Tobago Love... (On the COP Deputies)

Now that his administration of the party is up and running, new Congress of the People political leader Prakash Ramadhar has, with the appointment of his deputies thus far, stamped his version of brand COP on the political market which some are now calling 'UNC light' - same original taste, fewer calories.

Observing the appointment of this inspiring grouping one gets the impression that Praks isn't so much interested in moving forward as in putting things in place to move one day, and with the appointment of sometime journalist and political new comer Nirad Tewarie as General Secretary he is at least guaranteed to get one politically astute person who can run the Party for him, Nirad's father Bhoe. In a striking 'buy one get one free' deal the new leader showed that while he himself was no economist like his former leader and financial guru, he was in fact prudent enough with scarce resources and knew how to get the most bang for the appointee buck.

Pronouncing on the political landscape, pundits everywhere speculate that the only way for the COP to grow past its currently diminishing fortunes is for it to make itself attractive to disenchanted PNM members; as its current moorings (one step behind its leading UNC coalition partner) does not allow for it to get too far ahead of itself where the indian voter is concerned. Coalition politics being the loose love affair that it can be since Basdeo Panday and the original UNC made their names known in divorce courts across the land, and especially if its members want to continue eating State sponsored suppers, the Congress of the People is going to know its place and demonstrate it.

Perhaps this is where Dr. Lincoln Douglas comes in, who, despite whis own political newness is the most known of all the appointees thus far and may be a face that the target market can identify with.

The other two of this awesome foursome are themselves obscure enough to make one believe that if anything we may be witnessing the birth of ninja-politics, where what happens next can very well surprise us all. 

At the unveiling ceremony the new political leader was heard to say that these people assembled here today committed themselves when there was almost no hope, showing an already inspiring talent at rewriting history as he himself only arrived into the Party just prior to the 2007 election; his new General Secretary resigned from the Party shortly after it lost at the polls due to personal and professional 'conflicts,' so this version of events may not be all that accurate.  As neither of the two new comers are Party founders of any note one may have to excuse Mr. Ramdhar at this time for his creative perspective due to being tired after the grueling three week campaign. 

He closed by saying that he plans to assemble a team to present how they (his team) feels the structure should work (we assume the coalition), and that when that was complete it would be shared with the partners (we assume the UNC) with the hope that they too would be able to add or to take away and to modify and to come up with a structure that we will all be comfortable with which sounds a lot like saying let's all take the long route to come right back here and caused all bona fide UNC members in the room and those watching from home  to snicker if not laugh out loud. 

As of this writing it was demonstrated in no uncertain terms to all and sundry how important the Tobago arm of the Party and its constituents are to this new administration as no member from Tobago has been named as yet, despite Mr. Ramadhar being asked three times on three separate occasions over the course of the campaign if he had given any thought to who his deputies might be.

I am almost excited to see where we go from here....