The lone Independent Liberal Party (ILP) councillor at the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) has resigned from the party. Councillor Reneera Chan said it went against her conscience to continue to support the ILP since its aim was solely to put the Opposition PNM back into power in the 2015 general election.
She is expected to deliver her resignation letter to the party’s chairman Jack Warner today. In that letter, Chan, who represents the Kelly Village/Warrenville seat on the PNM-controlled TPRC, stated that she struggled with her conscience for quite some time before making the decision to quit the ILP. Chan, 28, who remains a councillor at the corporation, is the holder of a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science from the University of the West Indies.
She is now reading for her Masters in Political Science. Chan, a part-time farmer and chairman of the ILP’s youth arm, said in her letter: “My personal relationship with you and my discomfort with the direction of the ILP has been at odds for quite some time. I cannot stay loyal to you and disloyal to the very principles that encouraged me to enter politics to service my country.
“I answered the call to make a change to be one of those young people who would raise their hand and voice in the name of patriotism. I embraced your message of hope and a new opportunity for Trinidad and Tobago. “I looked at the fresh faces and ideals that would inspire so many others like me. Instead, I saw old, discarded and discredited characters like Ramesh Lawrence-Maharaj, mounting our platform to serve his own bitter, narrow political interests.
Chan said, “Each day I saw the ILP I joined so idealistically, shift further away from its original moorings and drift too far to be even recognisable as the movement for change started under the People’s Partnership, and which we were supposed to further. “As much as I admire you, I see no future for the ILP other than to exist purely for the purpose, whether willingly or not, of preventing the ruling PP from winning the next general election.
“The thought that my energies would be serving the purpose of electing Keith Rowley is not one which I can hold on to any longer. Chan, who said the PP was the only hope for the country, told the Sunday Guardian in an interview yesterday that she was not offered any inducements by any other political party to leave the ILP. She said, “The only inducement I received is when I see a party (the PP) that is doing its best to meet the needs of all the people of Trinidad and Tobago...”
Chan plans to join the UNC. Chan’s resignation from the ILP party follows that of Faaiq Mohammed, party chairman Robin Montano and deputy political leader Anna Deonarine.
Warner says
‘It’s the first time I’m hearing about this’
Contacted yesterday, Warner said it was the first time he was hearing about Chan’s resignation. He said he had no comment to make on the matter.