??Deputy political leader of Congress of the People, Wendy Lee Yuen, is extremely confident the ruling People's National Movement will come up against a united opposition in the pending snap general election. She is also certain the coalition agreement would ensure that if the party of parties should win, it would not collapse like the ill-fated NAR administration.
Q: Mrs Lee Yuen, surely you were making a joke when you made that astonishing statement last week?
A:(A puzzled expression at the Valsayn Luxury Spa in the Valpark Shopping Plaza last Thursday morning): What statement?
That Congress of the People may go it alone for the pending general election?
Listen to me, Clevon. We are living in desperate times, and our goal is not simply to remove the PNM. And while that is an imperative, our goal is to give good governance to all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
Have you been criticised, or have you heard criticisms after that assertion?
Oh, yes! but you have to put it in the context in which it was said...
Which was?
The question was posed to me: "If the UNC does not wish to unite with the COP, what will you do?" And my response was: "Well, if we have to go it alone, we will continue the fight."
Do you get the impression that the UNC is not serious about uniting the opposition forces to fight the PNM?
Not at all. I think they, like the COP, are very serious about rescuing this country from this corrupt and incompetent administration. But you see, Clevon, politics is a mind game...politics and elections are mind games, and there is a great fear that is motivating the people.
What fear?
The fear that the PNM may get back in, and this new movement that we are putting together must gather wider support, especially from among the undecided voters, and timing is critical. And if you see the Prime Minister calls the date tomorrow...how many weeks will we have, and everybody is going to jump into election mode, hitting the campaign trail, and therefore it will be even more imperative for talks to be concluded very soon.
If the election date is announced tomorrow, would the opposition parties be caught with their proverbial pants down?
(Smiles) No. It will create a catalyst, because we have been doing our home work; produced documents in terms of policies, philosophy, our values, and our morals...where we want to take the country. In the final analysis, the people must know what you say you are going to do is in fact what you are going to do.
Mrs Lee Yuen, do you agree that the fact both parties are screening prospective candidates for all 41 seats is sending mixed signals to the electorate?
Not at all. We feel we have some strong candidates for certain constituencies, and so too, the UNC would have the same. We will collaborate and decide who would be the best candidates for each constituency. The intention is not to compete so much as it is to get the best from each side. You know who is the strongest person to fight in a particular seat.
Mrs Lee Yuen, what are you all doing to dispel the fear that if this coalition, or whatever name the unity process is called, should win the polls, it would not collapse like the NAR?
(Beaming confidently) Well, we are developing a protocol for governance, one that we are all signing on to, which would almost be like self-destruction for one to pull out afterwards.
Why?
Because you remember the famous one from ten leaves nought statement, with respect to the failed West Indies Federation?
It would be a mutually-agreed position which should deflect some of the fear that the population has of it falling apart after victory at the polls. We all know the society was deeply hurt by the NAR experience, and we don't want to fall into that traumatic situation again.
The COP failed in its strategy of promising the people better days and a higher standard of living in the 2007 election campaign. What makes you feel that you all would be successful this time around?
At that time, Clevon, we went alone, and this time we have the additional exposure of large-scale corruption in this government, and there is something that speaks to the goodness in our people, which says corruption is not tolerable at all. Let us remove that...So that circumstances are a little different now, added to the fact that the country is bankrupt; the treasury is empty, thanks to the reckless spending of the country's patrimony by Mr Manning and his bunch of incompetents.
How do you know the treasury is empty?
(Eyes open wide) But we already had a deficit finance budget; state enterprises and special purpose companies are raising their own finance, and we as a country have to repay those debts. That isn't free money. It is all borrowed money to do those things, like building eight hospitals and throwing $300 million in Laventille.
There is talk that Manning is calling a snap election because he knows the country is bankrupt, and wants to throw the Opposition inside to take the heat and headache of rebuilding the economy?
Yes, to fix Trinidad and Tobago; put it back on a growth path. And then he comes back to claim the credit...(Laughs aloud)
There is also this feeling that the PNM would stand a better chance of winning the polls if Mr Manning is not leading the party?
I think they stand a better chance, yes, and you know when you read the philosophy of the PNM post-independence, and if they had, in fact, followed that philosophy, Trinidad and Tobago would have, ultimately, been improved.
But what did they do? Somewhere along the journey, they found they had to keep some people down. So they created this voter bank filled with their own hardcore supporters whom they deliberately kept in mental bondage–the dependency syndrome–to keep the party in government continuously, then they lost their way.
Mrs Lee Yuen, another fear is that, "Okay, if we remove the PNM, what guarantees that we would not suffer the same or even worse under a new dispensation?" What are you all doing to deal with that real or imagined fear?
Well, COP is the movement of the middle ground and if all...
Hold on. Do you mean middle class people?
No. No. I am talking about those who are kind of undecided about where their alignment should go, and there are also people who share our views and principles and certainly want to see good governance, and what we should be doing to fix Trinidad and Tobago.
Mrs Lee Yuen, should the coalition win the poll, what would be the new government's priority?
Well, it would be out of place for me to answer that in any definitive way, but I would think at the top of the list is to reassure the people they were right in choosing us to rescue the country from the PNM stranglehold, and this could be done by implementing the right policies and programmes.
Finally, what would you do if you should wake the morning after the polls and discover the PNM still in office)?
(Serious countenance): God forbid, but we will continue the fight to liberate our country from the PNM.