JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende

@guardian.co.tt

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) PRO, Dr Kirk Meighoo, yes­ter­day said the pur­pose of hav­ing me­dia con­fer­ences on na­tion­al mat­ters at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters was be­cause that is the venue where na­tion­al poli­cies are cre­at­ed.

Speak­ing at an­oth­er such me­dia con­fer­ence where De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge and Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin gave up­dates on non-UNC-re­lat­ed mat­ters, Meighoo said all Gov­ern­ment poli­cies are par­ty poli­cies.

Asked then if non-gov­ern­ment mem­bers were al­lowed to for­mu­late the coun­try’s poli­cies, he said yes.

“The UNC, as a par­ty, formed a man­i­festo, we have com­mit­tees and so on, and our mem­bers form the Gov­ern­ment, and that is Gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy. We live in a democ­ra­cy where po­lit­i­cal par­ties are cen­tral. The UNC is a na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion, open to the coun­try, the largest or­gan­i­sa­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go and per­haps the en­tire Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean.”

He added that the par­ty is not dead and con­tin­ues to play a part in gov­er­nance, as is the right of the par­ty.

In re­sponse to whether he be­lieves it to be pru­dent to sep­a­rate par­ty is­sues from Gov­ern­ment is­sues, Meighoo said: “No! The UNC forms the Gov­ern­ment. We were vot­ed in by the ma­jor­i­ty, and this is how democ­ra­cy works.”