Congress of the People supporters are telling their chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, to leave the COP and form a new party, following Saturday’s snub at the party’s eighth anniversary celebrations. Seepersad-Bachan said so two days after being unceremoniously removed from the list of speakers at the COP’s anniversary inter-faith service to allow Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar more speaking time. In an interview, Seepersad-Bachan said she was still disheartened and disturbed by the incident. Asked whether she planned to join a new party, Seepersad-Bachan said it would be difficult to do so because she believed in the ideals of the COP. “It would not be easy to leave a party which I helped to build,” Seepersad-Bachan said. “I believe in the COP and its philosophy and ideals. It took us a lot of time to conceptualise this party. I have given my time to building it,” she added.
Seepersad-Bachan said as chairman of the party she did not have a say in its activities. “I hold the second highest office in the party, yet I am being instructed by a deputy political leader. I hope that people understand the challenges that I have faced while being chairman. I am the chairman and I have no say in anything. I am just called and told I am off the programme. “This is what is causing the problems in the party,” she said. Seepersad-Bachan said she was beginning to doubt whether the aspirations of the COP would ever materialise.
She said: “People have lost hope. The politics of our day is not allowing our society to unleash the potential of the human capital of this nation. Eight years ago, when we came together, we had a dream that we could unite our people and get our politics to change. “I got so emotional sitting there at the inter-faith service. I felt it that day and I wondered where were those people when we started this vision.” Saying she had given eight years of her life to building the COP, Seepersad-Bachan was not considering walking out of the party. “Many keep saying that we need to form a new party and that COP has lost its way but you cannot abandon a party that you supported so long. I don’t believe in that,” she said.
Asked whether she was tempted to walk out of the service on Saturday, Seepersad-Bachan said yes. However, she said, she decided to stay because it was a service to give thanks to God.
Asked whether she identified with the ideals of the newly-launched social group Democracy Watch, Seepersad-Bachan said citizens had a right to get involved in the political and social development of T&T. She said she had no problems with her hairdresser Jowelle de Souza, who has signalled her intention to run for the San Fernando West seat on an independent ticket. “People have a right to contribute if they want to. Nothing is wrong with that. Democracy Watch is a non-political organisation and it is organisations like these which help to form civil society,” Seepersad-Bachan said.
She added that such organisations could contribute towards shaping the development of the nation.
What is Democracy Watch?
Democracy Watch was launched at Chaguanas last Sunday by its founder Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. People from various parties, including the Independent Liberal Party, COP, Movement for Social Justice, Youths for Social Justice and various trade unions, including the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union, attended the event.
