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Address by Mr. Winston Dookeran - Tunapuna | | Election 2010 Campaign Speech | | Author: | | Date: 2010-05-14 13:05:47 |
| Thank you, thank you so much.
I want to share with you an inside story that I heard when I was announced to be the candidate for Tunapuna. I heard that Mr Manning, in his mansion got into a frenzy and started to run all around his mansion, ducking and running all over the place. So Hazel called him and said "What is the matter?" He said "Mr Duck and Run what he intend to do? Call the prophetess." So he called the prophetess and he started to admonish her. "You told me to call this election, but you did not tell me that 'Duck and Run' will fight in Tunapuna." And then she reflected and said, "I used my powers to prevent him from fighting San Fernando East and you should be happy about that!"
Ever since we came into the Tunapuna area my campaign team has launched one of the best campaigns that I have seen in all my political life, and I say to Joshey Mahabir and the entire team - you are on stage. We began to walk all over Tunapuna, from Maingot Road to Tunapuna Road, El Dorado, Ocono - everywhere we went almost in all the streets. I went Ocono and I was told by the people there, do not go into that house and I asked Why? They said that person is a strong supporter of Mr Manning. So I said that is a good reason to go. When my opponent Ester came, that person went and told her that, so I said that is good news. So I decided to go into the home and when I went to the home the lady at first did not come out. So I stood there very quietly and silently until her daughter came out. I introduced myself and we had a little chat and a minute or two after, her mother who is the person the people had been cautioning me about, who was a staunch supporter of Mr Manning, came out and said, "I not voting for nobody because all those politicians are the same. Since 1956 ah waiting to get meh road fixed and it eh fix yet, and the house about to fall down." And she went on in a tirade about all politicians. And then for a moment she reflected and said, "but wait nuh you are not really a politician. Yuh know, ah go vote for you in the next election!"
So my friends, here am I in Tunapuna fighting the battle that will save Trinidad and Tobago on May 24, 2010 as we trigger the victory for the People's Partnership and for the country and its freedom. But I will tell you, within recent times we have seen certain developments in the area: Many of the people who have come to support me have jobs in the system i.e. in the public system, in the local government system. They believe that this is their democratic right to come and support who they wish, and they are walking with me in the streets. I want to say to the young people, because it is mostly young people who are walking with me in the streets of Tunapuna, thank you so much. Some of them have been told to watch your step, watch your job. That is the politics of intimidation. Now that he, Mr Manning cannot deal with the 'Duck and Run' the way he thought he could, he has now gone into the politics of intimidation but that will not stop. The flood gates have already been opened. More recently I have been told when he saw what was happening in Tunapuna and when he saw what was taking place among his own supporters here who were opening their doors to me, as if I was their long lost friend, Mr Manning, and this is a serious comment here today, started the politics of bribery. Bribery is now being used in Tunapuna to keep the faithful away from voting for me and I want him to tell him here today that bribery will not help him, the die is cast, Tunapuna is Congress of the People territory. Tunapuna is Trinidad and Tobago's gateway to victory. Tunapuna is where Winston Dookeran will stand in the defense of Trinidad and Tobago.
Looking at the support here today, I know that there is nothing that can stop us now. To all of you here in Tunapuna I say thank you, victory is not yet here, it is just around the corner. Let us not make a mistake. I condemn the politics of bribery that is being used in Tunapuna, and I challenge the PNM and its leader and its candidate to a public, televised debate on how to save the people of Tunapuna. If you want to give the people a free choice let them have the facts, let them see the issues, let them make up their own minds without being intimidated and without being bribed. But you see my friends, that is the politics of yesterday. That is what we began to fight against three years ago. Those of you who started in the COP knew that you started the fight to get the politics right.
That is the fight you are still on, and that is the fight that you will continue to be on, because we will not stop to get our politics right until we get our country right. And the emergence of the People's Partnership which we were charting for some time is but the first expression of the political instrument that is required to get our country right. Bringing together the coalition of interests in the nation, be it civil society, labour, be it those who are in search of true independence like in NJAC, be it the members of the UNC, who have always stood up in defense of democracy. Once I wanted them to stand up taller, but now they are standing as tall as all of us in defense of democracy. I know that the role of getting the politics right was not a simple expression of Trinidad politics.
When they saw what happened in the UK two days ago, when this bastion of democracy, Westminster type democracy, voted in a Coalition Government, that got Mr Manning in a total frenzy, and he forgot all international protocol, and instead of complimenting the Government of the United Kingdom, he started by saying "they will fall." Imagine the Prime Minister's first comment on an election in a sister country "they will fall". He is the Prime Minister and unless he realized that you have already voted him out and he is no longer Prime Minister in which case he could make that protocol breach.
