Go and help the NAR, Mr Moonan

THE EDITOR: I write this note as a response to a letter to the editor in your newspaper on Tuesday September 23, 2003 penned by Rabrindra Moonan of San Fernando and entitled, “Let Fuad be UNC leader.” Firstly, let me state categorically that Rabrindra Moonan is a failed politician who lost what was considered a safe UNC seat in San Fernando during the local government election of 1999. If that by itself wasn’t bad enough, Rabrindra Moonan now attempts to chastise Dr Fuad Khan for his position on the way forward for the UNC. May I remind Mr Moonan that Dr Khan has won four consecutive elections at the national level in a marginal constituency. His strategies and campaign styles speak successfully for themselves. Dr Khan remains the only Member of Parliament from the winning UNC marginals of 1995 to retain his seat up to today.

What Mr Moonan wants to do is take the UNC down the road of co-operation and an “intellectual” approach to organisation. Isn’t this the same route taken by the National Alliance for Reconstruction? Where are they today? Does Mr Moonan now want to carry the UNC down that road? I think it’s enough for Mr Moonan to bury one political party. he wants to bury another one, but we in the UNC will not let him. He can pretend to be UNC all he wants, but we know that he is just a weak imitation of a now defunct political institution looking to wrestle for control of the UNC. If the UNC is to engage in co-operation with government without a commitment for constitutional reform, we would have surrendered one of the very few options open to us as the major opposition party.

What we need in the UNC is a vigorous campaign of civil disobedience, not introspection and co-operation. We need to fight the PNM and not amongst ourselves. Rabrindra Moonan was totally out of place to publicly attack the position taken by Dr Fuad Khan MP, given the fact that he himself was and still is a failed politician. Mr Moonan will be well advised to take his policies and strategies and go help the NAR or Citizens Alliance if this is the way he wants to go, but we in the UNC are rebuilding in our own way, vibrant and reinvigorated. With all our parliamentarians together, we will soon have the PNM on the run.

A ANDERSON MORRIS
San Juan