Sudama: Team Unity dead

NATIONAL TEAM UNITY (NTU) is not the new political vehicle which former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj intends to use to revolutionise the political landscape of Trinidad and Tobago. This was disclosed yesterday by NTU founding member Trevor Sudama who said the party was politically defunct. Last week, Maharaj revealed that he had a “major shocker” up his sleeve for the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and the opposition United National Congress (UNC) and that an announcement was forthcoming. However, Sudama told Newsday he had no idea what Maharaj was talking about since he had not spoken to the former AG in “quite some time.”

Sudama recalled that NTU was born because of the need for a vehicle for himself, Maharaj and Ralph Maraj to explain their stand on corruption in the UNC and why they were fired from the Basdeo Panday Cabinet. He admitted that it was always going to be difficult to translate NTU into a national party because “we need a wider base.” In recent weeks, Maharaj has been meeting with several groups and was very visible in his efforts to champion the cause of sugar workers following last month’s closure of Caroni (1975) Limited. Sudama reiterated that a third political force would not be viable unless TT’s electoral system was changed from first-past-the post to proportional representation because it is impossible to defeat the ruling party under the existing system. He claimed the PNM feared proportional representation because it would have to form coalitions with other parties in order to govern TT.

However Sudama conceded that the UNC was equally afraid about sailing into uncharted political waters and there was credence to the school of thought that the UNC now wanted constitutional reform simply as a means of getting a foot back into the corridors of political power. He added that traditionally all ruling parties preferred the first-past-the post electoral system and found it strange that St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran said nothing about constitutional reform in his controversial “Agenda for Transformation” report.