So my friends, Coalition Politics is the politics of today. Many countries of the world have forged coalition of interests, sometimes a coalition is explicit and sometimes it is implicit. Italy is coalition politics. It is the politics of inclusion and those who oppose coalition politics are subscribing to the politics of exclusion. Coalition politics is based on inclusion and today the whole world is now under the challenge of bringing the politics of inclusion - include everyone, include the poor, include the dispossessed. Do not sit there and say I have the plan, sit there and give them the chance for them to have their own. That is what coalition politics is all about - across race, across class, across jobs. That is why Tobago's best chance for autonomy in Trinidad and Tobago lies in the coalition politics that is about to take office in Trinidad and Tobago. So the choice before our people today is to choose between the politics of exclusion. That is what Mr Manning is saying. "We will run the show for you, give us the power, even though we use that power to protect those who are corrupt, don't bother with that. We must have the power, we have your interests at heart and we will give you bad governance and you will continue to vote for us." So the choice is whether you want to vote for bad governance or are you prepared now to turn a leaf and vote for the prospect of good governance. That is the choice before the people. Coalition politics is the new stipulation of what has been called new politics. I got a copy of the speech that was given by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Clegg of the U.K. from the Liberal Democratic Party. Two parties got together, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to form the government in the U.K. This is what Mr Clegg said "I hope that this is the start of the new politics I have always believed in diverse, plural, where politicians of different persuasions come together, overcome their differences in order to deliver good government for the sake of the whole country."
My friends of the Congress of the People, don't you feel vindicated for all the hard work that you have been doing for the last three years? By sticking to the course when everybody said you were dead, and this dead party is now alive and going to take over the whole of the East/West Corridor, because we stuck to the idea of new politics. My friends, this is an international phenomenon. What is happening today is but a reflection of an international phenomenon worldwide. There was a time when I was young, that decolonization became an international phenomenon and that led people to the search for independence. That was the period of Dr Eric Williams, Uriah Buzz Butler and Dr Rudrinath Capildeo. It was a search for independence. It did not happen by itself. It was the response of an international movement. So too, there is an international movement in many parts of the world for the acceptance of new politics and what they defined as new politics is a politics to bring back to the people their sovereign right and will bring back to the people to the fore. It will be a redistribution of power from the state to the citizens.
It will remove the power from Mr. Manning and the government and put it in the parliament, so all the veto rights that he uses and abuses will no longer be open to him. It will be subject to parliamentary vote. It is a distribution of power from government and Prime Minister, and Parliament is the respected elected representative of the people and they and they alone must have the veto power in the governance of this country whenever it is required. It will distribute power from Whitehall to the communities, so that the communities would not have to go and protest to Whitehall but Whitehall would have to go to the communities and account for what they are doing. That is new politics. It is moving distribution of power from the administrators to the people, so that you do not have to go and almost beg the administrators to give you water or to give you your tax receipt or to give you anything. You know today when you go into any government office you begin to shake a little bit, "how do I approach this person before he/she exercises his/her power?" We, in new politics are saying that that must change, that the power must move from the administrators to the people, so that in the hospitals the bosses in the hospitals would not be the doctors and the administrators but the bosses would be the patients.
New politics is about distribution of power between democracy and bureaucracy. So much power resides in the hands of the bureaucrats. So little power resides in the exercise of democracy of our country. And that is why Mr Manning could violate all the rules of democracy. That is why he could hound out of office the Chief Justice and in spite of all that has happened he never had the gumption to say "I am sorry Mr CJ for what I have done". There was a whole report that was commissioned, The Mustill Report. My friends, Mr Vernon De Lima exposed that, as he has exposed so many other things and this country owes a debt of gratitude to Mr Vernon De Lima and to Mr Timothy Hamel Smith for exposing the infringement of the rights of the people. From the Mustill Report to the Uff Commission Report to the Calder Hart certificates of marriage. It is these two gentlemen who did it my friends. They were people who stood firm to get the politics right. And we stand here to get the politics right and we move towards the realization one step further towards that goal. So we are really part of an international political movement. Not only the United Kingdom, the U.K. was the last manifestation of that. A country like India with 1.3 billion people is now ruled by coalition politics. Coalition politics has become a greater stabilizer in political life than one monolithic party.
