Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The best insight, instant feedback, accountability the.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: All new talk radio freedom 106.5 we do have joining us on the program now back at the helm of the Congress of the People. Let's welcome to our program this morning. Attorney Prakash Ramada. Good morning to you and welcome to our show.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Hi, good morning Satish. Good morning Trina and Tobago.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Nice to have you with us here this morning. The last time we spoke we were speaking about the Paria diving tragedy and what was taking place there. This morning our discussions will focus on something totally different.
We've been hearing all kinds of things. You've been hearing the reports threats are lawsuit and court matter and everything else. And now we were told that over the weekend it was ratified that you are officially back at the helm of the Congress of the People.
Let's begin by you telling us how did this happen?
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Well, first of all, I'm very grateful for the opportunity so that the country will know that a very important political party is back and we are active and we will continue to do the work necessary. How did this happen? I admitted office in 2016 after I was made. It was made known to me that all of our financial obligations had been met. And I asked there be an election in the party for political leadership.
Once again certain persons went to the courts to prevent a certain candidate from even running and therefore there was no real election and we had a leader.
Then there was an appointment of executive that has been in place for the last several years. Not being able to have a Koreate National Council meeting in all these years over a long period of time I'd been asked to return to the party and you know, I've been very busy in the courts helping as many as I could.
But I saw no one need because the politics in the country is so divided between PNM and UNC and there's a large group of people who do not wish to subscribe to either of them. That space is a necessary one because without a political vehicle there'll be no voice for that large number the COP in its iteration now because this is not just the cop. This is a long line of independent voters not aligned in one way or the other.
And I thought it necessary for the COP to be brought back to having been invited again multiple times. And wherever I go people ask me are you getting back in?
I looked at my country and on every sphere there's doom and destruction. We all know crime is at an all time abysmal high. The economy is an all time abysmal low. We have no food security, we have no energy security. And I'm not hearing plans as to how we're going to fix this country.
My sister said I should say, and I will repeat that my first breath of air and my first sip of water came from Trinidad and Tobago. I love this country. I want to live here in my later days. And when I shall pass, I want it to be my last drop of water, my last breath of air in Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore, it was necessary in my personal space to make a decision that, look, I cannot not do something.
And I accepted the invitation of Mr. Senate to return as political leader reluctantly because I knew some of the personalities involved the party into dormancy and I use that as neutral a word as I can.
There's a procedure where I was appointed deputy political leader. The singular other deputy political leader was relieved and he has been making a lot of noise. He was relieved of his position and Mr. Sinnett resigned and by protocol. And so I became interim political leader, of course, with an understanding there was a need for that to be ratified by National Council.
Appreciate full well appreciate that that executive, including that former deputy political leader whose responsibility it was to ensure that the party had been constitutionalized and correct, had not been able to achieve a National Council meeting of several years, at least four.
Then I'm hearing complaint now. It had to be ratified. Well, that is the reason I returned and I did an interview and the headline was Ramada admits. Ramada didn't admit. Ramada had been saying from the beginning that the party had been operating extra constitutionally. And therefore I came in to help fix that.
All sorts of threats of legal action. And so at the end of which we were able to achieve the National Council after several years on our first attempt.
And that was on Saturday evening with a vote of over 94%. And there were many others who were waiting online to vote and didn't get the opportunity.
So we have that mandate moving forward now. Then of course, at that meeting there was an effort to derail the process by what I shall call a legal letter. Not even a reaction protocol from the very same trouble, making noise, making individual, threatening legal action.
So we had to overrule the fears of a few and move ahead. The party needs to work and we are here together with some others who have shown themselves after many years saying, look, we are willing to work to help restore this party to where it belongs. So that's where we are today. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak with you and I'm sure on.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Many other issues yeah, well, that needed to be explained, and I think it needed to be explained so that people have an understanding of what's really going on. The Congress of the People. We've not heard of the party or from the party for a significant period of time. Yes, there were one or two press releases, but it did not give the impression that things were functioning the way they should.
