Yvonne Webb

Top of­fi­cials of the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice (MSJ) are dis­cussing whether or not the par­ty will re­main a mem­ber of the two-year-old Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship. A se­nior Cab­i­net Min­is­ter has ex­pressed con­fi­dence that its coali­tion part­ner will re­main with­in the Gov­ern­ment. How­ev­er, for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day said he was not sur­prised, be­cause "the PP Gov­ern­ment has treat­ed the labour move­ment very bad­ly." Ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber of the labour-based par­ty, Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) leader An­cel Ro­get, has called for the MSJ to re­move it­self from the PP coali­tion. He has threat­ened to re­move the OW­TU from the par­ty if it did not re­move it­self from the PP.

A se­nior mem­ber of the MSJ told the T&T Guardian the is­sue was un­der dis­cus­sion. Asked to com­ment on Ro­get's ul­ti­ma­tum, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal was con­fi­dent the MSJ, which had two rep­re­sen­ta­tives in Par­lia­ment-Labour Min­is­ter Er­rol Mc Leod and Sen­a­tor David Ab­du­lah-would re­main a part­ner. He said: "I am not sure if Mr Ro­get, who was at a demon­stra­tion in Ma­yaro on Fri­day, would not have heard Min­is­ter McLeod's po­si­tion, in which he gave a com­pre­hen­sive and wide-rang­ing pre­sen­ta­tion in the Par­lia­ment."

Mooni­lal said while Ro­get might have le­git­i­mate con­cerns, McLeod out­lined Gov­ern­ment's po­si­tion, pol­i­cy pro­pos­als and plans to ad­dress mat­ters in the labour sec­tor and in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions. "It was very in­for­ma­tive and I am sure if Mr Ro­get would fa­mil­iarise him­self with what Mr McLeod said, he may re­con­sid­er the ac­tion they are con­tem­plat­ing," he said. Mooni­lal said McLeod, who hand­ed over lead­er­ship of the MSJ to Ab­du­lah ear­li­er this year, would have al­layed any fears among mem­bers of the union he once led.

He said he found it a cu­ri­ous po­si­tion, "be­cause the pres­i­dent gen­er­al (Ro­get) has to raise the mat­ter with the gen­er­al sec­re­tary (Ab­du­lah), who is the leader of the MSJ." "I have all con­fi­dence in the MSJ and in Mr Ab­du­lah's lead­er­ship and that the MSJ will re­main a com­mit­ted part­ner for the long haul," Mooni­lal added. Com­ment­ing on the mat­ter Pan­day said: "I think Mr Ro­get's ac­tion is a re­sponse to the cal­lous man­ner in which Gov­ern­ment has dealt with the labour move­ment. I am not sur­prised. "How they re­act is an­oth­er mat­ter, Mac (McLeod) has clear­ly in­di­cat­ed a pref­er­ence for of­fice rather than trade union ac­tiv­i­ties. Whether Ab­du­lah does the same, I can't say."

Pan­day saId whether or not the MSJ pulled out, it would not un­seat or un­set­tle the PP "be­cause they have 29 seats but it will re­dound to their dis­cred­it in the next elec­tion."