But it appears that Mr Manning stopped reading since 1970 and therefore I have to forgive him for not having read the modern theory of the political world. Since 1970 he stopped reading and he always goes back to 1970 and that is why he has taken this country on the part of unbridled industrialization that is putting us on the brink of collapse. I would not talk about that here today. All I can tell you is that we in the People's Partnership for yet another time, we stand ready and prepared to move this country from the brink of economic disaster and bring it back towards prosperity. This is an international development; it has now caught on in Trinidad and Tobago, some of us dreamed of it three or four years ago. Now the entire country is screaming about it. The People's Partnership is the best expression of the new politics that there is in Trinidad and Tobago. And that is why it cannot be stopped and Mr Manning could do whatever he wishes. He could bribe people, he could intimidate, he could duck and run as much as he wants, but he cannot stop the victory that is ahead of us on May 24 2010. It is beyond him. In politics you have to know what is outside your control and what is inside your control. What is within your control is an approach to politics of yesterday - bribery, intimidation, division, but politics of the freedom of the people is outside his control.
The people in this country have now tasted the prospect of freedom. And I want to ask you do not ever give up the freedom that you will get on May 24 2010, when we shall redistribute the power in this country. And that means we have to embark on a serious programme of political reform, not this 'mickey mouse' thing about Executive Presidency to which he has been imposing on this country. I looked at the PNM manifesto and I did not even see a word of it. That was Mr Manning's major plan. He is even hiding what he believes in. His manifesto did not mention it so he has hoodwinked the people as that is the concentration of power on top, and the people want to have a distribution of power at the bottom. So my friends, there are a lot of philosophical questions here. It is not only an issue of roads and bridges and drains. By the way, I have to thank Mr. Manning for paving all the streets in Tunapuna so I will not have that job to do when I get into office. I thank him so much. That is the politics he wants to get the people involved in: The politics of drains and roads and so forth, that is important and that must be reflected in how you spend your money as a nation.
But what you have been called upon is really to make a choice of two philosophies. That is what this election is all about. Two philosophies of how we shall govern ourselves. Whether we shall govern ourselves on the basis of a centralist state power, or we shall govern ourselves by diffusing democracy to the people and let the people be free. I am of the firm belief once we get to the people from where they are, and give them the catalyst to develop themselves whatever it may be: if we can provide for the people, for example give irrigation to the people of OCONO or the sporting facilities to the people of Trinidad and Tobago or we can find a way to combat the issue of school violence. Once we do those things the people themselves will be able to develop, providing of course, on top, they are seeing a leadership who they can place their trust in. And that is why I say to you that in the final analysis it is whether or not you can trust. I just want to repeat once more from the speech by the new Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, "one of the tasks that we clearly have to have, is to re-build trust in our political system; yes, that is about cleaning up expenses; yes, that is about re-forming parliament; yes, it is about making sure that people are in control and that the politicians are always the servants and never their masters."
So my friends, in Tunapuna, my friends in Trinidad and Tobago, the choice in this election is the choice of the philosophy of governance and that is why we want to bequeath an inheritance for the next generation that is better than the one we lived in. And that has always been the way people progress: When you bequeath an inheritance better than the one you, yourself inherited. And in the same way we do it in our individual lives, we must do it in our collective lives. Once we get that trust on top, my friends the people will work below. We have to elect a government that will work for the people, not ask the people to work to keep the government there. And all those who believe that they have to work to keep the government there, I ask them to open their eyes and awaken their vision; no one is going to stop any of the benefits you may have had. Do not feel a sense of obligation that caused you to condemn your children into a philosophy that is now obsolete and dead. Hypocritical and shedding crocodile tears - that is the politics of yesterday, and that is the politics from which Mr Manning cannot escape. What he knows about government I have already forgotten, hence I call upon him to let us work and have a public debate on the issue of the philosophy of governance in Trinidad and Tobago. Let the country make the decision. I know my friends that Tunapuna will make this decision. The tide is turning. Tunapuna has come alive. Tunapuna is now moving on. Tunapuna is going to be the trigger for the political change in Trinidad and Tobago. When the political walls of Tunapuna fall, as they will fall, the rest of the political walls in Trinidad and Tobago will fall and the gatekeeper, Mr Manning will have to find a place and I can assure him that we will treat him with the highest level of dignity and respect that a former Prime Minister ought to be treated with.
My friends I know you have been here for a long time. I want to thank you for coming in such large numbers, but I want you to come out in even larger numbers as we bring everybody in Trinidad and Tobago to Constantine Park in Tunapuna. So that while Mr Manning might believe he can control his Woodford Square which is under his control, we shall make the new capital of Trinidad and Tobago right here in Tunapuna. Tunapuna, this is your rightful place, this is where you have to walk and this is why I am here to walk my final steps of my political life with my people in Tunapuna, where I live and where I will continue to live.
Thank you very much.
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