And all of these developments recently, we've been told that the Congress of the People was having discussions with the UNC and they're having discussions with the NTA and HOPE and a number of other organizations and sets of things taking place. But now that you're back at the helm and there seems to be a move once more to ensure that the various arms of the party that need to be functioning are up and functioning.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: What is the immediate task or tasks that need to be done to get the Congress of the People where it needs to be? You have an election on the horizon and so on.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Absolutely. The most important question, what need be done? But first, let me put this in context. The conversations with coalition, with the HOPE and the nta. Nice.
What is your value to the politics? Is a big question.
I use the analogy on Saturday, and I think it was quite apt. The COP is not a sticker that could be stuck to any organization or other thing and say, we are there. The COP must have depth, it must have breadth, it must have weight, it must have value. So that whatever organization it attaches itself with, it has to bring its own value. Otherwise there'll be no respect, there will be no strength, and in fact, it'll be an embarrassment. So I need to restore, together with many other patriots, the viability of the party. We have a lot of work to do in a very short period of time. One of the higher priorities is to get a home for the cop. The COP does not have an office. I'm being very straightforward with you. It doesn't have a phone, it doesn't have an active anything. And there are those who want the status quo to remain of at least dormancy. I'm not for that. I didn't come to waste time. My life, I'm over 60 now, and therefore everything I do has to have value, not for me, but for my country and for my people of Trinidad and Tobago. So having said that, we are now working to get resources, to get a home, an office, and then to populate that so that we could reach out to the membership and for those. And it is surprising, I thought that everyone had washed their hands off it. That is not true. There are so many who are delighted that the COP will finally get its feet back on the ground and start working as we did from 2007, 2010 after election. And you might recall, they thought that the COP had evaporated. But with a handful of persons, I don't want to call the names of all, I'm sure I will not remember them, but Dr. Navi Moradale, my brother Kishore, his wife Sheryl, and anyhow, just a handful of us decided no, there was so much work to be done. And we started these market talks, the street walks and every nook and cranny of the country. And then of course, property tax, the AXI tax campaign. We were very, very alert to the needs of the nation. And we didn't just complain, we were hosting seminars and conferences to come up with solutions. Because the politics today is one of acrimony and bitterness. And who could hate who more, who could outshout who more? And a Bajan prime minister, when we needed him most, when the declaration of state of emergency, very significant event, what did he announce? That he was literally turning and running, resigning. I thought that was an application of the worst kind. We needed the strength and the Bajanism. Don't give it to us, give it to the criminals. And when that opportunity arose, he was not to be found on that. And then to hear yesterday, he sounded as if he just landed to learn of the problems of crime in the country. And then to suggest that police are afraid. When do you do that? You don't think that the criminals are hearing you as prime minister, say that your police service, your police force, afraid of them? Where's the respect you spoke about that the criminals don't respect?
Let me tell you, there are such magnificent individuals in the police service. They give their lives, they put it on the line every day for us. Are they getting the kind of support, not just in terms of equipment and so, but the moral support to say we are proud of you? Yes. We have problems, you have corruption within it. We have laws to deal with all those things. So it could not have come as a surprise for government 9 into 10 years and wanting another 5 to make it 15.
Wow. Crime is out of control. It has been growing for the last several years. What have they been doing? Posturing. Right. And if crime alone was the issue, then 100% failure. Absolutely.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Okay, let's.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: But that has. Sorry, sorry. I beg your pardon.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah, sorry. Let's take the conversation because there are so many things that I want to cover. This is an important discussion for Many reasons, because the Congress of the People at one point in time commanded significant support.
140,000,000,000 votes is nothing to turn your nose up at. And those people at one point in time pledged their allegiance to this entity called the Congress of the People. Things happened. History is water under the bridge now. What transpired? They did not have a home, they did not have a voice, they did not have representation. You had a general elections, I think you had two or three local government elections in between. And whether or not the ones support of the Congress of the People voted or not, we can't determine. Now you have entities that are claiming to have this support that was once held by the Congress of the People. And they're saying, well, we command this support now because there is no Congress of the People and these people are in the wilderness and they're looking for this and that and the next and the other. Let's just say that I, for the discussion purposes, or there are people listening to us who were at one point in time supporters of the Congress of the People. And they're hearing now that the party has been reenergized, that there is now a leadership structure, some sort in place, and there are moves to get things back up and running.
