LETTER: Stop the lie about Harold Lovell and Joanne Massiah

Letter to the Editor

 Stop the lie about Harold Lovell and Joanne Massiah

To say that the UPP kicked out Joanne Massiah because she challenged Harold Lovell for leadership is a BIG LIE.

It is time to stop the lie. I am no longer a member but I remember how things went down.

Lovell proposed that Joanne make a bid for the leadership because he had lost.  The party did not approve. The party felt she was not ready and that he should continue to lead the party. She was not happy with that position because as she said “she won her seat and he lost his”.

Lovell went back in the game because the party insisted.  She could have read the tea leaves and thrown in with him. She would have taken over after him. However, she listened to her friends in the ALP who buttered her up and advised her to run against him.

When the leadership race started, she was losing big time to Lovell in the four branches they contested. At a general council meeting to present the two teams to the membership, she cried foul, took her team, walked out and stayed outside with the most terrible conduct. Against the wishes of some senior members, Lovell and his advisors met with her to patch things up, but the meeting was inconclusive.

 She became sour and she and her team began a reign of resistance to the party. After a long period, the party had no choice but to expel her for the unsavory things she was doing like walking out of meetings, giving negative media interviews about the party, recording party meetings and posting them on air, etc.

Imhoff was a disciple of Massiah. She was brought to the party by Massiah. She had plenty attitude and made sure everyone knew how much she thought of herself. After Massiah left, she was a UPP primary candidate for St Peter. After losing badly, she threw a tantrum and left and joined Massiah’s party. Of course, she was not happy there too and left.

It is interesting to note that if Joanne was still in UPP and she was over where she is now, if she Imhoff would have been so accommodating to her.  

Back then the UPP was so hung up on getting women in the party leadership that it moved hastily and made a lot of mistakes trying to do this. They let the Labour Party sucker them into this by saying they do not like women in their party. This was furthest from the truth. The dilemma was getting women who could deal with the politics Labour Party style and win.

 It is time the men review the mistakes made doing this and take a hard, long honest look at the right way this should be done to get better parity. The gap that Gisele Isaac filled was left gaping open because the party did not know how to achieve meaningful accommodation. Isaac walked in, cleaned house and set out her own furniture and tea set.

At present, it looks like the men are on the back burner. The old guard leadership seems to have thrown up its hands trying to find a clinical way to tame Isaac and her minions.

That is not good for the UPP nor the call for good leadership to achieve governance in the next general elections. 

King Truth

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