Who's the leader? Time running out for UNC Alliance

Basdeo Panday made it clear Friday night in Rio Claro that he's not going away and he also said that as far as he is concerned there's going to be three parties contesting the upcoming general election.

In other words, there will be no deal with the Congress of the People. In a week of rumours and behind the scene intrigue in the opposition ranks this new chapter in the Trinidad and Tobago political soap opera came as no surprise.

COP Leader Winston Dookeran had also made the same pronouncement, although in less dramatic fashion, possibly leaving room for some kind of compromise. According to Dookeran he would not talk unity with Panday as leader of the UNC.

So was the leaving the door open? Perhaps. It was no shocking news when the Trinidad Express heard from "sources" that a move was afoot to dump the UNC leader for the Opposition Leader, who happens to also be a deputy political leader of the United National Congress.

For her part, Kamla Persad Bissessar was batting in her crease and quickly informed the media that she knew of no such moves in the party's back room. And when the media ambushed Bas to inquire about whether he met a certain party financier in London, inquiring what they talked about, the wily Bas informed the reporter that the hot topic was the vindaloo at the the Indian restaurant where he dined with Lawrence Duprey.

But the drama became rather interesting Friday night in Rio Claro. Kamla ended her brief address with an impassioned plea for unity in the opposition. She said Patrick Manning's policy of divisiveness and discrimination was destroying the nation and only a united opposition could save the nation. The nation was crying for unity.

Was she the one who could deliver it? Was she saying if Bas can't do it she can? What made it more interesting was that it came within minutes of Jack Warner's stern message to the COP that it was "rude and farse" to even suggest that the UNC should merge with it.

How can an upstart party with no track record be so bold as ask that of one that had served the nation for 19 years, built and sustained its constituency on the basis of democracy, and had the most effective and productive track record in government in the history of the nation.

So why were these two deputies not singing from the same song sheet?

Well the chief set matters straight when he came out swinging with his pronouncement that "Red dead, and PNM gone."

Panday was in charge; he was going nowhere unless he died or his constituents in Couva North told him to leave, and he didn't expect any of that to happen before the next election. He was sending a clear message to pretenders to the throne. But not clear enough to the electorate.

He still didn't say what they had come to hear: who's the leader? And then he slammed the door on any unity deal with Dookeran and the COP. There will be three parties in the next election, he said.

See related story: Panday declares political war on PNM, COP

So where does this all lead and what does it mean? If I were Patrick Manning I would pull the date from my back pocket right away because it sounded like a good time to profit from the splintered opposition factor.

But before you start blaming Panday for this, check the script of this political soap and the way the drama unfolded. It was Bas who handed Dookeran the leadership of the the UNC. It was Bas who offered the olive branch and it was Dookeran who looked the other way.

And while Dookeran was posing as leader of the UNC he was secretly building a party within the party and making plans to become a new messiah. The famous Freeport declaration was both unethical and dishonest.

Here's why. Up to days before that event, Dookeran was saying he wanted to mend fences in the UNC and make the leadership thing work. How could you say that, and in less than a week put together a mass meeting to be crowned leader of a new party?

So don't point that finger at one person. Bas alone didn't write that script.

Having said that, the real issue in the next few days, weeks and months is not who to blame but how to win an election.

Every serious politician knows that a day is a lifetime in politics. Basdeo Panday is the personification of compromise and deal making. He's been doing it for 40 years. He handed Robinson a party and made him prime minister, fought openly with him, left and formed his UNC, then came back to government as prime minister with Robinson as his ally as Manning sat sulking in the opposition leader's chair.

Panday tossed out Kelvin Ramnath and annointed Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj but when he was ready to dispense with his former Attorney General he brought Kelvin out of retirement to show Ramesh who was boss.

So don't write off a deal of some kind. In fact, expect one.

But this raises the much bigger question of leadership. Was Kamla making a play and suggesting that opposition unity was bigger than one person? Was Panday saying the matter was settled? Who's holding an ace? And where's the Jack? Is someone planning to hang a Jack or make the best strategic use of the Jack?

When the UNC created an alliance with other small parties and pressure groups it left the leadership question wide open. One member of the alliance said it was better that way because it would ensure that the media didn't focus on just a leader during the election campaign.

Read related column: How to win an election, or lose one

Panday's take on the leadership matter was that it was better to decide that in consultation with the parliamentary caucus, AFTER the election. That, he said, would be more democratic.

I can't believe Panday is ready to make the same mistake he made in his 1981 Alliance with A.N.R. Robinson's Democratic Action Congress (DAC) and Lloyd Best's Tapia. Three parties, no leader. The result was a confused electorate, a PNM landslide and the end of the alliance.

In an election as important as the one that's coming, people must be clear about a few things: why am I voting for this party, what makes it different, why should I bother to change what I have?

But most important, who is going to be Prime Minister?

So far we have not heard anything about policy from the UNC Alliance. It's been small stuff and lots of venom-spitting but nothing to convince the nation that it deserves to be in Whitehall.

Panday is sounding like the leader he is with fire in his belly. But both he and the UNC Alliance are short-changing the electorate.

I sincerely believe that people want change. Patrick Manning has given people enough reasons to be fed up and frustrated, but so far the opposition - both the COP and the UNC Alliance - have failed to seize the opportunity and offer the people an alternative.

In three weeks the UNC Alliance will hold its coming out rally. Panday has set high expectations. Let's hope that if he gets the 15,000 he is counting on that he will tell them once and for all, here's your leader.

And let us not delude ourselves into believing that a leader is anyone who is called a leader. The people of Trinidad and Tobago know who is a leader and they know who is not. Bas knows that too.

A leader, according to former American President John Quincy Adams, "inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more."

No team wins without a leader. There are many wannabe leaders in the UNC Alliance, but few have what it takes. Come on Bas. Time is running out. Level with the people. Who's the leader? Tell them who is the next Prime Minister.

Jai Parasram | 16 Sept. 2007