What should they be looking for? What, what role can they play? How can they get involved?
What shape do you have in your mind already? Because I know it's still informative, it's early, this thing just happened on Saturday, so there may be some planning to take place and everything else. But what can the nation expect from the Congress of the People moving forward as it tries to get back on its feet, for want of a different term.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: What is lacking most in society is trust and confidence.
What I could assure you of that under my leadership, the Congress of the People that I knew must return, which is that when we say something, we live up to it. Our word is our bond. When there was movement within the party for us to break government between 2010 and 2015, I literally told them over my dead body. Some may wish that because we made a promise of delivery and in that period because we. What is the problem?
That the COP in a way lost its gloss. We were criticized with propaganda, with some elements of truth, of failures within the government of the Partnership. Who could deny that there's no perfect government? But what did COP do in government? You know what? We delivered almost every single thing of Our manifesto of 2007, Laptop for Children, procurement legislation. One of the most significant legislative change.
All of our achievements in the partnership would have been Drowned out by the critics, those who had no interest in the Partnership, much less the COP Surviving because we were attacking the status quo which returned shortly thereafter where the people and their interests did not matter. It appeared that there was powers that use the PNM as a face only. And they were pulling the strings to get policy into place that suppress the development throughout the length and breadth of this country. What did the Partnership do? We created small contractors. Our ambition was 500 throughout the length and breadth of the country to break the monopoly or the oligarchy that existed in terms of contracts. So that every community today still you will find there are persons who did the work and were properly paid and therefore communities were enriched throughout the length and breadth. That was anathemic to some of those who believe that power and wealth of the nation must be kept only in a very small area. Having said that, do you know under the People's Partnership, Fair Trades Commission was actually initialized and populated. But we shall. I know there's so much I must speak. But you're asking what the COP needs to do today. The COP needs to put itself back into the middle of the politics. This is where we are. The country is so divided between PNM and unc. People who will never vote for either the PNM or the unc. A large number. Number.
Now, whether for good or ill, the reputation of the politics today has become one where there's, you know, they're enemies and there's hate. That is the perception. And who could outdo each other in terms of. And bato.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Yeah, but.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, sorry, sorry.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Sorry to interrupt, but the point that I want to get across or to delve into is we have a general election on the horizon.
Are these movements that we're seeing now with the intention that the Congress of the People is going to contest that election? And if so, how is it going to work? Who's going to be screening the candidates? When is that process going to start? Is this interim leadership Committee that is there. Is this going to take the party into the election or is there going to be internal elections before this? All of those questions need to be answered in. In the minds of the general public, I assume, and more so in the minds of the Congress of the People, their supporter.
So let's deal with some of those nitty gritty issues. The interim leadership is going to take.
Is the Congress of the People in your mind as the leader now? Is the Congress of the People going to be contesting the next general elections on its own, independently, with. As part of an organization or have those discussions not yet been held?
[00:17:15] Speaker A: First of all, I am realistic and practical. The time frame that we have is very limited, the resources almost non existent. I have now the responsibility with others to bring resources into the party. One of the first things we will be doing is getting an office so that there's a home for persons and a secretariat to collate its membership, its supporters, to show that we are quite serious. That's the first thing that we are doing. They are members of the executive hangover from years ago without an internal election. I agree with you.
They are willing to work towards the progress of the party or they are not. And if they are not, then we will invite them to the Met Office. It's as simple as that. And replace them by people who are willing.
In terms of the going alone, we know full well at the height of our power in 2007, 148,000 votes, no seat.
