Akash Samaroo
Senior Reporter
akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar did not simply say ‘no thank you,’ the United National Congress (UNC) leader wrote a seven-page letter to carefully and forcefully articulate to Rushton Paray why she did not join him for the launch of his internal election slate yesterday evening.
It’s a correspondence that political analyst Dr Shane Mohammed is describing as a show of force from a “seasoned politician.”
Hours before Paray revealed his United Patriots slate for the June 15 internal elections, Persad-Bissessar circulated a letter to the media, which was her response to his private invitation for her to join them at Signature Hall for the event.
In the letter, Persad-Bissessar described the invite as “a curious deviation from general etiquette,” as the invite came less than 24 hours from the event.
Listing her issues with the invitation, particularly a line by Paray that said, “I commit to working closely with you to strengthen our party,” the UNC leader said she was surprised he wanted to work with her considering the time spent in the media and public criticising her leadership style.
Persad-Bissessar then used four pages of her letter to attach online links to news articles with statements by Paray, Dinesh Rambally, and Rodney Charles condemning her performance as a political leader.
She added, “Further, I note the conspicuous absence of you and your cohorts at the Parliamentary Sitting of April 26, 2024, where you consequently failed to support the UNC Parliamentary Team in defeating the PNM Government in a historic vote re., the Motion to extend the time for the Auditor General’s 2023 Report.”
The UNC leader also took issue with Paray calling her “a valued member of our party.”
She responded to Paray, saying she was much more than that.
“I remind you of the fact that, beyond being a ‘valued member of the party,’ I am the duly elected political leader of the UNC, a post I have held and consecutively retained for the past 14 years via endorsement of the vast majority of our party’s membership in all respective internal elections,” she posited.
Persad-Bissessar provided further criticism of Paray’s attempt to present his slate’s plans and proposals for the UNC to her at the event.
Scathingly, she wrote, “I note that, despite having been a UNC MP for the past nine years, you have consistently failed to offer anything constructive to the development of the UNC throughout your tenure. Despite your professions, your actions and public utterances in the past three months can be validly viewed as nothing short of a devious, destructive attempt to destabilise the UNC.”
Guardian Media asked Paray yesterday: What was the rationale for inviting her?
“At the end of the day, she is not contesting the election, and I sent out a number of invites to the people in the party, and she’s a member of the party as well because I want to reserve seats,” Paray explained, adding that the invitation was meant to be a personal correspondence.
“How could I invite the General Secretary and other people and not the political leader?” he asked.
When asked to comment on Persad-Bissessar’s decision to respond publicly to his invitation, Paray said, “I found that was a little odd, but nothing surprises me in politics anymore; I am learning day by day.”
At the time of the interview yesterday evening, Paray said he did not get a chance to read her letter as he was busy preparing for the launch of his slate.
But political analyst Dr Mohammed said Persad-Bissessar’s response was to show her naysayers that she is not a weak leader but a strategic and seasoned politician.
Mohammed said the damage was already done between Paray and Persad-Bissessar, and the Mayaro MP will have an uphill task convincing the UNC leader that they can work together.
“She is within her right to respond and tell them, all the time you thought I was not good enough to lead the party, and then suddenly you want to invite me to your launch and call me your political leader? She is being quite tactful at this stage in her response, and it is politics and campaigning on paper. So, it is for them to explain to her why the sudden change of heart,” Mohammed explained.
Mohammed said it is up to her political opponents to now “beat her at her game.”