Reclaim the COP....

Having been sent an email this week notifying me of the upcoming internal elections for the executive leadership Congress of the People, all I can say is that if ever there was a last, best hope to save that floundering organization (and the country by extension) it is this. For that to occur though, the membership needs to be galvanized to come out in their numbers and sweep that mal-functional (some say illegally appointed), agenda driven group from office, and founding members and icons such as De Lima, Mayers, Lee Yeun among others have an obligation to make themselves available to rescue the party and return it to its original trajectory and intent.

It also presents a wonderful opportunity to put the political leader Prakash Ramadhar on notice –  either performs under the COP's mandate or be replaced, as he more than anyone else is responsible for the party's dismal fortunes and where it finds itself at this time. His inability to hold to the  guidelines that spawned the COP out of opposition to Panday's claim that politics did and should have a morality of its own should be grounds enough for his removal, as is his flip flopping on important national issues. Are the founding principles not challenged by the appointment of Jack Warner to the Cabinet, his open flouting of the Parliamentary Code of Ethics by his presence in that Chamber and his series of ethically questionable acting Prime Ministerial appointments? Prakash's own public opinion on that issue and his later turn-about raises many concerns that should best be left to the good gentleman to address, but are again reasons enough to rescind his appointment. What about the continuous fraud being perpetrated almost daily against the people by the (senior) partner in the partnership, the UNC? Are these not challenges to those very values? The overt and covert challenges to democracy, the still unexplained state of emergency, the detention of citizens with little or no evidence, the reneging on promises used to achieve office are all opportunities for the leader of a Congress of the People to speak out, yet in exchange the media reports that the current leader chooses to remain silent, which again begs many questions as to where his loyalties truly lie.

The best opportunity here though, bar none, is the opportunity presented to put some perceived wrongs right and remove Joseph Toney from office. His elevation to leadership came after an extremely questionable election that saw many of the founding members quit the party in disgust, with many believing that the results should never have been allowed to stand and that they were only allowed to (despite open conflict if not revolt within the party) because he presided over the very meetings that were supposed to decide if the election was totally rigged and his ascension a fraud.

Questions have to be asked of these two gentlemen and their appointees, questions such as - who do they speak for? Who or what is guiding your policies? Make no mistake, the COP has a lucrative  opportunity being part of a coalition in government, but it should not be allowed to continue at the expense of the party's soul. Rumors that some COP MP's are steering the trajectory of the party through tantrums and threats at the executive level to leave if they do not get their way should be met with the very discipline they themselves fail to display.  If you are no longer guided by COP principles then by all means leave. Anil's wiping of Jack Warner's face at a public event was comical at best, and Lincoln Douglas' threat to 'leave the COP' if the COP leaves the government as he has 'nowhere else to go' should not be what decides party policy.

What happens now is up to the members. Any new leadership should be elected with a mandate to hold to the party's founding principles and to expand the membership base through a sustained expansion into all forty one constituencies. This 'new' Congress of the People should have as its motto   “....Onward to Governance,' and there should be a very clear distinction as to where the UNC ends and the COP begins.