A Letter to Prakash...

Dear Prakash,

I hope this letter finds you well and that you are finding time to relax despite your hectic workload. Even though we find ourselves temporarily on opposing sides for this Congress of the People leadership election, I am still of the view that I could take the liberty of calling you friend and to send you a letter out of concern for you, our great Party and the country as a whole.

I remember thinking that you were one of the standard bearers for truth and decency in Trinidad & Tobago and that having you on board the Congress of the People strengthened our hand in the dual fights we were waging for an expression space of our own with the then UNC and the PNM. Your courage inspired, your integrity shone through, and we the members of the COP were proud to have you on 'our' team.

 What a difference a year in politics makes. After winning your seat in the 2010 General election you all but disappeared from the scene; calls to your once easily accessed phone went unanswered, your facebook profile was turned off and it seemed like the only time we the members who cut the road you walked to get into Office saw you was on TV. 

I for one am willing to accept that you were simply overwhelmed by your dual role of Minister and Member of Parliament, but when we walked your consistency for this internal campaign and heard the litany of woes and the complaints on your absence I felt ashamed. These are the people we made the promise of 'New Politics' to, the same people who now swear that the Congress of the People let them down so badly they don't now if they could ever vote COP again. I listened to you in Arima boast about your constituents and their support, yet the very next day the very same constituents said that you may be mistaking last year's support for this year as they have not seen you since. Roads in utterly deplorable conditions, absence of stop signs on the few roads that were paved making intersections a game of russian roulette, promises made to come back after and fix the area COP style left fading in the evening sun like the Vote for Prakash posters still visible on lampposts and walls.

If I were close enough to advise you it would be to check yourself before you wreck such a bright and promising career. I would tell you do not take on any further responsibilities until you can adequately manage the ones you already have, and I would tell you that whoever is encouraging you to pursue this post of Political Leader of our Party is using you for their own agenda and probably setting you up to fail in the long run. Surely you must know that the additional burden may be one burden too many, that the role of Political Leader in these challenging and demanding political times will exhaust even someone who has no other significant responsibilities. Aren't your closest advisors honest enough with you to tell you that?

Prakash my friend you need to take a step back and see how you are coming across. My biggest shame came from watching the debates and to be honest I don't know if it is because you have been sitting too close to Anil for too long, because you seem to have caught his slipperiness in evading questions as asked. I remember pointing out to someone after the third debate that trying to get Anil to answer a question was like trying to nail jello to a wall, but Praklash you are really not that far behind. Why don't you get your hands on the recordings of the debates and see if you are really proud of your performances thus far, if this Prakash is the same man we rallied behind since 2007 or not. and if you find that somehow the trappings of Office have changed you for the worse I suggest you take some time to re-evalute what is important to you in the long run. For someone so young with so much to look forward to it would be a damnable shame to squander it chasing tokens to glorify yourself that could only serve to pull you down.

My advice to you my friend, if you really do love the Congress of the People as much as you say you do, do the gentlemanly thing, the sensible thing really and bow out of this race. Your hands are already too full and you are starting to fail and that should not be allowed to continue. To the Prakash Ramadhar I know, that could never be good enough. My friend, if you really do love the COP then do what is best for the Party and support Vernon De Lima.  He is only in this race to enlarge the Party and is committed to taking the vision of a truly national Party further, to create an alternative to the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, a place of political refuge to those who won't or can't vote race and who, without the Congress of the People, would be left to the mercy of the wolves in the UNC and PNM again.

Do you remember when those ideals were your ideals? 

They can be again. The Prakash Ramadhar we know as a much loved national figure has a singular clarity of vision when it comes to recognizing when things are going wrong. My friend, trust your instincts; do what is best for the Party, bow out of this race and throw your full support behind Vernon De Lima, our best hope for our Party's future.

The members of the Congress of the People are counting on you to do the right thing and I know that in your heart of hearts you already know what that is.

All the very best to you and yours

Your friend,

Phillip