Time not right, says MSJ leader

Uncertainty prevails over next week’s second-anniversary rally of the People’s Partnership, as the leaders of the Congress of the People (COP) Prakash Ramadhar and the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah have not confirmed their attendance. Sources close to Ramadhar said yesterday the COP “had not as yet made a decision on attending the meeting.” Earlier yesterday, at least one COP member, Women’s Affairs Officer of the COP’s Lopinot/Bon Air West constituency executive Nalini Dial called on the party’s national executive to blank the rally as a show of protest over the treatment being meted out to the COP by the United National Congress. And in a statement issued yesterday—the same day ads for the event appeared in the newspapers—Abdulah issued a strong statement saying staging such a rally was not appropriate at this time. In a release headlined “Clarification on my attendance at the May 24, Rally of the People’s Partnership,” Abdulah said it was “inappropriate for the partnership to have a celebratory rally at a time when there were so many crucial issues facing the country.”

 

Apart from the COP and the MSJ, other member parties of the PP are the United National Congress (UNC), the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) and the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC). Both the MSJ and the COP have expressed concerns about certain issues. The COP said the UNC had breached the agreement establishing the partnership when it “poached” San Fernando mayor Marlene Coudray. The MSJ said labour matters were not being adequately addressed. Abdulah said the MSJ told the May 8 PP leadership meeting at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, it had not yet committed to attending the anniversary rally, and why. “Despite stating that position we note the full-page advertisements in today’s press regarding our attendance at the rally,” Abdulah said yesterday. In a media report dated May 14, Abdulah said: “The Government needs to focus on the key issues affecting the people and that is more important than a celebratory type rally.” Abdulah said he also stated that the party’s position would be made public “at an appropriate time.”

 

Abdulah said the MSJ would make its decision “only after the party’s activist council meeting, which is expected to take place within the next days.” He said at that meeting the MSJ “will also be finalising its appraisal exercise on whether the Government has seriously addressed the issues raised by the MSJ in our statement on March 11.” But, responding to questions at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Foreign Affairs and Communications Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan said as far as he was aware, Abdulah had committed to be a speaker at the rally. He said the Government remained strong as it continues to deliver on its promises. He said there is a new kind of politics which allows for freedom of expression. “What you are seeing is the birth of a coalition that is here to stay,” Rambachan added. Rambachan was asked to comment on whether the defection of eight members of the COP’s Lopinoit/Bon-Air West executive to the UNC was part of a plot by the UNC to take control of COP constituencies. “There is no such plan...There is no such plot to do anything like that,” he said. “Nothing is going to be done by any member of the UNC to undermine this solid relationship that exists and has been growing between the partnership members.”