Kamla’s grab for power

Yetming in a frank interview with Sunday Newsday at his home last Friday, slammed what he claimed was the decision of a "very small group of selfish MPs" to block a Dookeran succession. This move to strangle Dookeran’s chances was initiated through a letter which asked for "an almost indefinite" deferral of the party’s election, due on September 18. Yetming said that his information was that the letter was authored by "the Siparia MP" (Kamla Persad-Bissessar).

Explaining the background to the manoeuvre, Yetming disclosed that late last year UNC leader Panday spoke to a group of individuals in a social gathering that included two MPs, and he (Panday) indicated that he was planning to support Dookeran to succeed him. According to Yetming, the talk dropped off the radar because of the continuing postponement of party elections. But it was revived when the Executive decided to hold elections on September 18. The St Joseph MP said the timing of the letter was no coincidence. By Yetming’s account the letter advanced two reasons for the postponement of party elections. The first was that the party’s transformation exercise (of rebuilding and restructuring) was underway and the party should await its completion. Commenting on this, Yetming said, "We all know... that... would take months, if not years."

The second reason was that the country was in crisis and the party should focus on the issues facing the country in order to prepare itself and resume power.

Yetming concluded that both reasons were "just propaganda." "The (real) reason is simply that a very small group of MPs will do anything to prevent Mr Dookeran from succeeding Mr Panday because they want it (the leadership) for themselves."

Told by this reporter that they could not all want it because they could not all have it, Yetming replied, "At least one wants it. At least one wants it for Herself." (By simple deduction this, of course, could only be Persad-Bissessar.).

Yetming said he received the letter by e-mail from Persad-Bissessar late the Monday night (July 25) and this was followed up by a telephone call from her the next day, suggesting that he sign the letter, (which was to be presented to the Executive meeting that Wednesday). It was to be the last Executive meeting Panday would attend before departing for England to attend his daughter’s wedding. Yetming did not sign. Others who didn’t sign were Ganga Singh, Roodal Moonilal, Manohar Ramsaran and Dookeran.

Yetming stressed that not all of the eight MPs who signed the letter were aware of its true intent. Some signed under "false premises," he stated, adding that "at least two MPs" were "misled." In this regard, he cited Hamza Rafeeq and Harry Partap who were abroad when they received "frantic calls giving them all kinds of reasons why the elections should be deferred."

He noted that when the UNC Executive decided to grant a two week deferral of the election, Persad-Bissessar was quoted as saying that the MPs who signed, got what they wanted.

Said Yetming, "She really needs to answer whether in her view the party transformation exercise would be completed in that two-week period (of the deferral) as well as whether the crisis in the country (the other reason given in the letter) would have been properly attended to by the party," he said.

Turning his guns on Couva South MP, Kelvin Ramnath, Yetming noted that Ramnath was saying that the UNC was not ready for a new leader and that a significant amount of time was needed to sort that out. "Well," responded Yetming, "if the UNC is not ready for a new leader, it is not ready for government. And they must make up their minds on that... They could forget 2007 General Elections and (tell themselves that) the PNM will walk back into Government."

"That," he continued, "is the nature of the selfishness and personal agendas of some individuals. They would rather not have Winston Dookeran succeed... and remain in Opposition; than have Mr Dookeran succeed Mr Panday to give the UNC under his leadership its best chance of unseating the PNM."

"If fundamental changes are not made to the UNC now — and when I say now the latest time frame is the party’s October 2 election — then the party will not be able to do the things required to be attractive to the national population and replace the PNM. Worse than that, the PNM is likely to get the majority they require for constitutional change, without us. And if we believe that Prime Minister Manning has dictatorial tendencies, we are not going to be around to stop him from doing whatever he wishes. They (the selfish group) know that and Mr Panday knows it," the St Joseph MP stated.

Yetming dismissed notions that Panday may be "doing an Eric Williams" — that is saying that he is leaving the political fray while operating behind the scenes to engineer his own political consolidation. "Mr Panday is politically astute. He knows — and I am satisfied that he knows," Yetming said with conviction, "that the party would support Winston Dookeran to succeed him. Mr Panday also knows that a UNC with Dookeran as leader, doing the right things, attracting the right people, could beat the PNM in the 2006/7 General Elections."

