The People’s Partnership

The signing on Wednesday at a Fyzabad rally of Opposition forces may turn out to be a historic event, depending of course, on what follows next.

The agreement says UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar will be the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate and that the coalition will put forward just one candidate in each constituency to stand against the PNM candidate.

The document is a step towards a one-to-one fight against the ruling PNM, even as history shows that the PNM has only ever been beaten by a united Opposition.

The electorate certainly deserves to have a choice between two viable entities, one of which will be voted into government, while the other will serve as Opposition.

So far, even as both sides have been somewhat fuzzy on addressing the issues, the PNM has adopted the strategy of questioning the viability of the coalition, or in other words, making the coalition itself into an issue.

The coalition continues to labour under the stress of having to craft an agreement to not just to fairly allocate its members to the constituencies to fight (and win!), but to also convince voters that if elected, a coalition government would indeed be sustainable over its five-year term.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning, by announcing the May 22 election date on April 16 — just eight days ago — has given the Opposition forces mere days in which to seal their deal. It placed an unfair time-constraint on the Opposition forces, while he now stands on the sidelines attacking their cohesiveness at every turn. In fact, while of course we like everyone else are keen to know the nuts and bolts of the coalition’s final accord (such as who will fight which seat), we also say it is quite fitting for the coalition to take an adequate time so as not to rush the agreement.

The coalition agreement being brokered now will, we believe, prove to be as important as any other factor (such as its manifesto) in determining the outcome of the election. In short Mr Manning, who has been in power nine years and is now seeking another five years has given the Opposition just 38 days notice of election day, and a lesser time to craft their accord.

The real meat of the agreement is yet to come. It must include the arrangement for fighting the election — such as the allocation of seats (and even Ministries, Senate seats and board directorships, post-election) — and for sustaining the partnership in governance, if elected. The agreement must somewhat also reflect the aspiration of each of the five members of the coalition, but of course these must involve a certain compromise and consensus in the interest of the greater good.

We see the coalition as having to establish not just a joint manifesto as they are currently drafting along with a 100-day plan, but also set up institutions such as a leadership council, funding committee and disciplinary committee.

There is certainly a lot of work to be done. We would suggest the coalition agree on a timetable, even if informal, for the release of specific facets of information, on a phased basis, such as a manifesto, 100-day plan, candidate pools, constituency allocations between parties, and finally the choice of candidates for constituencies.

The coalition should take heart from the fact as reported in Newsday on Wednesday that in Trinidad and Tobago, no coalition government has ever collapsed. Further trust should be encouraged in the unity talks by the fact that the parties are not meeting as complete strangers, but that many of their leading members had worked together in the past, such as members of the former NAR and UNC Governments.

So, we say let the talks proceed, as the outcome of the election depends on the final coalition accord as much as on any other factor.