Dookeran vows to stay the course

He made this announcement at a cottage meeting held in Fyzabad on Monday night, refusing once again to attend the UNC’s usual Monday Night Forum meeting, which was chaired by Kamla Persad-Bissessar and held at the Aranjuez Community Centre.

Speakers at Persad-Bissessar’s meeting included Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath, deputy political leader Wade Mark and guest speaker Mikela Panday, daughter of the party’s former leader and chairman Basdeo Panday.

At the same time, Dookeran was speaking at Ramlal Trace in Avocat Village, Fyzabad. Speakers at Dookeran’s meeting were Sadiq Baksh, Roy Augustus and former UNC chairman Kama Maharaj.

Dookeran’s meeting also featured a number of new faces to the political arena including UWI lecturer Dr Ranjwantie Maharaj-Sharma and Dr Samantha Bhaggan. Dookeran, who has been advocating doing away with the politics of the “old school,” introduced another young speaker, 19-year-old business studies student Raisa Ramlogan.

Addressing a large crowd of supporters, Dookeran acknowledged that the party was embroiled in “internal tensions.” He said such hiccups were threatening to derail the Opposition party from regaining the rein of power.

“We see personality politics at play, with power and ambition working at the expense of principled compromise,” Dookeran said. And in obvious reference to the re-entry of former deputy political leader Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj back into the UNC’s fold, Dookeran said that he would not put supporters through the “trauma of uniting today and disuniting tomorrow.”

“It will be enduring, it will be lasting... so that the aspirations and expectations of our young people will be honoured by that kind of politics,” Dookeran thundered.

He told the meeting that he intends to enter into dialogue with all sectors of the national community, including the labour movement.