HOPE PRO resigns, bashes party

Senior Reporterkevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

HOPE deputy political leader Karen Nunez-Tesheira says while the party’s public relations officer Rudolph Hanamji was within his rights to resign, his scathing commentary could hurt the organisation.

In a statement following his resignation, Hanamji said there is no hope in HOPE and political leader Timothy Hamel-Smith was right when he said something must change.

“Right now, it seems that it must be himself and the rest of the NatEx,” Hanamji wrote in an open letter.

Hanamji said he resigned from the party because it demonstrated it is less about honesty, opportunity, performance, and empowerment than it claims. He said the party has not held a national assembly, has no ratified constitution, has not issued membership cards to some registered people and has no approved financing policies.“The leader and deputy leaders have caused the party to be brought into odium through their actions/words, which have been well-ventilated in the public domain. A cottage meeting was planned in Port-of-Spain, where the leader, deputy leaders and chairman were tasked with inviting their networks. Not a single person showed up.

“The party’s leadership has made important decisions (eg. to forge ‘alliances’ with other parties and to contest only five constituencies) without consulting members.”

Hanamji said he had been considering resigning since March but got a push on July 26 when Hamel-Smith warned the nation to learn from its history, or it would be “doomed to repeat it”.

In a Freedom 106.5FM interview, Hamel-Smith said: “The reason we are taking our time and building a foundation is because we do not want what happened in the past to reoccur.”

Hanamji said neither Hamel-Smith nor HOPE is heeding this advice. Instead, they are hell-bent on filling the party with old thinking and falling into the same pitfalls that have played out in full view of the public.

Nunez-Tesheira said Hanamji would not be the first or last to leave a party but how he resigned was not helpful, as it does not encourage others to join. She said she had no issues with him and found him charismatic and likeable.

“I do not know that being that way was helpful to anyone or him because if he were to join another party, I would be very concerned about having him as a member because you do not want members who do things like that. You have to be concerned about people willing to throw their party, right or wrong, under the bus,” Nunez-Tesheira said.

She said the party would discuss his vacant position.

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