Kevon Felmine

Say­ing that T&T's po­lit­i­cal land­scape is not di­vid­ed by race or re­li­gion, but by class, Na­tion­al Sol­i­dar­i­ty As­sem­bly (NSA) leader Nir­van Ma­haraj says it is time to oust the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) from pow­er.

He made the call as the NSA, which was formed in 2014, com­pris­ing most­ly of for­mer sug­ar work­ers, launched their lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion cam­paign at Rien­zi Com­plex on Sat­ur­day.

Five can­di­dates will con­test dis­tricts in the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, two in the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and one each in the Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and the Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, he an­nounced.

"If you do not have an NSA can­di­date in your area, then save your vote for 2019 when the NSA will be every­where. Con­tact your friends and fam­i­ly and if they have an NSA can­di­date, tell them join the rev­o­lu­tion," Ma­haraj said.

He was crit­i­cal of both the PNM and UNC, charg­ing that they were an in­ter­lock­ing di­rec­torate of par­ty fi­nanciers and par­lia­men­tary ca­bals. He said it was they who con­trolled State re­sources and en­joyed 90 per cent of the fruits of the land that reg­u­lar cit­i­zens worked hard to pro­duce.

"My broth­ers and sis­ters, the di­vi­sions in this coun­try are not re­al­ly about race, eth­nic­i­ty or re­li­gion you know, it is about class di­vi­sion, it is about those who have ac­cess to wealth and those who don't," Ma­haraj said.

"It is for this rea­son, with­out fear or favour un­der the ban­ner of the Na­tion­al Sol­i­dar­i­ty As­sem­bly, we must send a mes­sage to those in au­thor­i­ty that the time has come for prop­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the peo­ple of T&T."

Ma­haraj said that by the NSA con­test­ing the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions, the par­ty will be start­ing from the ground up. He said hun­dreds of work­ers were be­ing re­trenched un­der PNM Gov­ern­ment, crime was be­yond con­trol and the cost of liv­ing was in­creas­ing.

On the UNC Op­po­si­tion's side, he said they were just a group of peo­ple who were giv­en jobs by their leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. He said Per­sad-Bisses­sar had lost touch with re­al­i­ty and was lead­ing the weak­est Op­po­si­tion to serve T&T. He said UNC MPs were al­so wish­ing that they lose elec­tions "bad­ly" so they could get rid of Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

"It is for this rea­son that the Na­tion­al Sol­i­dar­i­ty As­sem­bly took the first step in pro­vid­ing an al­ter­na­tive to the peo­ple clam­our­ing for change," he said.