Wrapping Up... (Farewell to COP)

Taking the issue of where the Congress of the People goes from here now that the luster of the Partnership has been indelibly tarnished and the myth of new politics exposed as nothing more than a campaign slogan, the question has to be asked on behalf of the party and its members, what now? Where does or should the Party go from here if anywhere at all? A quick dose of reality would tell even the most politically uninformed (and those purposely and completely immersed in denial) that at the very least three of the six seats now occupied by the COP are as a direct result of the contempt Patrick Manning had for Penelope Beckles and the spite that he demonstrated for her in the run up to the May 2010 elections. By rejecting her as a candidate not once but twice he (stupidly) invoked the ire of the electorate in those constituencies who vowed to punish him and make him pay for his arrogance. That they succeeded changed the balance of power in the House of Representatives and both Rodger Samuel and Lincoln Douglas (and quite possibly Anil Roberts) have him (Manning) to thank for their current fortunes. Rewrite history however you choose, the fact also remains that Penny is wildly popular in the eastern constituencies, and now that she is 'back' and sure to be screened for one of those seats in the next election again changes that landscape significantly. I would be surprised if any of these three have even the slightest hope of keeping their deposits next time around, and am willing to go on record as saying now that, unless some earth-shaking, unforeseen miracle that changes the political landscape were to occur sometime between now and then, the COP is already dead in those waters. San Fernando West is being decided as we speak, and the line drawn in the sand between Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and Marlene Coudray and all of the 'waterfront scuffles' currently taking place will be remembered as the first shots fired in anger when the pretense of a partnership was no longer required. Add to that the fact that the COP's leader himself occupies a 'borrowed' seat (courtesy of, and one surely to be reclaimed by the now rampant UNC in any future general elections), one wonders on what does the COP claim its political support? Does its leadership NOT make its plans and estimations on reality as it exists? I only ask these questions because I personally believe that, barring some catastrophic and calamitous collapse on the part of either the PNM or the UNC between now and the next election, the writing is already on the wall as the COP has gone and made itself irrelevant.

Having misread and squandered the little political opportunity to deepen and develop the party into a truly national party, the COP has now become an embarrassment to those who tried to defend her and a liability to those political aspirants who stayed too long. I have said over and over from the moment Fyzabad was contemplated that the problem with joining forces for the sole purpose of unseating one man (in this case Patrick Manning), is that the moment he is in fact removed your reason for existing as a partnership dies. The idea that they would (further) exist as some sort of 'moral pendulum' to keep the 'ethically-challenged' UNC in check has itself been shown to be a flawed concept dead at conception and insufficient to base governance on. We are back to a straight up toe to toe UNC v PNM match up whenever the next election is called, and COP memorabilia, flags, caps and tee shirts need to be properly folded and put away on the shelf next to the NAR, to be brought out at cocktail parties and functions as conversation pieces. The problem with that picture though, is that we DO desperately need to forge a party of the center and we MUST aspire to change the way politics is done in this country, but obviously (and as has been comprehensively demonstrated yet again), coalitions are not the way to go, especially coalitions that are built on lust for office, position and power, over ideology, policy and truly serving the people.