Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Top Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) sources have re­vealed that troops are stand­ing on guard, and mon­i­tor­ing close­ly the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar camp, af­ter her re­sound­ing vic­to­ry in the UNC's in­ter­nal elec­tions last Sun­day. In fact, the Sun­day Guardian has learnt that a top brass meet­ing has been planned for Wednes­day at Bal­isi­er House, to dis­cuss all per­ti­nent is­sues caus­ing dis­en­chant­ment in con­stituen­cies. The top source said, "We are strength­en­ing and guard­ing the par­ty. It is not that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is pos­ing a threat to us, whether unit­ed or di­vid­ed, be­cause we are a strong par­ty. "How­ev­er, what we have no­ticed is that there is dis­en­chant­ment among the grass­roots. Many peo­ple are not sat­is­fied, and we are go­ing to meet to dis­cuss these is­sues.

"An elec­tion can­not be won with­out the grass­roots, and we need to deal with the cries of the peo­ple. That is why the walk­a­bouts have com­menced. "If the is­sue is not ad­dressed, then we can face some prob­lems." Touch­ing briefly on the is­sue of a Cab­i­net reshuf­fle, the top source said. "Some min­is­ters have failed to per­form. When the Prime Min­is­ter opt­ed to bring new blood in­to the Cab­i­net, it was to get the job done ef­fi­cient­ly. "Some of the min­is­ters start­ed off to work. How­ev­er, some of them are too com­fort­able, and are not work­ing as planned. "Some of the pre­vi­ous min­is­ters were re­moved from Cab­i­net be­cause of this type of tar­di­ness. "The Prime Min­is­ter has said be­fore that all min­is­ters must be com­mit­ted, and there will be no stop­ping un­til this hap­pens."

Mem­bers sur­prised

An­oth­er par­ty of­fi­cial al­so ad­mit­ted that mem­bers were sur­prised by the over­whelm­ing sup­port for Per­sad-Bisses­sar. "Her vic­to­ry is some­thing to be con­cerned about. What is our ad­van­tage is that the UNC con­tin­ues to squab­ble over who will lead the par­ty. "Once they are unit­ed, we will face a chal­lenge. If votes are added to­geth­er, it will sur­pass the PNM, and this is proven by the re­sults of the last elec­tion. "We have lost some ground, be­cause peo­ple on the grass­roots lev­el be­lieve that they have been for­got­ten.

We have to earn back that trust. "Al­so, the con­tro­ver­sial is­sue of cor­rup­tion sur­round­ing the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (Ude­cott) has tar­nished the PNM. "We fought the last gen­er­al elec­tion on cor­rup­tion, and now the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um are scan­dalous, and we are not in a po­si­tion to point fin­gers. "We def­i­nite­ly need to strength­en our ground troops to win the next elec­tion. "How­ev­er, what we have in our favour is that we have not tak­en away any so­cial pro­grammes, and that is a plus for any par­ty con­test­ing an elec­tion."

Enill: The PNM is not asleep

Par­ty chair­man Con­rad Enill said the Gov­ern­ment was not threat­ened by the vic­to­ry of Per­sad-Bisses­sar, but in­stead was com­mit­ted to serv­ing the peo­ple of T&T. "The PNM has al­ways tak­en the view that at all times it will be re­spon­sive as it can be to the needs of the peo­ple of T&T. Any­one who wants to com­pete with us has to do so on that ba­sis. As we con­tin­ue to work, the peo­ple of T&T will de­ter­mine who is best to lead them. "The PNM is not sleep­ing. We have moved the econ­o­my from $12 bil­lion to over $50 bil­lion whilst in of­fice. I will re­peat: The PNM is not sleep­ing."

Wake-up call

How­ev­er, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Bish­nu Ra­goonath says the vic­to­ry should serve as a wake-up call for the rul­ing par­ty, giv­en that the doors for uni­ty talks are open. "There al­ways re­mains the pos­si­bil­i­ty of some de­gree of uni­ty in the Op­po­si­tion. Once there is an unit­ed Op­po­si­tion, the PNM will face a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge." Say­ing that gen­der was not an is­sue, Ra­goonath said:

"The PNM is at a low rate be­cause peo­ple are dis­en­chant­ed. If it con­tin­ues, peo­ple are not go­ing to vote for the PNM. "The UNC can­not win an elec­tion. They have to go in­to an ac­com­mo­da­tion with the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP). "If this hap­pens, they will give the PNM a re­al run for their mon­ey."