Kam­la Persad-Bisses­sar re­mains un­equiv­o­cal­ly res­olute she is still the best per­son to lead the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, and will not step down as long as she has life and the man­date to lead from the mem­ber­ship. She al­so be­lieves if any­one wants to un­seat her, there is a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process to do so.

Rush­ton Paray’s pub­lic re­quest for in­ter­nal elec­tions to be called has led to fresh calls for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to step down as leader of the UNC.

How­ev­er, in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters in Ch­agua­nas on Tues­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “If I take on the few of the mut­ter­ings and mur­mur­ings, I should prob­a­bly just dis­ap­pear from the face of the Earth, but I am very strong, very com­mit­ted, and I will not let down the mem­ber­ship who gave me that role to guide them for the next three years and right up to the next gen­er­al elec­tion.”

The UNC leader added, “You want to find out about my health? Both men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly, I am to­tal­ly con­fi­dent of my abil­i­ty to lead my par­ty to a vic­to­ry in the next elec­tion. I have health is­sues. Years ago, I re­vealed to the whole coun­try that I have di­a­betes. Since then, peo­ple said I lost ten toes, ten fin­gers, I saw that I was in a co­ma in hos­pi­tal. And men­tal­ly, I feel very con­fi­dent we can gain a vic­to­ry in the next elec­tion.”

Asked if she were to lose her third gen­er­al elec­tion in a row if she would con­sid­er step­ping down, she said, “I can­not pre­dict the fu­ture and I have no in­ten­tion of los­ing the next gen­er­al elec­tion. Why should I spec­u­late on some­thing that may or may not hap­pen? Why should I say, ‘Kam­la if you lose, go’ I am say­ing ‘Kam­la when you win, we are still go­ing.’”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar point­ed to the over­whelm­ing sup­port she re­ceives when­ev­er the po­si­tion of po­lit­i­cal leader is con­test­ed. Re­cent chal­lenges by Dr Fuad Khan, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Vas­ant Bharath have re­sult­ed in land­slide vic­to­ries for the Siparia MP. She said to step away now would be an in­sult to those who vot­ed for her.

“I think I will be let­ting down my mem­bers if I put up my hands in the air and say, ‘take it and go.’ That will be wrong based on the trust the mem­ber­ship has placed in my hand, and I will not aban­don them. As long as I have life in me and breath in my body and strength, I will not aban­don them.”

Asked if she has con­sid­ered prepar­ing a suc­ces­sor for lead­er­ship among her ranks, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it does not work that way.

“Look it’s not a cow, Mr Pan­day would al­ways say you don’t just say take the rope and lead it, it’s not a goat, it’s the par­ty and the mem­ber­ship who have to vote. This is not a dy­nasty, the par­ty is not a dy­nasty, it is not a monar­chy, so you don’t hand down suc­ces­sion. No, I am not groom­ing nor train­ing any­one, I do not see the par­ty as some­thing you hand over, it is not a crown that you take off and hand over. The par­ty is a democ­ra­cy, and it is the mem­ber­ship of the par­ty who will vote.”

How­ev­er, she said there are pos­i­tive signs that some of her mem­bers will one day be ready to take up the man­tle.

“What I have done for suc­ces­sion plan­ning … the young ones, bring­ing them in at all lev­els of the par­ty, every sin­gle lev­el we have been giv­ing that train­ing ex­pe­ri­ence and they at the end of the day, sev­er­al will emerge, and the mem­ber­ship will make that de­ci­sion,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so dis­agreed that there has not been a firm and le­git­i­mate chal­lenge for po­lit­i­cal leader in the past few years.

“It’s like when I chal­lenged Mr (Bas­deo) Pan­day, he was there for so long and the peo­ple thought no­body could re­move him. Ramesh Ma­haraj, I fought a lead­er­ship elec­tion, I was a new­bie, I was green in a sense, and I fought him as well, be­fore I be­came prime min­is­ter. So, I do not agree that I did not have firm chal­lengers, some peo­ple spent a lot of mon­ey to cam­paign, which I did not have,” she an­swered.

Asked if this means the next leader will have to take the po­si­tion from her, as she did with Pan­day, the Op­po­si­tion Leader said, “No, no, no. There are two sides of the coin. One is that I give it to them, the oth­er is that they take it away. Again, I say that is not for me to pre­dict, it is for the mem­ber­ship of the par­ty to make that de­ci­sion, it is al­so in the hands of the Lord. I may not be here to­mor­row morn­ing, some­one may rise up and take it for­ward.”