Congress of the People (COP) leader Prakash Ramadhar has issued a message “to those with noble intentions” to remember how splits in parties like the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and the United National Congress (UNC) caused the downfall of their respective governments.
Ramadhar was speaking at Thursday’s COP meeting at a packed Malabar community centre hall.
When reporters subsequently asked his view on the new Third Force Movement (TFM) involving many former COP-ers, he said: “Tonight’s message was to remember history. As I said in the meeting, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. If we’re committed to the same principles, then we must be in the same place. The only division I want is the division between good people and bad people and I work towards that.”
With regard to TFM plaform statements that it would welcome talks with the COP, Ramadhar said if the TFM’s agenda was what it was claimed to be, there was no equation to be fixed. He said COP remained committed to its principles. “I’m willing to talk to anybody at all times (but) we really must learn from history and I put a little caution to all those with noble intentions about creating a problem.” On the perception that the TFM’s Maraval meeting on Wednesday looked like the COP of the past, Ramadhar said everyone was entitled to invite people and some members had also informed him that they wanted to go and see proceedings.
“COP remains committed to being a workshop, not a talkshop. We’ve shown the dedication against tremendous difficulty and great resistance—that’s the test of a real political party.”
During the meeting, Ramadhar outlined COP’s policies including campaign finance reform, constitutional reform and procurement legislation, the latter already passed by Government.
But he said it was ironic that the procurement team chairman was (TFM’s) Timothy Hamel-Smith “who we’d expected to get his best quality of work.”
Ramadhar noted splits in the NAR and UNC that led to their respective governments’ downfall. He said despite the NAR’s good work, the 1990 coup took place because certain elements sensed that the people didn’t want the government.
He said he learned from both parties’ experiences and one couldn’t “always get vex, swell up and go” when issues arose since someone had to do the work. He said he considered everyone a friend and the COP wouldn’t tolerate the same errors that plagued parties in the past. He said the COP embraced all who made T&T better and all those “who are on our agenda.” Ramadhar said the People’s National Movement (PNM) had portrayed the People’s Partnership as corrupt from the beginning, overshadowing its work. He said if there was corruption in the Children’s Life Fund programme, the perpetrators should “get life” in jail.