The COP ran on its own. And I will not call in numbers in 2020. It's embarrassing, the numbers that they've got right. Because there was no true mobilization. There was no program on the ground. No one saw work and commitment. Blood, sweat and tears. That's a term I will repeatedly use. That is the only. I grew up with that blood, sweat and tears. You have to commit, you have to sacrifice if you want to earn anything. And we have to earn that trust of the people. It doesn't take as much as people believe. But once they know there's honesty and decency and honor in what you do and your word is your bond, it would be surprising how quickly we could gravitate. But there's still some obstacles. You're quite right. For the status quo to remain of dormancy within the party, we will chisel away or that or bulldoze it out of the way. Because the National Council that came on Saturday in its full regale came and said, listen, we want something new, you know, a different way of doing things. And if we have to call them again to get authority, we shall do so. So I'm not daunted by the internals. The internals are a minor. You know, I always use the analogy, if you have to go on a long journey, one of the first things you need to do is to kick off your shoes to get rid of your little gravel and then you may have any to disturb your movement. We're in that process right now, right? So hands up for all those who wish to work and hands down and out if you are not willing to do so. It's as simple as that, harder to implement. But I'm committed to doing. I, you know, I speak about my later days.
There are many in these societies. You see, Trinidad and Tobago is trajectory and I'm not overstating it, we are two or three steps away, but on the trajectory to Haiti, the one most rich and most beautiful nation in the hemisphere. Not the world. To me it is. This is the place I love most dearly. It's been destroyed. But none of the problems we have are unfixable. But what we have is a race to the bottom by those who hold power without finding solutions. In fact, they have a very close mindset. We talk about, for instance, US Dollars, foreign exchange and what is the answer to that? Limited short net, cut it. No, it's not that. It's about how do you gain more of it. Export markets to import only our food when we could. When we could. We must do some level of food substitution in terms of new industries. And if you'll permit me, you see, the partnership and the COP were hit with all sorts of undeserved criticism. What were we doing? In anticipation of falling oil and gas reserves, we had started to transform the economy. They hit and criticize the children's hospital. You know that what I was for, apart from children, a burns unit, but also a center for sport medicine. What did you have across the road? You had the cycling. The cycling. You had the swimming, right? Not far. We had a cricket academy. Not far from that we had Sevilla. When we said we were going to put a five star hotel with world class golf course. When we said we were going to put an airport at Camden, they laughed. Did they not understand or they chose not to have seen that the airport at Camden wasn't for large jets, they were for private jets. And the sports teams of the world will come here. We have almost perfect weather for swimming, cycling, cricket, football.
So when you develop that, that would have been an incredible, non environmentally degrading way of earning a new economy and a new income. When we were upgrading the we had started to partner with Johns Hopkins to get the world's best. So medical tourism was a thing that we were working towards, right? So that when medical tourism for all the region and others, it will bring in foreign currency. But apart from which you would have upgraded because I and the partnership saw Trinidad and Tobago as not just a center of excellence in McCoy. No, as centers of excellence in every sphere. And we were leaders then and we would have been able to achieve it. But we were laughed at. We were criticized and condemned. We were run out of office in 2015 on all sorts of non thought true criticisms. For instance. And I had to bring it to the attention of many recently. Remember the runoff that we had brought? We had actual constitutional reform brought into the parliament that was demonized without any level of intellectual consideration. You know what ran off would have done today? All these small parties who want to campaign and say they have a space and they're entitled to that. But if it is that the leading parties do not want to participate with them, they would have had incredible strength, especially in the marginals. You don't want to negotiate with me. If you don't get 50%, you will have to. And therefore you would have that forced coalition to empower the smaller parties. But no, that was demonized as if it was an effort to steal the election. I still cannot comprehend it today. Trinidad and Tobago would have had fixed election dates, no more than two consecutive terms and a host of other constitutional change as a first front. I'm just saying these things. Had we not continued, that is the COP in government, we would not have had that constitutional reform. More important than that, in my view, was procurement legislation. They said that the partnership there was so much corruption of nothing is perfect. I want to say Trinidad and Tobago devoid of corruption. Today the answer is no. What did we do? We answered it right. The Prime Minister and the cabinet, that the COP was an integral part of that we must soldier on. And we