One of the signatories to the Fyzabad Declaration, the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), says the accord which gave birth to the People’s Partnership no longer exists.
MSJ leader David Abdulah made the comment yesterday in noting that the United National Congress’ commemoration of the declaration, which was signed at a meeting held at the Butler Hall of Revolution, on April 21, 2010, was a total farce as the principles governing the accord had long been violated.
“There can be no commemoration of the Fyzabad Declaration. The UNC destroyed it and the partnership. The People’s Partnership no longer exists,” Abdulah said.
In marking the anniversary of the accord during its Monday Night Forum in Fyzabad, all the leaders of the existing parties still in the coalition, the Congress of the People (COP), Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) and the National Joint Action Congress (NJAC) cut a cake with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
But noting the failure of the UNC to hold true to the principles of the accord, Abdulah said Winston Dookeran, who signed it on behalf of the COP, “has all but disappeared into the political woodwork. Errol McLeod (who signed on behalf of the MSJ back then) represents neither the MSJ nor labour, Ashworth Jack no longer can speak for Tobagonians and Makandal Daaga is off the political scene.”
All of the signatories, with the exception of Dookeran, were present at the MNF.
“Kamla Persad-Bissessar alone remains and that is why we state categorically that the People’s Partnership no longer exists.”
Abdulah, who was given a senatorial position in the PP government, left the coalition in June 2012 after saying the UNC had turned its back on the values and principles of the accord.
Yesterday, he said the principle of building a diverse and democratic society free from all forms of discrimination has been violated, as discrimination abounds, while a mockery has been made of the principle against corruption and the politicisation of the civil service, commissions or state enterprises.
He said one of the fundamental undertakings of a review of the legislation for the registration and funding of political parties by an independent body has also long been forgotten, as financiers have benefitted from government contracts.
“The promise of April 21, 2010 has been dealt a death blow by the worst abuses of office ever seen. The hopes of the people for creating new participatory governance so that ‘everyone counts and everyone is needed’ have been destroyed on the altar of UNC dominance, the entrenchment of their power in the institutions of state and the stench of corruption and nepotism.”