UNC IS A RUNAWAY HORSE

Dookeran announced that he would be going “directly” to the membership of the UNC, “in whom the power to save the party and the country resides.”

Dookeran, who always sat between Basdeo Panday and Kamla Persad-Bissessar; and who was expected to sit yesterday between the new Opposition Leader and the empty Couva North seat (reserved for Panday), opted instead to move in the backbench. Dookeran sat between independent UNC MP Gillian Lucky and Independent MP Gerald Yetming.

Chaguanas MP Manohar Ramsaran, who also moved to the backbench now sits after Yetming.

At a press conference in the Parliament Committee Room earlier, Dookeran slammed those who “talk about wanting to work with me, while publicly attacking me during the course of the week.”

Dookeran said he tolerated the “calculated indignities” that had been publicly directed at him because he remained steadfast in his commitment to the interest and to the betterment of those people whom the UNC was meant to serve.

“The action of the group now exercising power over the party’s affairs continues to bring the party into international disrepute, public ridicule and increasing disfavour with the electorate,” he said.

He said democratic principles normally observed by any association of people of shared value had been violated and the intentions of the Party’s constitution had been discarded.

Dookeran said the majority of members and supporters of the UNC recognised that the chances of returning to government under the cabal now controlling the party had fallen to zero. Later in Parliament Dookeran congratulated Persad-Bissessar on her elevation.

He said the circumstances surrounding her assumption to office pointed to the need for constitutional reform.

“My decision to sit in this place (on the backbench) does not diminish my commitment to lead the UNC. But it reflects my own personal dignity in the light of the development taking place over the past week,” he said.

(See Page 13A)