RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Amid a flur­ry of res­ig­na­tions with­in her par­ty, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is urg­ing sup­port­ers not to be fooled by trai­tors of the UNC who have switched al­le­giance to the PNM in the lead-up to the gen­er­al elec­tions.

Ad­dress­ing sup­port­ers at the par­ty's Mon­day night fo­rum held at the St Mary's Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­ferred to for­mer sen­a­tor Tahar­qa Obi­ka, for­mer coun­cil­lor Mar­cus Gird­harie, and for­mer Vil­lage/War­renville coun­cil­lor Samuel Sankar, all of whom left the UNC and joined the PNM.

How­ev­er, she made no men­tion of Jes­si­ca Wat­son-Girod, Chinelle Roberts, Nico­la Sylvester and Leemoy Lee the mem­bers of the UNC La Brea Con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive who all re­signed with im­me­di­ate ef­fect from their posts and the UNC last Sun­day.

As­sur­ing her sup­port­ers that the UNC will be ready for the elec­tions even though a full UNC slate has not yet been named, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said:

"If you are not cho­sen for a seat, you will still win. The race is not for the swiftest but for those who en­dure un­til the end."

She urged par­ty sup­port­ers to re­main fo­cused de­spite the de­fec­tions. "Don't get chained up. They say on­ly 11 UNC can­di­dates have been cho­sen but no elec­tion date has been named. I give you the as­sur­ance that all 39 can­di­dates will be named in time to fight the elec­tions. It's not the num­bers who have been named, but it is the qual­i­ty and cal­i­bre of the peo­ple who have been se­lect­ed to fight," she ex­plained.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said some in­di­vid­u­als were seek­ing quick po­lit­i­cal gains. "There are a few who want to skip the lines, who want quick re­sults. There are a few who think that if they are not se­lect­ed, they will mash it up. When you're play­ing mar­bles, you're los­ing, and then you pick up all the mar­bles and go home. But this is se­ri­ous busi­ness for the peo­ple of T&T. Let us stay fo­cused, and there will be a space and a place for every­one when the UNC wins," she promised.

She ac­cused for­mer par­ty mem­bers of act­ing in self-in­ter­est. " There are a few who are for them­selves—greedy, pow­er-thirsty, and hun­gry. One or two have sold out the UNC for promis­es of 30 pieces of sil­ver," she said.

Re­fer­ring di­rect­ly to Obi­ka and Gird­harie, she ques­tioned their po­lit­i­cal stand­ing. "Re­mem­ber Obi­ka—when last you saw or heard from him? Re­mem­ber Gird­harie, Re­mem­ber Siew­di­al—where are they now? Re­mem­ber that $500,000 cheque, the Ju­das mon­ey that was paid to some­one who crossed the floor. Re­mem­ber the fate of Ju­das Is­car­i­ot—he took his own life af­ter he be­trayed the Lord Je­sus be­cause those 30 pieces of sil­ver could not sus­tain him."

She called on UNC sup­port­ers to stay com­mit­ted.

"Keep faith an­chored in the par­ty. There are a few who sat amongst us, who felt they were above you and put them­selves first. They want to lead, but they are just about them­selves. That is their way—not the UNC way. Our mantra will al­ways be to serve the peo­ple, love the peo­ple, and up­lift the peo­ple. Be­cause when the UNC wins, every­body wins," she re­it­er­at­ed.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said some for­mer mem­bers had turned against the par­ty. "Fi­nal­ly, while we at UNC are fight­ing for your fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties, and coun­try, there are some fight­ing for their own self­ish agen­das. When they can't get their way, they will end up on the oth­er side and turn against you and try to de­stroy your UNC fam­i­ly, which we have fought so tire­less­ly to nur­ture and build. The UNC is the on­ly thing that stands be­tween PNM op­pres­sion and the free­dom of rights."

She ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the par­ty’s strength.

"Put fire in your bel­ly and steel in your back­bone. UNC is polling very strong­ly, and I am con­fi­dent we will win the next elec­tions," she added.