While not di­rect­ly re­spond­ing to a re­ject­ed mo­tion brought by two for­mer MPs, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed yes­ter­day that there were some who want­ed to re­turn to a sys­tem with­in the par­ty where the “big boys” treat­ed the mem­ber­ship like sheep.

Last week, for­mer MP Fuad Khan filed a mo­tion propos­ing that the old guard of the par­ty be wel­comed back in­to the fold, among oth­er things, with­out re­mov­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar as po­lit­i­cal leader. The mo­tion was sec­ond­ed by for­mer MP Ra­mona Ram­di­al.

How­ev­er, UNC gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai said it didn’t qual­i­fy to be raised at the con­ven­tion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar told UNC mem­bers it took her ten years to re­arrange and stream­line the par­ty from a one-man show and hered­i­tary aris­toc­ra­cy to a mer­i­toc­ra­cy.

“So, when you hear peo­ple speak­ing about they want­i­ng to help re­build the UNC, it is re­al­ly the hered­i­tary aris­toc­ra­cy based on class, caste, seg­re­ga­tion, dis­crim­i­na­tion and fam­i­ly, that’s what they want to re­build. Bring back the old guard, bring the man and his daugh­ter and his wife. That is not the UNC. The UNC is about the rank and file and the chil­dren of the rank and file. When you hear they speak­ing about the NAR take over the UNC, what they are re­al­ly say­ing is that there is now so much di­ver­si­ty in the lead­er­ship of the UNC and they want a re­turn to the hered­i­tary aris­toc­ra­cy.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she used to sit in UNC meet­ings and wit­ness “the big boys treat­ing the mem­ber­ship like sheep.”

She told par­ty sup­port­ers: “The mem­ber­ship was on­ly good to wave flag and clap.”

She said she had vowed then that when she be­came leader she would pro­mote those who worked hard and re­ject the pol­i­tics of caste, class fam­i­ly con­nec­tions, seg­re­ga­tion, dis­crim­i­na­tion and dy­nasty.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar urged mem­bers to con­duct them­selves with love and loy­al­ty.

“When you look at the oth­er par­ty, the hered­i­tary aris­toc­ra­cy is in full con­trol. No mer­it and you be­come Pres­i­dent be­cause the dy­nasty is there,” she said.