Dave Persad exits UNC

He said the Constitution Reform Commission (CRC) as a body has remained dangerously silent on the issue. “Having been ‘handsomely paid’ by the taxpayers of this country, they must raise their voices or be condemned and run the risk of their entire report losing its integrity and being deemed a massive and expensive hoax on the population.” Persad said no amount of propaganda, public relations, gun-talk or rhetoric can detract from this issue.

“To delve into the merits or demerits of the runoff proposal at this stage will only serve to detract and trivialise the Government’s brazen attempt to employ a most undemocratic process on an important constitutional matter.” Persad said that following the decision of 22 MPS to back the bill, one must now wait with bated breath to see what the Independent Senators will have to say.

He recalled the recent rejection of the bill in the Lower House by COP founder Winston Dookeran and San Fernando West MP Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, the former saying it goes against all his lifelong beliefs and is extremely fundamental.

Persad said that when something is so ‘fundamental’ that it goes to the heart of one’s beliefs, then one must respond with equal vigour. “And it is for this precise reason that it is my intention to submit my resignation as a member of the UNC (United National Congress).” He said he has had to grapple with several issues over his three years as CTTRC chairman, which contributed to his decision not to seek re-election to the post, but the current bill is the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. “As for those who parade as flag-bearers of the gospel of ‘new politics’, it continues to remain elusive as to when fundamental issues become so fundamental as to warrant decisive action to meet their utterly idle and empty boast,” he added. “Perhaps the most fundamental thing for them is the supreme desire to hold on to office and power, temporary as it might be, at any cost.”