Renu­ka Singh

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has con­ced­ed the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion and al­so ac­cept­ed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the par­ty's loss at the polls.

"You must ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for mis­takes made whether you were aware of them or not, whether you had any con­trol over them or not. And yes, some of them you make on your own – I lay no claim to in­fal­li­bil­i­ty. I ac­cept full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty," she said in a me­dia re­lease Tues­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was ex­pect­ed to host a vir­tu­al me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at 12.30 but a me­dia re­lease came one hour lat­er in­stead.

This con­ces­sion comes more than a week af­ter the the Au­gust 10 elec­tion when the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) claimed vic­to­ry.

in the days be­tween, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) has been busy with re­counts in five con­stituen­cies.

The re­count did not im­pact on the bot­tom line, which was that the PNM had won the gen­er­al elec­tion.

In a me­dia re­lease Tues­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that the "peo­ple have spo­ken" and leader of the PNM, Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his par­ty will form the new gov­ern­ment.

"Af­ter some days of re­flec­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of the progress of the elec­tion re­count process, I am sat­is­fied that the peo­ple have spo­ken," she said.

She ad­mit­ted to be­ing "dis­ap­point­ed" with the re­sults but wished Row­ley "the best".

De­spite the con­grat­u­la­to­ry state­ments, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that she shared the "grave con­cerns" about the elec­toral process.

"We re­main deeply con­cerned, es­pe­cial­ly since the re­lease of cor­re­spon­dence re­lat­ing to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­quest for in­de­pen­dent elec­tion ob­servers raise more ques­tions than an­swers," she said.

On Mon­day, the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter re­leased pages of cor­re­spon­dence be­tween it­self and the Cari­com Sec­re­tari­at and the Com­mon­wealth on the is­sue of in­de­pen­dent ob­servers.

Dur­ing the height of the cam­paign­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar called for in­de­pen­dent ob­servers and while Row­ley said he wrote to the both bod­ies, he did not share the re­spons­es pub­licly. He did say that the bod­ies could not af­ford to come to the coun­try.

How­ev­er, in those let­ters, the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at agreed to stem the costs of the vis­i­tors, but said it could not fund the cost of the 14 day quar­an­tine pe­ri­od. T&T would have had to stand those costs.

"Per­son­al­ly, I am dis­ap­point­ed with the re­sults but note that the UNC was able to achieve gains in three of the key mar­gin­al seats, which may have giv­en us a chance at that ma­jor­i­ty, but those gains were in­suf­fi­cient.

What the re­sults have shown us is that once again our na­tion is deeply di­vid­ed on which Par­ty should be run­ning the af­fairs of Trinidad and To­ba­go," she said.

She said that the par­ti­san views are re­flect­ed in the "bit­ter chat­ter" on so­cial me­dia and across the coun­try.

"Un­for­tu­nate­ly, the coun­try has drift­ed far away from those ideals of uni­ty. I am not pre­pared to fan the flames of hate," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that with the elec­tion over, the coun­try must re­turn to the "harsh re­al­i­ty" of putting food on the ta­ble.

She ac­knowl­edged the calls for her to step down and said that she ques­tioned whether it was time for her to step down.

"This is not an easy job," she said.

But af­ter hav­ing in­vest­ed in the youth, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that she will re­main at the helm to help guide and men­tor the young new­com­ers to the par­ty.

"We have a par­lia­men­tary team that is full of young, bril­liant and cre­ative minds. It is my du­ty to fa­cil­i­tate the de­vel­op­ment and trans­for­ma­tion that must take place in the UNC with an eye on the fu­ture to en­sure that the ba­ton for lead­er­ship is passed in­to strong and ca­pa­ble hands at the ap­pro­pri­ate time," she said.

"Some ob­servers have been rais­ing ques­tions about my po­lit­i­cal fu­ture and, some are keen to see me ex­it the po­lit­i­cal land­scape." she said.

"Hav­ing con­sult­ed with my col­leagues, it is clear that run­ning away is not an op­tion at this point in time," she said.

In the past few days, for­mer po­lit­i­cal al­lies De­vant Ma­haraj, Ra­bindr Moo­nan and Robin Mon­tano have pub­licly called for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to step down.

"The mem­bers of the UNC elect­ed me over­whelm­ing­ly as their Leader three times in the past ten years; tens of thou­sands of cit­i­zens vot­ed for the par­ty I lead in this year’s gen­er­al elec­tion. Un­til such a time as our par­ty choos­es oth­er­wise, I will re­main their faith­ful cham­pi­on and ser­vant," she said.

She said the did want to be por­trayed as an ob­struc­tion­ist and there would be no more op­por­tu­ni­ty to "Blame Kam­la" as an ex­cuse for the Gov­ern­ment not mov­ing for­ward.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ad­vised the in­com­ing Gov­ern­ment to pre­pare it­self for a fresh ap­proach to Op­po­si­tion pol­i­tics..

