The changing of the guards

Yetming, who described the slate as the "best team to keep this party united," said succession planning was a major factor in ensuring the continued survival of the Opposition party.

"We are a team with succession planning in mind; we are a team committed to broadening the party, to grow it, to develop it to include all the peoples of Trinidad and Tobago, to make the United National Congress the truly representative party in Trinidad and Tobago," he said.

Yetming added, "We are the only team that would be capable of attracting the competent and people of integrity to fight the next elections."

He said the team would also work hard to ensure that the spectre of "racial politics" which has been dominating the Trinidad and Tobago landscape was brought to an end.

Yetming also dismissed suggestions that the Progressives slate would ‘hand over" the party to the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), saying "we are the best qualified group to prevent anybody from handing over this party to NAR or the PNM."

"There is a suggestion that there are people who wish to mash up the UNC, to hand it to NAR, and there is also talk about a conspiracy, a plot hatched in Balisier House to mash up the UNC. I want to say clear that I am not and no member of this team is part of any plot," he said.

Yetming said the fundamental difference between the two slates was one slate would "protect and preserve" the UNC without preparing the party for a return to government while the other would "grow it and expand it" to assume government at the next general elections.

Also addressing the launch was UNC activist and candidate for one of the three positions of deputy political leader, Austin Jack Warner, who called for unity in the Opposition party saying "at the end of the day, we are all UNC."

Warner said candidates on the Progressives slate would never attack any member of the opposing slate and would "bail out" any member of the UNC "if the need arises."

The FIFA vice-president, who flew in from Peru to attend the presentation, instead launched a scathing attack on the Ministry of Housing saying the ministry was the "most corrupt" in the entire Patrick Manning-led Administration.

Also addressing the launch was UNC Senator and candidate for the post of party organiser, Sadiq Baksh, who said the time had come to "re-engineer" the party to meet the needs of tomorrow.

"This is the most crucial time for the party. What we do today will decide whether Manning will be here for life and his wife will follow him as Prime Minister or that we get rid of the oppression that the PNM has brought upon us," he said.

Baksh added, "In the midst of plenty, our supporters are getting fired, retrenched, laid off, terminated. Manning’s strategy is very simple — keep the supporters of the UNC suppressed, keep the PNM’s supporters ignorant and wield a big propaganda stick."

But he observed that under the leadership of political leader designate, Winston Dookeran and under the guidance of chairman designate, Basdeo Panday, the party possessed the combination to retake the Government from the PNM Administration.