brought procurement legislation into being and into reality. It has been so watered down that its effectiveness is much diminished but still valuable. These are the things we did. Children's Life fund so that no child need die for want of medical attention that parents could not have afforded. And it hurt when you saw that they were holding little barbecues, get a little 5,000, 10,000 when they needed more than a million. It is the People's Partnership government that delivered that. As our first cabinet note. I'm very proud of what we achieved. But of course the criticisms dominated, the propaganda escalated. And what happened then is that they stuck these very negative things. And I have an acronym for the PNM cold. They conflate things, they obfuscate things, they label you and then they demonize you. This is what they did to the partnership. And the COP paid a heavy price for being in government when we were delivering to the people and fixing a lot of the ills of society. So having said that, we need to restore and to show the successes, of course we'll acknowledge some of the failures of the partnership and certainly of the cop. But we must show the successes of the cop. Working in conjunction with the unc, the top njac, the msg. There was tremendous success in the country. We may have already forgotten what it felt like, what it tasted like. The freedom that we had, the hope and optimism that our children will grow here and the place will be, you know, a place with a future for us all. Just the opposite. Today I look around, I see not a glim of hope, not a glim of hope for the answers in this present government. But I repeat, no matter what the problems are, there are solutions. Because most if not all of them are man made. It is not like we have had a horrible earthquake, horrible hurricane, you know, an act of God. No, these are acts of men and failures of men and women who hold power and authority. We need to fix it. We can do it, but it's not going to be easy. I give you no false hope. But we have to establish step by step blueprints for each of the requirements of the society. What first step we need to do, what time frame we're going to work with, the resources required and how we are going to achieve it. We can. In fact the COP has started at work already together with our partners, whoever they may be. At the end we will agree to work with anybody who has the interest. And I think the former Prime Minister, leader of the opposition says common interest. Of course, if there's a common interest in something fixing this country, we are there. This is what the COP has always been about. Self sacrifice. I and a small team now will expand itself to show, I call it in a way a suicide mission because of the time frame and the difficulties within the party. But come. Hello High water chief. We're going to do all we can because we must. I love this nation. I want all of our children to grow here and have a future here. If we don't fix it today, well then we'll forever ever take the responsibility for having destroyed possibly one of the greatest, most beautiful nation on the face of the planet. I will not endure that. We could have and didn't know, shoulda, coulda and did.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: For those of you joining our conversation midway, we are speaking with interim political leader of the Congress of the People Prakash Ramada. Let's take a couple of your calls.
Hello. Good morning.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: Good morning Satish. Good morning listeners. I'm calling from Marima and a pleasant good morning to you Mr. Ramada. I mean listening to you and I have to congratulate you. But I did not know you all had, you know A Facebook where it is, you know, you log in and you make your comments as him and there is no home office.
And I look forward to hearing most of that. And I must congratulate you and Satish for coming on the program to informing the public about it because our country is the lowest or the lowest it can ever be. I think our country now is worse than when before we went in the election in 1986. So I look forward for more to come and congratulate you and especially Satish for bringing on to you. Thank you ever so much. I'm calling for Marie Ma.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Could I just say one thing? Thank you very much for what you've said, but I disagree on one point. No. The country can get worse. The trajectory is terrible and that is why we call upon all of our citizens and the patriots are willing to sacrifice to do what is necessary now. This is the time. There's no tomorrow, there's only today. You can't fix things tomorrow. Fix it today because it can get much worse. So we've seen societies disintegrate and I repeat, Haiti is a learning experience that we have to avoid. Be on the trajectory, people. Thank you very much.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, people may not know this but Mr. Amana and I go even go way, way back.
I, I remember and that people say all kind of thing. I don't like the cop and whatever else but I remember in like 2007 and 8 and so on Saturday morning you had to get up and go in the, in the market, 7 o'clock in the morning because there's actually tax campaign and all kind of thing you're covering. And, and, and it was, it, it honestly there was a vibrancy back then because of the things that were taking place in the country and the campaigns that the Congress of the people was engaged in and so on. It was really interesting. Let's take another call. Hello, Good morning.
