Dookeran: It was an analysis of party

WINSTON DOOKERAN yesterday described his status report on the UNC, titled “An Agenda for Transformation,” as merely an analysis of the current state of the party, which he said received positive feedback from party members. Newsday reported on Sunday in a front page story headlined “Dookeran blasts UNC,” the contents of Dookeran’s report which was presented to party members at its September 7 retreat. The report was critical of several issues, including the absence of a structure to adequately deal with finding a successor to current leader Basdeo Panday; that the party was perceived as belonging to  Panday, its founder; the prevailing state of paralysis of the party which was fueling “growing negative perceptions”; the impression that the party was functioning as “a protest movement” and that the party was in no position to “properly articulate cogent alternatives to the present policies of the Government.”

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Dookeran, the St Augustine MP, said his main aim in compiling the 12-page document was to “analyse the party as I saw it and see how we move forward.” He said although he had not seen the Newsday article, he had received calls from several persons about the report. He said they expressed the view that the headline was inappropriate but the report accurate. He said if that was the case, then it was unfair, because things would be taken out of context. He said he didn’t expect any “fall out” with party members based on his observations in the report and lamented that when it was presented at the retreat, “they were very supportive of the analysis.” He said following the presentation of the report, which was discussed at the retreat and is in the hands of all UNC Opposition MPs, Dookeran said he was made Chairman of a Committee to “convert the ideas into a plan of action.”

He couldn’t recall who were the other members of the Committee, but said the members were chairpersons of other committees. He said the Committee would meet soon. Panday who was out of the country at the time of the retreat is said to have received a copy of Dookeran’s report. Dookeran said he had spoken to Panday but not about the report. Wade Mark insisted that the document was “an internal working document and a discussion paper” with “nothing else behind it.” He explained, “it is part of our rebuilding, reorganising exercise and working groups were established to deal with it and to come up with ideas that can be put into action plans with time lines, which will go before the National Congress on October 12.”

He said the September 7 retreat was a continuation of a similar exercise held on January 11 this year. Mark said the Dookeran document together with another one, which arose out of the “collective wisdom” of persons at the January retreat, were both discussed. Mark said the Committee which Dookeran now chairs to discuss both reports, comprises 15 persons. He insisted that the UNC “has a function to perform and rebuild and not only to be a credible alternative.” Efforts to contact Panday proved futile.