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Attorney Farai Hove Masaisai and his team, The People's Champions, have created an ambitious youth-driven manifesto leading up to the People’s National Movement (PNM) internal elections on June 22.
One of the first things Masaisai will do if he is elected as chairman will be to interview and hire someone skilful as a CEO for Balisier House to manage the party operations full-time, to “treat Balisier House as if it was a business, as opposed to a part-time gig.”
The People’s Voice manifesto, developed after weeks of consultation with the PNM membership, was launched at Hove’s Court, Gordon Street, Port of Spain, on June 21.
Each officer had their priorities of interest if elected. Field officer Eric Hopkins said his focus would be rejuvenating the party groups and vice chairman Esau Mohammed would ensure regular meetings of the general council and the party executive.
PRO Christopher George intended to reinvigorate the party’s brand, making it attractive to the next generation, youth officer Josimar James planned to engage the youth through technology and train them in its use, and labour officer St Clair O’Neil said he would engage the unions.
Masaisai said his team were the only PNM candidates to attend the Labour Day rally in Fyzabad. They “got some cuss” but they braved it even as the PNM was blasted during the speeches.
“But these are the things you have to do, because we don't see us getting back into governance without the masses. And the masses of the population are workers, and labour represents workers.”
He said the team’s vision was to revive the party, make it more inclusive, youth driven and mission-focussed, where every voice was valued, every community was empowered and every citizen felt seem heard and represented. And its mission was to restore trust in the leadership by amplifying grass-roots voices, modernising party structures and ensuring young people helped design and create the future.
“It is not simply a campaign tool. It is our covenant. It reflects your hopes and aspirations and has been wrapped in your belief that the movement can and must do better for its membership.”
Listing the team’s standards, he said its core guiding principles were: people first, service before self, honouring the past while building for a future, youth inclusion by giving the real voting power, unity without uniformity, action over optics and rebuilding party groups as engines of impact.
He and the other team members also mentioned a variety of action items including the implementation of a public-facing digital dashboard to track manifesto commitments and progress, launching a digital app called "Youth Connect" to engage young members and address their issues, and creating a PNM policy incubator in which young people design real policy proposals.
They also intend to develop formal mentorship programmes and structured training opportunities for young members in areas like policy development, campaign management and ethical leadership, and establish an ethics committee to review complaints and ensure standards were upheld.
On the topic of ethics, O’Neil said the team was not completely satisfied with the transparency of the internal election process and had written to the election supervisory committee on June 20. The team hopes the process would be smooth and there would be no major issues but its members were “prepared to do what needs to be done” if issues arose.
Masaisai added that there were no rules sanctioned by the general council regarding conducting an internal election. So if they were elected, his team members would put rules and regulations for internal elections into writing.
“As a practising attorney we understand what is procedural fairness, and for there to be procedural fairness everyone, not just attorneys, must understand what is the rules of the game.”
Masaisai also responded to questions from the media about a Facebook post in which PNM vice-chairman Camille Robinson-Regis expressed concerns about character attacks against former PNM leader and prime minister Dr Rowley during campaigning, saying it should be a time for unity and reflection.
She said, “It is deeply disheartening to witness Dr Rowley, someone who has consistently demonstrated his commitment to the best interests of our party and our country facing criticism from within our own ranks.
“Even more troubling is that some of this comes from individuals whose political journeys he helped revive and whom he placed in positions of trust and responsibility.”
Masaisai said he would want to see a different brand of politics in the future as decisiveness was not beneficial.
“We have heard, unfortunately, from persons who should know better of casting blame on persons who have chosen to resign as leaders. That is not our policy in our team, our team has always been focussed on the issues, focus on the issues and provide solutions. If you can't provide solutions, then you shouldn't put yourself forward for office. So we are not about mudslinging. It's unfortunate that some persons see it as part of the politics.”
He added that he would have liked to see those who previously held positions and were putting themselves up for election to say what they accomplished over the past years. In the same way, if his team did not achieve at least 80 per cent of the promises in its manifesto in four years, the members would not be able to campaign on their track record.
Therefore, he asked the PNM membership to vote for a change and to hold them to account.
He stressed that the members of The People's Champions supported opposition leader Pennelope Beckles as the incoming political leader and will work with her because she needed a competent support mechanism behind her.
He said the party was sued every time it won an election and he had been part of the party’s legal team, which he viewed as an honour. The party showed trust and confidence in him and believed Beckles would have trust and confidence in him as her chair.
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