The issue of jumping from party to party is as common to the People's Partnership as rats looking for cheese, but crossing the floor is not how the People's National Movement (PNM) operates. Port-of-Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing was responding to a question posed to him as to whether he would cross the floor or go to another party, if an opportunity was presented.
Lee Sing said what Marlene Coudray had done was nothing uncommon within the context of the People's Partnership, since "most PP members have been in one party or the other, at some time or another." He said that if he were no longer mayor, he would not become a member of the PP, but instead would resign as it was the honourable thing to do.
"Crossing the floor is not the way PNM people operate, and if I were to leave the party, I would resign as mayor, because I got my power from the PNM." He hinted that no one knew what transpired within the PP to warrant such a move by Coudray, but Lee Sing did hint that Coudray may not have advised the core of the Congress of the People that she was jumping ship to the United National Congress.
He said what was interesting is that nobody knows what the facts were. However, he said that was the normal bacchanal and confusion that was associated with PP politics. He further hinted at a glaring dissension in the PP, as he made reference to the "senior partner" within the PP-the UNC-whose obvious mandate was to act on its own interest rather than seek the interest of the PP as a group.
"Listen to Prakash Ramadhar and you would get a sense of what I am talking about," Lee Sing said. However, he quickly added that he foretold the PP staying intact, as many of the partners are people who need to stay together. "The PP reminds me of someone in an abusive marriage, who is prepared to put all needs and wants aside and lose all respect in the process of holding the marriage together."