[00:30:15] Speaker D: Morning. Mr. Amada calling from Pinal.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Good morning, brother.
[00:30:19] Speaker D: Yes, Mr. Amla. I have listened carefully around various stations and observed for many years. I'm a few years older than you. What I perceive is that people want a gas based economy, oil and gas and they want to be able to have a nice vibrant, subsidized carnival and they're not interested in any other image for Trinidad and Tobago. This diversified hum of industry that you are thinking of is not in their mind. Their vision of Trinidad and Tobago is oil and gas and carnival. I want your comment on that. Thank you.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Well, first of all, let us appreciate what Oil and gas would have done for us. For 100 years we've been an energy producing country.
We are energy importing country, therefore subject to the vagaries of international market, out of our control. We do not have energy security. I'm not for a moment suggesting we turn off any effort on oil and gas. No, we must move as a combined effort as little or as much as we could from oil and gas. But at the same time appreciate that at the end, which is what we're facing now, we have very little reserves, but there's capacity out there.
So it's not to deny continuing those efforts. And Minister Ram Narayan is a master of those things and we look forward to that. But if you don't prepare for disaster when the disaster is already upon you. And I had to go back into what we were doing then, that was basically railroaded. But we need to restore that in terms of food security, energy security, crucially important, yes, we need to look at that food security. This government's posture has been that we don't have the land capacity to feed ourselves. But craziness is this. We had an example during COVID where there was a grave concern because of and then the war in Ukraine and so that the ability to even import was questionable. If something terrible goes on and you're hearing of new diseases that may come along, right, New wars, how do we feed ourselves if the largest percentage of food comes from outside of our shores? We have no food security. It is a national security issue and we must move on that with the utmost urgency. The country has been in a state of emergency for several years. Those who have the authority never appreciated that. I'm talking about crime alone, you know, on those factors, the ability to import. If you don't have foreign currency, you cannot import. I saw an article where even Pricemart has said that they have trapped money which I spoke about some years back. You can have all the money in Tobago but it has no value because you cannot convert, you cannot import. And then I hear people attacking Price Smart and they're attacking this one and the cut. Listen, I'm not into that. I am into a society that the people are entitled to get the goods they want when they work hard for it. And if Pricemart or other companies import, we are the consumers. Do not go the other route or that route to say cut that off because the consumers at the end will suffer. But we need to adjust that. But I think the most significant approach is where you have a negative minimizing philosophy to make things smaller, tax to the end those that work and try to pay bills from that instead of expanding our economy. I am not seeing anything meaningfully for the transformation of the economy. We've been speaking about that since I was in school, right? Presentation College and even People Presbyterian. You always hear about transforming the economy, but no real effort. This partnership did make efforts towards it. I agree 100% that we must act with a high level of urgency, at least in relation to energy security, food security and the people security.
Something has been done. El Salvador is a prime example of the worst crime in any society. People have written it off within four years. Of course it took a lot of, what shall I say, of effort, commitment and high criticism on human rights. But within four years to the lowest murder rate in the hemisphere, maybe in the world. Within four years. It can be done. It takes drastic but immediate, necessary legal responses. I am not seeing any of that being efforted by those who hold power, but not the responsibility. So thank you. Maybe I'm overspeaking. I need really to hear more from your callers.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Somebody sent a message to our WhatsApp saying, as a person from Couva, the vision explained by Mr. Ramadha, I can't help but feel cheated with the non realization of this plan.