"Mr Panday is also aware that there is a third constituency out there — not PNM, not UNC... and he knows that a UNC with Dookeran leading it, could attract that third constituency. I think that Mr Panday knows that that would give us the best chance of beating the PNM and saving this country. I think that at the end of the day Mr Panday will do the right thing. And it has nothing to do with anybody ‘hijacking’ the party (as Ramnath is alleging) or ‘pressuring’ Mr Panday."

So was it his (Yetming) judgment that Mr Panday was not the best choice for leader at this time because the party cannot win with him at the helm?

"I don’t think that I am telling tales. Mr Panday has said to a group of people on at least one occasion, he (Panday) said ‘I am politically scarred. I am no longer politically good-looking’ and he (Panday) went on to say ‘I will not carry down the party with me.’ And that," said Yetming, "had nothing to do with what I think. It has to do with what he (Panday) thinks."

But Yetming was equally mindful of the fact that Panday’s tremendous political contribution and experience would make his role in the October 2 elections crucial and his support for the succession essential.

"That is why all this nonsense about hijacking the party and pressuring Mr Panday to leave, doesn’t make sense. He (Panday) holds the key," the former finance minister said. Recalling that at the very first meeting of UNC MPs after the last General Elections, Panday had said he did not wish to be Opposition Leader and that he had called on the 15 MPs to elect someone among themselves to fill that position, Yetming said it should therefore be no secret to MPs that Panday wanted to go "from way back when."

"What you have is a couple of mischief-makers... spreading propaganda... to poison people’s minds... (saying) that those who signed the letter (for the deferral of elections) are pro-Panday, while those who didn’t are anti-Panday. They (the mischief-makers) are trying to create division in the party. Quite frankly, they are acting not unlike Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, (apparently espousing the philosophy) — ‘If I can’t get the leadership, I will mash it (the party) up,’" Yetming contended.

Yetming conceded that a statement about "outsiders" seeking to "hijack" the UNC and the references to the NAR by Ramnath, appeared to refer to persons like himself. Yetming, a former NAR strategist, admitted, "Yes, it is (referring to persons like) me. But you know one of the major players promoting that nonsense was also a NAR person. Kamla was NAR and now she is talking about NAR people going to take over the party." He added that Ramnath was also NAR at one point, before the split. (Dookeran remained with the NAR after the ULF/NAR split in 1988).

Yetming asserted, that "they have to stop this nonsense about ‘NAR’ and ‘outsider’ wanting to come in."

"The party needs to broaden its base. And when people who are totally disenchanted with the ruling party, want to enter, you don’t stop them at the door and ask whether they are NAR or TAPIA or whatever. If they come with clean hands and good intentions, why stop them? And, in any case, you cannot win (a general election) without their support," he declared.

"That kind of propaganda simply tells me that these people looking to remain in Opposition. But what good is it being leaders in the Opposition... when you could be a member of the government?" he asked rhetorically.

Yetming said there seemed to be a fear "by the ringleaders behind that letter" of new people coming into the party. "I don’t know if they feel that new people coming in will cause them to be marginalised." But he said, the broadening of the party’s base, which he knew to be Dookeran’s goal was also an objective of Panday.

In giving his wholehearted support to Dookeran, Yetming acknowledged that Panday was not "a perfect individual" since he did not possess "100 percent of the qualities" one might wish to see in a leader. But Yetming was certain that Dookeran brought vital virtues and critical qualities to the table. And he was equally sure that the "selfish group" which was seeking to thwart a Dookeran succession, did not have the capability that Dookeran had to broaden the base of the party.

Asked where he was going from here, having declared his hand, Yetming replied that the National Executive Elections would be a "defining moment for the United National Congress. And for me personally," he added, after a pause. "I do not intend to be part of a group that is determined to remain in Opposition. If you do everything you can, to do all the right things, if you put your best foot forward, and you lose (the General Elections), I have no problem with that. But if you do everything to lose... Well, I am not a fool. Why am I following that?"