"We will sup­port when we gen­uine­ly be­lieve it is good for all of our peo­ple and we will fight ar­ro­gance and in­jus­tice with the same de­ter­mi­na­tion," she said.

The fol­low­ing is her full state­ment:

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress

Post-Elec­tion Ad­dress

Tues­day 18th Au­gust 2020

Af­ter some days of re­flec­tion and mon­i­tor­ing of the progress of the elec­tion re­count process, I am sat­is­fied that the peo­ple have spo­ken and that Dr. Row­ley and his par­ty shall form the new Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

I con­grat­u­late them and wish them the best.

I know that many of you are feel­ing a sense of dis­ap­point­ment with the elec­tion re­sult.

I, too, am dis­ap­point­ed with the elec­tion and I ac­cept full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the re­sult.

I share the grave con­cerns ex­pressed by many about the elec­tion ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties and the need to strength­en the in­tegri­ty of the elec­toral process.

We re­main deeply con­cerned, es­pe­cial­ly since the re­lease of cor­re­spon­dence re­lat­ing to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s re­quest for in­de­pen­dent elec­tion ob­servers raise more ques­tions than an­swers.

I am proud of all our 39 can­di­dates and their teams for their con­tin­ued ded­i­ca­tion to ser­vice to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

I say a heart­felt thank you to Team UNC and the 309,000 plus cit­i­zens who vot­ed for us.

Per­son­al­ly, I am dis­ap­point­ed with the re­sults but note that the UNC was able to achieve gains in three of the key mar­gin­al seats, which may have giv­en us a chance at that ma­jor­i­ty, but those gains were in­suf­fi­cient.

What the re­sults have shown us is that once again our na­tion is deeply di­vid­ed on which Par­ty should be run­ning the af­fairs of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

These di­vi­sions are be­ing re­flect­ed in a lot of the bit­ter chat­ter on so­cial me­dia and across the coun­try.

This can­not be good for our coun­try.

Many peo­ple may not re­mem­ber that I first con­test­ed Na­tion­al Elec­tions as a can­di­date for the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion, which still re­mains the on­ly par­ty to have been able to achieve an over­whelm­ing man­date drawn from the widest pos­si­ble rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

I have there­fore al­ways been one seek­ing to unite our coun­try in try­ing to bring out its best.

In sub­se­quent years, I saw the UNC and the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship as the ve­hi­cle for re­cap­tur­ing that uni­ty by ap­peal­ing to a wide cross - sec­tion of the coun­try. We had that op­por­tu­ni­ty in 2010.

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, the coun­try has drift­ed far away from those ideals of uni­ty.

I am not pre­pared to fan the flames of hate.

We rec­og­nize that we op­er­ate in an ad­ver­sar­i­al po­lit­i­cal sys­tem but now is the time for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and heal­ing among our peo­ple.

We are one na­tion.

We are one peo­ple.

The elec­tion is over and now, it is back to the harsh re­al­i­ty of work­ing to put bread on the ta­ble and be­ing our broth­er’s keep­er.

I call on all po­lit­i­cal par­ties and in­ter­ests to re­solve im­me­di­ate­ly that we will not let our beloved Na­tion’s long­stand­ing tra­di­tion of har­mo­ny, tol­er­ance, and uni­ty be jeop­ar­dised by ex­pres­sions of hate, di­vi­sive­ness, and fear-mon­ger­ing.

We must re­spect each oth­er’s po­lit­i­cal choic­es with­out in­vok­ing and in­cit­ing race to di­vide our peo­ple.

I call on all cit­i­zens of good con­science to re­ject hate.

I call on all our lead­ers across na­tion­al and lo­cal gov­ern­ment, pub­lic and pri­vate or­ga­ni­za­tions, places of wor­ship and NGO’s to raise our voic­es in na­tion­al uni­ty and con­fi­dent­ly af­firm:

“Here every creed and race find an equal place.”

On a more per­son­al note, I have giv­en the last 25 years of my life in ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to my coun­try.

In this elec­tion, I in­vest­ed in the youth of this na­tion. We have a par­lia­men­tary team that is full of young, bril­liant and cre­ative minds.

It is my du­ty to fa­cil­i­tate the de­vel­op­ment and trans­for­ma­tion that must take place in the UNC with an eye on the fu­ture to en­sure that the ba­ton for lead­er­ship is passed in­to strong and ca­pa­ble hands at the ap­pro­pri­ate time.

Some ob­servers have been rais­ing ques­tions about my po­lit­i­cal fu­ture and, some are keen to see me ex­it the po­lit­i­cal land­scape.

This is un­der­stand­able as I have my­self queried whether I should re­sign. This is not an easy job.

You must ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for mis­takes made whether you were aware of them or not, whether you had any con­trol over them or not. And yes, some of them you make on your own – I lay no claim to in­fal­li­bil­i­ty. I ac­cept full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

Hav­ing con­sult­ed with my col­leagues, it is clear that run­ning away is not an op­tion at this point in time.

