Ke­jan Haynes

For­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) MP for Tabaquite Ani­ta Haynes Al­leyne has ex­plained why she chose to ap­pear at to­day’s Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ral­ly at Ed­die Hart Grounds, say­ing she re­mained com­mit­ted to “na­tion-build­ing pol­i­tics char­ac­terised by in­clu­sion and co-op­er­a­tion.”

Haynes Al­leyne, who was no­tably left off the UNC’s list of can­di­dates for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, said al­though she par­tic­i­pat­ed in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal screen­ing process, it be­came “abun­dant­ly clear that dis­sent is not on­ly un­wel­come — it is pun­ished.”

Haynes- Al­leyne was part of the slate that chal­lenged Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar’s slate in the in­ter­nal na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion.

She de­scribed the in­ter­nal en­vi­ron­ment as rife with “thin­ly veiled in­sults, mi­croag­gres­sions, vil­lain­i­sa­tion and ac­cu­sa­tions of be­tray­al,” adding, “The so-called ‘great purge’ speaks vol­umes.”

Haynes Al­leyne said through­out her po­lit­i­cal ca­reer she had “cease­less­ly ad­vo­cat­ed for the in­creased par­tic­i­pa­tion of all cit­i­zens and the util­i­sa­tion of dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives to de­vel­op ro­bust, da­ta-dri­ven poli­cies.”

She ex­plained that in re­cent years her com­mit­ment to “ad­vanc­ing re­spon­si­ble and re­spect­ful pol­i­tics” put her at odds with the UNC, even though she tried to work with­in the par­ty to push for re­form.