More coalition problems: COP in a corner

Political twister is the best way to describe the Congress of the People (COP). Trapped in a UNC-dominated world, the party wishes to speak for party, People's Partnership and country, and emerge intact from the political snake-pit. Unless it gets a grip, the COP will be a collection of the pathetic.

In its latest statement the COP's political leader speaks for four different and competing interests: the COP, the People's Partnership, the Government and the people. The statement sets the bar high and declares the COP an independent political party which will articulate independent positions on policy matters.

It refers to collective responsibility, managing the coalition partners and strengthening the structures required to deliver more effectively and equitably to the population. For good measure it affirms a commitment to working for redefinition of the political and governance arrangements and declares maximum leadership by decree to be over.

Except, of course, the COP failed to get its way on the single issue of removing the Mayor of San Fernando simply because the party lacks the leverage. The COP owes its so-called "political assets" to the aforesaid maximum leadership exercised by the PM — the UNC political leader and de-facto coalition leader. The COP also owes its position in Government and Cabinet, and its Senate and board appointments to the PM. On its current trajectory, the party's political future relies on the fortunes of the UNC-led People's Partnership and if the City of San Fernando mayoral issue is any guide, the COP should make no boast of its powers of persuasion or otherwise.

What the difficulties facing the COP and the country demonstrate is that two years after its election the core remains rotten under the People's Partnership. The framework of the politics is broken, cracked by corrupt political party funding, loosened by lackeys and minions and undermined by cronyism and get-rich-quick political toddlers. Caught between this idea of a chief whip and the doctrine of collective responsibility, group-think is the political standard. But group-think led by non-thinkers is far more dangerous to democracy than all the arms and ammo floating around the country in fidgety hands.