The UNC must have a de­gree of sta­bil­i­ty as it con­sol­i­dates and unites dur­ing the pe­ri­od of tran­si­tion, growth and trans­for­ma­tion.

I have re­flect­ed long and hard and have come to the con­clu­sion that in the im­me­di­ate fu­ture I have a key role to play in help­ing our coun­try heal and move for­ward, es­pe­cial­ly with a group of young new vi­brant MPs en­ter­ing the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

The mem­bers of the UNC elect­ed me over­whelm­ing­ly as their Leader three times in the past ten years; tens of thou­sands of cit­i­zens vot­ed for the par­ty I lead in this year’s gen­er­al elec­tion.

Un­til such a time as our par­ty choos­es oth­er­wise, I will re­main their faith­ful cham­pi­on and ser­vant.

It has al­ready been ex­plained that the UNC will hold sched­uled Elec­tions for a Po­lit­i­cal Leader.

Af­ter care­ful thought, prayer and re­flec­tion I have de­cid­ed to com­mit my­self to the Lead­er­ship of the Par­ty in and out­side of Par­lia­ment un­til the in­ter­nal elec­tions.

There will be no more op­por­tu­ni­ty to “Blame Kam­la” and I shall not al­low my­self to be por­trayed as an ob­struc­tion­ist - as an ex­cuse for the Gov­ern­ment not mov­ing for­ward.

As the year evolves, our Par­ty will de­cide on ways that we can con­tribute to mov­ing this coun­try for­ward and dur­ing this pe­ri­od, the mem­bers of the Par­ty will de­ter­mine the ap­pro­pri­ate Lead­er­ship to move us for­ward.

The Gov­ern­ment shall need to pre­pare it­self for a fresh ap­proach to Op­po­si­tion pol­i­tics.

We will sup­port when we gen­uine­ly be­lieve it is good for all of our peo­ple and we will fight ar­ro­gance and in­jus­tice with the same de­ter­mi­na­tion.

An ad­di­tion­al 5% swing in on­ly two seats could eas­i­ly have seen a dif­fer­ent out­come. This ra­zor thin mar­gin re­in­forces that who­ev­er won needs to ap­proach gov­er­nance with hu­mil­i­ty rather than ar­ro­gance and par­ti­san­ship.

The nar­row mar­gin re­in­forces the di­vi­sions with­in our coun­try and the chal­lenges to mov­ing for­ward.

We can­not con­tin­ue like this. All of our 1.3 mil­lion coun­try­men and women de­serve bet­ter.

As we con­tin­ue to press for ways to de­volve gov­er­nance to Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions, we must al­so once again re­vis­it our na­tion­al elec­toral struc­ture and ex­plore ways to be more in­clu­sive.

These are some of the goals that will de­fine my lega­cy.

It is of­ten said that a strong gov­ern­ment needs an even stronger op­po­si­tion.

This is cer­tain­ly true for our beloved coun­try as we face un­prece­dent­ed chal­lenges that calls for a con­struc­tive part­ner­ship be­tween gov­ern­ment and op­po­si­tion where the pub­lic in­ter­est is of para­mount con­cern.

I there­fore pledge to lead one of the strongest op­po­si­tion forces in our po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry with safe­ty, ac­count­abil­i­ty, trans­paren­cy and equal­i­ty as our pri­or­i­ties.

If I can bring mean­ing­ful change to the way we live and gov­ern our­selves, it will be far more ful­fill­ing than sim­ply hold­ing the high­est of­fice in the land.

The twi­light of my Po­lit­i­cal ca­reer will be ground­ed in the same rea­son­ing for en­ter­ing Pol­i­tics in 1987 - fo­cused on unit­ing our coun­try, where every creed and race can as­pire to find an equal place.

These are the val­ues on which our beloved Na­tion was cre­at­ed. These are the val­ues we teach our chil­dren. These are the val­ues that must car­ry Trinidad and To­ba­go for­ward.

I have al­ways told you, and do not think for one mo­ment be­cause the re­sults have not gone in the man­ner we want­ed, that this will change, “You will have many lead­ers, but you will nev­er have a leader who loves you as much as I do.”

I thank each and every sup­port­er our great par­ty and every vot­er who has stood with us to de­fend our democ­ra­cy.

I thank every­one who has sup­port­ed me over the years.

I ask you, hand in hand, we have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty as a peo­ple to pro­tect our na­tion and our fu­ture.

Let us do so as a unit­ed peo­ple.

Let us not al­low our­selves to be di­vid­ed and re­mem­ber that our strength re­mains in our uni­ty.

I say to all, life goes on, to­mor­row you still have the chance to make the most of your day and we must not al­low this loss to de­ter us.

Let us con­tin­ue to put God in front and walk be­hind.

May God bless you and may God bless our beloved Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Tues­day 18th Au­gust 2020

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