Da­reec Po­lo

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Days af­ter the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment an­nounced that Stu­art Young will suc­ceed Dr Kei­th Row­ley as Prime Min­is­ter, three of the five Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) dis­si­dents have called for the Op­po­si­tion par­ty to evolve and strength­en its in­sti­tu­tion­al frame­work, as­sert­ing that its fu­ture suc­cess hinges on its abil­i­ty to adapt to the evolv­ing needs of the elec­torate.

In a Zoom in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Tabaquite MP Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne em­pha­sised that the par­ty would have a bet­ter chance of un­seat­ing the PNM if po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar stepped aside. How­ev­er, she added, that is un­like­ly to hap­pen.

“It has al­ways been clear in my mind that the po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tion that best evolves in 2025 is go­ing to be the po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tion that con­tin­ues to gar­ner the sup­port of the elec­torate. I mean, any in­sti­tu­tion, if you re­main stag­nant, if you are re­sis­tant to evo­lu­tion, you are go­ing to out­live your use­ful­ness,” she said.

Al­though Haynes-Al­leyne ac­knowl­edged the need for evo­lu­tion with­in the par­ty, she stopped short of call­ing for Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s res­ig­na­tion.

She said, “The mem­bers of the par­ty de­ter­mined that they are com­fort­able with the cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive and based on that, while I un­der­stand where the sug­ges­tions are com­ing from, and while I may agree with the sug­ges­tions, the fact is the elec­torate of the UNC mem­bers have al­ready made that de­ci­sion in terms of the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive.”

The par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive will de­cide the way for­ward, she said.

“I would not go so far as to say that the po­lit­i­cal leader should pick a per­son to con­test the elec­tion but more, let us look at our po­lit­i­cal in­sti­tu­tion, look at our or­gan­i­sa­tion and con­sid­er whether or not we are evolv­ing to meet the needs of an evolv­ing so­ci­ety,” she added.

Haynes-Al­leyne al­so re­spond­ed to Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­cent ap­peal for uni­ty among UNC mem­bers, fol­low­ing the re­jec­tion of Anil Roberts as a can­di­date for St Joseph in favour of at­tor­ney De­vesh Ma­haraj. Dur­ing her Mon­day Night Re­port, Per­sad-Bisses­sar urged mem­bers not to take of­fence at their ex­clu­sion from the par­ty’s slate of can­di­dates, em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of uni­ty to de­feat the PNM. She al­so not­ed that Roberts, who chaired the event, was be­ing a team play­er.

Haynes-Al­leyne, who plans to screen for a seat in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, re­it­er­at­ed her com­mit­ment to the UNC.

“Every­thing that I have done has been in an ef­fort to strength­en the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress as an in­sti­tu­tion. In that re­gard, I con­sid­er my­self very much a team play­er be­cause my in­ter­est has al­ways been on the team and whether or not we are giv­ing to the pub­lic the strongest team pos­si­ble,” she said.

Asked whether she would ac­cept a po­si­tion with­in the par­ty’s lead­er­ship as sug­gest­ed by Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Haynes-Al­leyne said she re­mained fo­cused on na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“My in­ter­est has al­ways been and will con­tin­ue to be the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go and I will par­tic­i­pate where I see the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go be­ing the cen­tral theme of any ad­min­is­tra­tion.”

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la MP Dr Rai Rag­bir weighed in on the need for ef­fec­tive suc­ces­sion plan­ning with­in the UNC. He em­pha­sised the lack of in­sti­tu­tion­al strength and mean­ing­ful in­ter­nal di­a­logue with­in the par­ty, which he said hin­ders its abil­i­ty to thrive.

“The PNM’s re­cent ex­am­ple demon­strates the im­por­tance of lead­er­ship tran­si­tions that fol­low clear and de­lib­er­ate process­es. While some may de­bate the specifics of their ap­proach, it re­flects an or­gan­ised ef­fort to man­age change and en­sure con­ti­nu­ity.

“For the UNC, the path for­ward must in­volve se­ri­ous in­tro­spec­tion, re­build­ing in­ter­nal struc­tures, and cre­at­ing an en­vi­ron­ment where the par­ty ex­ists as an in­sti­tu­tion in its own right—not just as a ve­hi­cle for any one in­di­vid­ual’s am­bi­tions.”

Rag­bir said the UNC has in­creas­ing­ly tak­en on a per­son­al­i­ty-dri­ven cul­ture which un­der­mines its in­sti­tu­tion­al strength.

“This is not just a prob­lem of op­tics, it is a struc­tur­al weak­ness. A par­ty that sti­fles dis­sent, sup­press­es de­bate and dis­cour­ages al­ter­na­tive per­spec­tives can­not thrive in the long term.

“True po­lit­i­cal strength comes from a par­ty that is built on ro­bust in­sti­tu­tions, clear process­es, and a col­lec­tive vi­sion for the coun­try. Lead­er­ship suc­ces­sion is part of that. It en­sures con­ti­nu­ity, al­lows for the emer­gence of new ideas, and gives the pub­lic con­fi­dence in the par­ty’s abil­i­ty to gov­ern ef­fec­tive­ly,” he said.

Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray said he would not call for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to step down, point­ing out that she was re-elect­ed by the mem­ber­ship to serve an­oth­er term which ex­pires this year.

“I do not agree that she must step down with­out the due process of an elec­tion whether she choos­es to con­test or not,” Paray said.

Re­flect­ing on the in­ter­nal elec­tions last year where his group, Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots, cam­paigned for par­ty re­form in an ef­fort to po­si­tion the UNC as a stronger al­ter­na­tive to the PNM, he said, “We have al­lowed the PNM to jump ahead.”

Paray said the UNC must re-en­gage with its base, es­pe­cial­ly swing vot­ers, to have a chance at win­ning the next elec­tion.

“It’s the swing vote that takes us to gov­ern­ment. Clear­ly, the PNM un­der­stands that,” he said.