statement saying that the COP would walk away from the Partnership.

There is no doubt that feelings were hurt and that the COP was lashing out at being blindsided by the personal decision of Marlene Coudray to seek election to the executive of the UNC. 

The effect of her decision is that she crossed the floor inside of the coalition as opposed to going outside of the coalition itself. In order to understand this, one must appreciate that the key to the relationship is the holding of power. If she had crossed over to the PNM, there would have been general outrage. Instead, there is COP outrage alone.

One would imagine that the five leaders in the People’s Partnership would be discussing some of the ground rules for the continued engagement of all the political parties in the People’s Partnership. 

With the Prime Minister not being in a position to personally remove Marlene Coudray as Mayor of San Fernando, the COP would have to come up with a formula for her removal even though they do not have the number of councillors to effect that change.

As far as Coudray is concerned, she is not resigning because she still sees herself as a member of the People’s Partnership. The UNC and the COP combined have control of the San Fernando City Corporation, however, neither of them has individual control which means that they need each other, not necessarily “until death do us part”, but in order to hold power.

If there was a deal that the mayorship of San Fernando was supposed to be given to the COP, then the deal should be honoured. 

However, if the deal was honoured (as it was) and the only thing that has changed is the fact that the incumbent has changed her personal Partnership choice of party from COP to UNC, then implementation of a new deal becomes the problem, because she cannot be removed from office just like that.

This has to be considered alongside the continuing barrage of internal attacks upon the COP Political Leader, Prakash Ramadhar, by his party and Cabinet colleague Anil Roberts. 

It is clear that the COP cannot contain Roberts and that he will speak his mind publicly about Prakash Ramadhar. This is serving to weaken the position of the COP and if disciplinary action is undertaken, then the COP will be dealing with something other than Marlene Coudray.

The COP has managed to soften the blow of the remarks by Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan that were apparently misinterpreted about corruption in the UNC. That had the potential to open a major firestorm between the COP and the UNC and it was quickly extinguished.

One of the factors that has made this Marlene Coudray situation very difficult for the COP to handle is the reality that the UNC has become so united in the aftermath of its own internal elections. 

This has not normally been the case if the 2001 and 2005 elections are examined. However, the 2010 and the 2012 elections have produced a unified party.

The public perception of a rift between Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Jack Warner has vanished. No longer is PURE under review and no longer is there any talk of a cabal out to get at Warner. This is the first time that the UNC internal elections have been held on time and the threat of fire and brimstone did not materialise as the one-week campaign was quite tame by previous UNC standards.

With the UNC riding on a high note and the COP battling the UNC over the composition of its executive because of the presence of a former COP member as an elected deputy political leader, the sideshows of Anil Roberts’ verbal blows for his leader and Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan’s misquote provided more material to manage for the COP than just the Mayor of San Fernando.

With the legal inability to remove Marlene Coudray now staring the COP and the rest of the People’s Partnership in the face, how does the COP get out of a situation of not having its public demands met? 

It appears that the mayorship of San Fernando has more to it than just whom the People’s Partnership wants to choose. Last week’s Sunday Guardian highlighted the demands of the business community and a somewhat non-committal response from Winston Dookeran about the deal itself.

Marlene Coudray continues to ask Prakash Ramadhar to provide the evidence that the COP nominated her for the post of mayor. With political power on the line, will this stalemate continue or will it blow over after the Easter weekend?

The above column by Dr Hamid Ghany has been published with the permission of the author. It was first published in the Sunday Guardian