Congress of the People deputy political leader Dr Lincoln Douglas says the party is staying with the People's Partnership, despite pressure from within COP ranks to sever ties with the PP amidst rumblings within the UNC, the main coalition partner.
"We stand resolute with this partnership. We will not move. This partnership belongs to us. We will do everything to protect this partnership," Douglas told supporters as he mounted a platform in support of the UNC's Chaguanas West by-election candidate, Khadijah Ameen, at the Felicity Hindu School on Tuesday night."Who want to go can go and who behaving badly, we will put them out."
Douglas also defended their right to intervene in the election campaign, even though they had no candidate contesting the July 29 by-election."We have the right to be here...COP has the right to be here because we own the partnership," he said.He said the COP had committed itself, right from the beginning, to bring the PP together and they were committed to the principles and acceptable standards of what it means to be in government.
"Standards are very simple...it means if you are a politician and if you are in government, you must not thief the government money. Leaders must not take advantage of people," he said.Douglas said leaders should be responsible and accountable to the people and give answers when questions are asked. He said it should not be that when one asks "where the money gone? you have to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act and then have it denied.
He said: "That is not transparency. We believe in the rule of law. If you are misbehaving and the law coming down on you, pull aside and park. Address the law before you continue."Douglas poured hot water on the contentious ultimatum given by some members who have moved a motion of no confidence in its leader Prakash Ramadhar, saying the "COP is the only party to make or break any government now, or in the future."
Ramadhar later questioned the timing of the motion brought against him, but challenged his detractors "to bring it.""One way to destroy a party or an organisation is to do what, attack its leader and look at the timing of this thing, when we have to come and do battle.""Your political leader is under attack, bring it brother, bring it sisters," he said in reference to reports that even one of his brothers was a signatory to the motion.
"I don't care about the little few misguided, they too would come around eventually. I care about the large majority, the population of Trinidad and Tobago. I will not, nor will this party put down its responsibility to the people."He said instead of his members advising him to attack with full force, "you know what they tell me, retreat with full speed."He said: "My party is never going to be called a coward. Your party is growing stronger every single day."
Ramadhar urged constituents to make the right choice by supporting Ameen, saying there would be grave danger if they did not."There is danger. If we do not fight it here, we will fight it somewhere else and if we shall lose, we would hold our heads in shame and say when we had the chance we did not."Another deputy leader Dr Anirudh Mahabir denied that the COP was weak and being taken advantage of by the UNC.
He said: "We don't have a weak party. We have a strong party. A strong base and with the intellectual input we have in the policy of government, we will continue to be strong. We will continue to be leaders and thinkers in government."
Also affirming their position within the PP was COP chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie. Noticeably absent from the line-up were Minister in the Prime Minister's office Rodger Samuel, who is wrestling with his conviction as a politician and a pastor, and Sport Minister Anil Roberts.