Newly-appointed interim deputy political leader of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP), Lyndira Oudit, is sure about two things—the United National Congress (UNC) is haemorrhaging and that the ILP will be successful in the upcoming local government elections. Oudit, who joined Jack Warner’s ILP hours after resigning as a member of the UNC and vice-president of the Senate, also yesterday offered words of advice for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar: “Go back to 2010.”
Speaking to T&T Guardian at her South Oropouche home, Oudit said she had severed ties with the UNC because they were moving in different directions, to the point that her own personal principles were being compromised. “Two things that really capped it for me was the TOP election and Chaguanas West election and the Tobago election. I feel that those were almost national disasters in terms of the UNC perceptive.”
Citing another example of how the party had digressed, she said instead of listening to Chaguanas West constituents and supporting Warner, the UNC instead tried to shred him apart to win. “It was wrong and I felt no pride and I felt very ashamed during that Chaguanas West elections. I felt really that we had reached a low, low, low point...” She said she felt that the Prime Minister was ill-advised.
“I feel that somehow her team of advisers were not the people advising her in the best possible manner.” She said there were rumbling and shifting at the ground level in the UNC, with councillors moving across to ILP. And while admitting that at the middle and top level of the UNC there is disappointment, she said is not sure whether people were willing to take as stand and give up office.
“I think it is haemorrhaging a bit,” Oudit said. “It’s almost like if the top is remaining a particular way, the top is there and all underneath you are just bleeding out, they are bleeding out and they are bleeding into a river of green apparently, and somehow the top don’t know or they are not being told or they are not seeing.” “While I understand the need to say that you don’t have any worries and are not afraid, you have to keep that phrase because it a pubic perception. But I am sure the party must be worried.”
She said she believed Warner’s party is what’s best for the country at this time. And Oudit is not bothered by the numerous international and national allegations against Warner either. “If there are allegations that can be supported by a charge, well then Mr Warner will have to deal with that,” she said. “At this point in time he is not doing anything illegal. He has formed an interim party and he has called on people to take responsibility for their country.”
With regards to the upcoming local government elections, she said the ILP is going to be successful. Once the date is set, she said the ILP would know if they have enough time to screen all the candidates. She advised the Prime Minister to go back to 2010 emotionally, mentally and spiritually, when “she (Prime Minister) was inspirational. She represented something good.”
She added, however, that Persad-Bissessar had disappointed her membership and it may be too late to correct the wrong. “I don’t know if she has reached the point where there are many things she has condoned over the years and now is unable to cut ties because it is rumoured that there are rotten apples. “I am not sure how closely associated the Prime Minister is with a number of them and if she is in a position to extricate herself, I am not sure.”