I guess that's how some people feel when they hear some of what was in train. Let's take another call.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Listen, you see Fazal Karim, the late, great Fazal Karim and many of our ministers, man, I tell you, I was so proud to be in that cabinet. Not all the time. We of course had our low moments. But he came up with this thing, you know, from cutting cane to flying plane, man. Pause raised when I heard it. And I say, paz, we're going with that. And he revolutionized Camden, where we had an aviation school. Imagine in Trinidad you have an aviation school. He did that. People's Partnership did that, right? So that people from the entire region or even the world could have come to do those things. And in the interim you have these private jets coming in. High valued tourism, high valued clientele. Andy. When they would have come and have would have had a wonderful experience. Because Trinidad Tobago, the people of Trinidad. Oh my God. Nowhere in the face of the year to get more beautiful people than us. Except for the criminals, of course. They would have brought in whole new industries. And I say industries, whole new business plans, whole new everything. Because that brain and resources of the world would have come to Trinidad. We go now. Who wants to come here, right? The Prime Minister almost boastfully spoke about a cruise ship leaving waters because of the state of emergency. Is that a shock and a surprise?
What is really going on here? Are we without any. You know, it's like a ship adrift without. Without anybody manning the wheels.
When he wanted to remove three boats from our national symbol. Right, Captain, this ship is sinking and you don't realize it. And all we're getting are words on distractions. I don't want to be too harsh on the pnm. That's some good people there. Some. But in terms of the power and those who make the authority, who make the decisions and use the Cabinet as the executive tool to affect it, it is not many of the MPs or ministers. There's something much more powerful behind the scenes with the PNM in the partnership. I could tell you the COP could not have been bought nor sold. And Camera Persad B says. I will take criticisms if I have to tell you, but I want to tell this country. For all that you criticize, for all those who made propaganda, there was always democracy in that Cabinet. You were free to express all your views. Take time as you wish. And if at the end we couldn't have had a true consensus, which is how we operated, ask anybody if they were honest about that Cabinet. The Prime Minister will ask one question generally and I will paraphrase. Will it help the people? If the answer was yes, guess what the Cabinet decision with the perspective of the Prime Minister would be. Go ahead and do it. Imagine that.
You know that. That is up to me. To me, forgive me if I'm being very passionate. Politics is about serving people. It is about betterment of us all. And if you're in a Cabinet, and that was the underlying fundamental question to be asked. Well, I'll take the blows. Let me see what the truth has been. Had been.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: Yeah. This is where we're gonna have to, well, more or less drop the curtains on our interviewer out of time.
[00:38:48] Speaker C: But.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: But as we end, I want you to give persons who were at one point in time still want to be supporters of the Congress of the People some guidance as to what they should look out for in the immediate time upon us. What can I look at at this moment?
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm very grateful. I know your time is limited and I'm so grateful for it.
The first priority at this moment is to get a home for the COPN office so that we could have a secretariat. We could have a place. And my friend from Arima, thank you for saying that. We didn't have. We don't even have a Facebook Presence. Right. The party doesn't even have a phone. We're going to get all those things to communicate, to collate and let the country know that we are here to work on their behalf. And in fact, I've been hearing people within a small team. I have. Referring to the Congress of the Patriots. Congress of the Patriots moving forward. And we will, as you reminded me the early mornings, listen, people don't know the work that went into keep the cop alive from 2017 to 2010 and to keep it in government. Blood, sweat and tears throughout every nook and cranny morning, noon and night. Our chairman, Joe Toney, and he wrote my habia. Roy Augustus. They don't know the work that we did to build this party after it evaporated. Election night 2007, Mr. Dukaran gave me the authority to run the grand consensus. We met with every interest group in this country. So when the partnership was formed, we had already made friends with almost every segment of society. I am involved now in the grand consensus too, to meet with all the stakeholders, farmers, taxi drivers, laborers, industrialists, unions, right, you name it, market, vendors, everybody who have an issue. We are there for you. So that when we form government, I expect always to succeed. You will have a voice in the government and before then you'll have a voice in the political space.
[00:40:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Mr. Amara, that's where we're going to start. Yeah, that's. We're going to have to leave it this morning. A pretty interesting interview. As I said, I think it's very important and I'm sure that as things evolve and grow and formalize and whatever else needs to happen, we'll have some more conversations moving forward. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Thank you, brother. God bless her and Tobago. Thank you.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: That's how we end our interview this morning with the interim political leader of the Congress of the People.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: The best insight, Instant feedback. Accountability. The all new Talk Radio Freedom 106.5.
