By Prior Beharry
DR FUAD KHAN who is vying to become the next political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) admits that it’s an “uphill climb”.
But he said he hoped that the UNC membership understood the process he was articulating where there will be one leader heading the party and another in charge of the team in parliament.
The UNC internal election is on Sunday and Khan is challenging incumbent Kamla Persad-Bissesar for the top position in the party.
He said the current system within the UNC was not going to work since being in Parliament consumed much time at the sacrifice of paying attention to the party.
Khan said, “So you need somebody in the party who does not have their eye on Parliament and the desire to be there but the desire to have the party to win (general elections).”
Asked about his recent campaign video when he took on his online persona Ras G with a puppet squirrel to articulate his vision of two leaders, Khan said it was a means of getting his message across.
He said, “It takes a lot of intelligence to do comedy that will carry a message across. The idea about comedy is for people to laugh at it, have a good time but understand the message.”
He gave the example of American comedian George Carlin “who used comedy but was very serious in his approach.”
Khan added, “And I recommend to a lot of people to look at Carlin but understand the message.” He said Ukriane President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did the same thing like Carlin.
The former minister under Persad-Bissessar between 2010 and 2015, said, “People who are against you will say you are not serious and try to bring you down but they don’t have the intelligence to use comedy to have the message brought to the lower and upper ranks of the people while they laugh.”
He added, “Studies have shown that when people are laughing and smiling at something it internalizes in their brain.”
On election day on Sunday, Khan said he will be all over ensuring that the voting process was a smooth and transparent one.
