Movement for Social Justice leader David Abdulah said yesterday that he hasn’t made a definitive commitment to the umbrella body proposed by axed People Partnership (PP) minister Gary Griffith and would have to report to the MSJ’s council on last Saturday’s meeting with Griffith and others before taking a position.
Speaking yesterday as well, Griffith said last Saturday a meeting of ten people was held on moves to pull together an umbrella movement, possibly toward a political party comprising various other groups, including the MSJ, Independent Liberal Party (ILP), Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) and others. But he confirmed he hadn’t “spoken to Fixin T&T at this time.” Griffith said the vehicle was intended to represent floating voters and whichever of the two major parties showed respect and recognition for them, the third force would align and work with.
Ex-PNMite Louis Lee Sing didn’t answer repeated calls yesterday on claims he attended the meeting or was part of the move. On the possibility of another third force of groups, Abdulah said, “I haven’t made a definitive commitment to anything. Obviously the country wants an alternative, since the public doesn’t support the PNM or PP and people are searching for material.
“A lot of conversations are taking place all over T&T because people aren’t comfortable with the two major parties. But whatever happens has to be properly built since people are cynical. It has to be based on trust so people can have confidence in it.” Abdulah said he was aware of another meeting of the group this week and had been invited. He said the headline about the move on yesterday’s report was misleading, since neither JTUM nor the ILP were part of last Saturday’s meeting.
ILP leader Jack Warner, who confirmed he spoke to Nicole Dyer-Griffith last Friday morning—the day before her husband Gary met with the nine others—said of the effort: “Umbrella movements have succeeded in St Kitts and Guyana. ILP is keeping its options open but I’ll attend the (Griffith) group’s meeting this week.” Businessman Conrad Aleong, who resigned from the Congress of the People (COP) on Friday, also yesterday supported moves to find a space for the undecideds/floating voter.
“There must be a space for them. In business terms, the target market is available for this (umbrella movement) right now. “You can’t give everyone the same product with the same price, you need a product to appeal to more people and there’s no such product right now—so we need to find one. The COP should understand the serious people of the party left.”
Another businessman Joe Pires, who also resigned from the COP on Friday, said that he “entered politics” to make a change and would support any vehicle whose focus is T&T. Griffith said yesterday, “The Prime Minister has always shown recognition and respect for the third forces, but some of her lieutenants—including Suruj Rambachan in recent statements—and others like Sat Maharaj see the floating voters as a nuisance. That’s disrespectful and arrogant.”
Griffith also challenged Clive Weatherhead’s claims of a 42,000 COP membership. “I’ll eat my hockey stick if he produces one per cent—not UNC members in COP jerseys—at any COP meeting,” he said.
Fixin T&T not in talks
Fixin T&T has disassociated itself from a Sunday Guardian report that it was involved in the move by Gary Griffith and other groups to try and sway undecided voters. In a statement, Fixin T&T stated, “We categorically deny being a part of any ‘core group’ with the other players named and attending any such meeting.” The report, headlined Third Force Threat, had reported on moveds by Griffith to rally disenchanted former COP members and other interest groups as a third force.
More of the same
Disenchanted Congress of the People members aren’t convinced about the Gary Griffith vehicle as the way forward. Asked yesterday if he’d become involved in such a drive, former COP deputy Roberts Mayers said, “Not likely at all.” Satu Ramcharan and Kishore Ramadhar (brother of COP leader Prakash Ramadhar), who has criticised the COP leadership, meanwhile questioned the Griffiths’ motives. “This is more of the same—still seeking to partner with the major parties. We’re not. COP members must assess whether this is COP two or three,” Ramcharan said.
“Those same people (Griffiths) didn’t have a problem with the PP until their positions were threatened. Nicole Dyer -Griffith refused to accept our motion to leave the PP and she and others presided over the meeting that evicted us from COP and our no-confidence motion against COP’s leader. I don’t see why she resigned now. All of a sudden she’s found a conscience.”
He added, “I was interested in David Abdulah who gave up his Senatorial post to pursue pure politics, he’s an exception. But he has to be careful aligning himself with political rejects, some of these were rejected by the parties.” Ramadhar added, “What Dyer-Griffith is saying is probably correct but she stayed there too long to have credibility now.
“If they didn’t see things going wrong all the time one has to ask what is her judgement and motivation now. She had many opportunities and many others also could have resigned long ago—including Pires, Aleong, Phillip Alexander—but people remained. We got suspended for our criticisms, and others left ,so what principles are they (Griffith) talking of?”
Former Arima mayor Ghassan Youssef said Griffith was the best national security minister and former Senate president Timothy Hamel-Smith’s removal needed explanation, but the big picture was a PNM/PP fight and he supported PP for delivery and accountability in removing persons clouded by issues.