(Trinidad Express) Former police commissioner Gary Griffith is promising his party the National Transformation Alliance (NTA) will bring about a “tsunami” of change.
He claimed Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is already shaking in his boots.
“If you listen to Keith Rowley’s comments in his constituency meeting (in Diego Martin last week), he has already conceded, he has already started speaking about amalgamation and alliances which is definitely not in the cards for me.
“I intend to form a political party based on me speaking to thousands of persons from different aspects of the society who said they want an independent political vehicle that can transform the country,” he said in an interview with the Sunday Express last week.
Griffith said the debacle that occurred with the Police Commissioner process is grounds for any Prime Minister to be removed from office.
He claimed Rowley’s focus was on removing him regardless of what the country wanted, and cited successful crime statistics.
“My focus now is to remove him from his very own seat in his constituency where he is not in touch with the people,” he said.
Nothing that the PNM held a meeting in Diego Martin last week, Griffith said: “That is a sign of fear, he is fearful of what is coming. He knows the tsunami of what happened in Tobago (THA election 14-1) is going to happen in Trinidad and I intend to lead that battle straight into the belly of the beast and take him on his own battle ground of Diego Martin West and all the other seats in the local government election.”
The country, he said, has been longing for proper governance and leadership.
“This is not about Gary Griffith, it’s not a one-man show, this is going to be a powerful team with the best minds that this country can assemble in every aspect that will work towards the development of Trinidad and Tobago, and if there are other entities that would have the same similar views towards good governance, we would obviously speak with them. But this country will have an independent party that is not going to be used or split votes to get one of the two parties into government,” he said.
He said once all the approvals are given, the party will be launched.
Time ripe for change
Griffith also provided some history as to why he feels the time is ripe for change.
He said on six occasions, a third political party has been a catalyst towards dictating the results of who goes into government.
“We can go back to 1981 when the ONR (Organisation for National Reconstruction) came as a third party, 1986 when the ONR joined with the ULF (United Labour Front) to form the NAR (The National Alliance for Reconstruction), it was an annihilation for the PNM, in 1991 the NAR went on their own, they split from the UNC and it caused the PNM to win,” he said.
“In 2001 when Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj formed his party, it caused the PNM to win the Tunapuna seat and we had that 18-18. Then we move on to 2007 when the COP (Congress of the People) acquired 147,000 votes, it allowed PNM to win 25-16, when the COP joined with the UNC in 2010 it was an annihilation for the PNM,” he said.
Griffith said a third force had impact in six out of the last ten general elections, which shows “that anytime there is a third political force that is very well structured and organised, it becomes the catalyst to decide the results of the election, so that is fact. “No one can deny it.”
He said it is unfortunate when people believe the third party can be used as an avenue to split votes to cause PNM to win or to join with the UNC to cause an amalgamation that the UNC can use to get into government.
“This time there is a massive difference. You would have seen third parties rising in numbers from the ONR in 1981 getting 91,000 votes, ten years later with the NAR it got 127,000, 15 years later the COP in 2007 got 147,000, so it is obvious there is an easy 250,000 that will be willing to support a bridge constituency,” he said.
He said the NTA will comprise a team of the best people with integrity and ability as he urged those aboard to come back home and those at home to come on board.
“This political party is not going to be an activist group. We intend to go and hit the ground running and that will even start with the local government election,” he said.