One of Basdeo Panday’s famous lines is, “If you see me and a lion fighting, feel sorry for the lion.” And in his more than four decades in politics he has fought many intense battles against heavy odds to demonstrate that he is indeed a warrior who doesn’t run away from a fight. Or as he himself says, “I don’t duck and run.”And those who have engaged him in battle know that in the end Panday wins. Raffique Shah, Kelvin Ramnath, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, A.N.R. Robinson, Winston Dookeran and Patrick Manning have experienced Panday’s wrath.
In the political bloodletting that threatened to destroy his United National Congress (UNC) Panday stood firm as he watched his anointed successor Winston Dookeran walk away with many UNC ‘loyalists’ to create a new political organization while the political pundits wrote him off as a spent force.
The political pundits put their bets on the new kids on the block; they were wrong. The pollsters scoffed at Panday; they were wrong. The people drifted away for a while and then they came back, as they always do.
From the ashes, Panday emerged once more to prove that no one could keep him down. With his trusted friend and ally, Jack Warner, he put together a powerful alliance that comprised smaller political parties and included his former political foe and former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, and his deputy leaders Kamla Persad Bissessar, Jack Warner and Wade Mark.
Panday and Warner led the UNC Alliance to a stunning victory that few expected. Had Winston Dookeran and the Congress of the People (COP) heeded Panday’s calls for a united opposition front, the political history of Trinidad and Tobago would have been altered dramatically and Patrick Manning and his People’s National Movement would likely be sitting on the opposition benches today.
Now Panday is back home from a sojourn in England where he was at his wife’s bedside during her illness and surgery. And he’s ready to do battle against Manning.
Panday has everything on his side. For the first time since 1986 the nation is united in a common cause that is not tied to political partisanship or ethnic rivalry.
The reality in Trinidad and Tobago today is that Prime Minister Patrick Manning is blinded by his own arrogance and so obsessed with power that he considers himself invincible. But he isn’t; no one is.
And if Panday is serious about mobilizing the nation Manning should start getting worried. Here’s why.
Manning is unpopular even in his own party. The purge of people like Ken Valley, Eddie Hart and Fitzgerald Hinds before the last election was a sign that he was cleaning house to expand his autocratic rule. He reluctantly kept Penny Beckles and he seems to have Colm Imbert right where he wanted him.
The only remaining thorn on his side was Keith Rowley. And when Rowley touched Manning’s sacred cows – UDeCOTT and Calder Hart – it was too much. Rowley had to go.
So much for the inside story.
In the public eye, he is also losing support. His oath of office in Woodford Square, his refusal to fire Martin Joseph and find a new police commissioner, his coziness with criminal ‘community leaders’, the escalation of violent crime, the reckless spending – including a plan to buy a $400 million private jet that’s still on the agenda – his inability to deal with rising food prices, his failure to develop agriculture and so much more provide the script for Panday’s next big political act in the country.
Manning had created all the right conditions during his 2002-2007 administration for the opposition to remove him; they failed because they refused to unite.
Now Manning is at it again, showing disdain for the nation and running a government that appears to be accountable only to him.
His outright refusal to consider an effective probe into UDeCOTT creates doubt and makes people wonder what he is hiding and why is Calder Hart so important. The enquiry he announced Friday is aimed at bringing down the heat but it is a far cry from an enquiry into UDeCOTT.
Tens of thousands of people cannot afford shelter. Their children are hungry; they cannot afford medical care; bulldozers are mowing down their crops and destroying their shacks. Yet the nation has money to construct billion-dollar white elephants that feed Manning’s ego and do nothing to develop the economy and insulate it to deal with the bust that’s coming after this boom.
Today, the nation has an opportunity to rise together and speak with one voice and tell Manning he must serve the nation or be fired. And Panday is ready to lead.
It is a common political premise that a people get the government they deserve. Perhaps that’s true.
But in a democracy the people are more powerful than those who govern them. And that is why Panday has one final golden opportunity to unite the people – all the people, including those who helped put Manning in office.
Ken Valley and Keith Rowley must join Panday. They cannot have their cake and eat it too. The trade unions, the private sector organizations, the NGO’s, the concerned individuals like Mary King must all put nation first and stand up and fight this battle.
This is not a UNC or UNC Alliance issue. This is a national one. Manning is on a destructive course that is taking Trinidad and Tobago down a path of no return. Trinidad and Tobago is in great danger. And everyone must stand up for the nation.
Manning has the full resources of the state at his disposal and more money than any administration has ever seen, yet he refuses to solve the country’s most basic problem while squandering billions. But the power of the people is stronger.
Panday can provide the leadership, but only if the nation will stand up for justice, equality and freedom.
We are still a democracy where the will of the majority is supreme.
Manning claims to be a man of morality and spirituality, yet despite presiding over a period of surging oil prices, he has proven himself incapable of serving the interest of his people.
There is no moral or spiritual reason for Manning’s failure; he cannot even blame his party because he has proven his distaste for any form of responsible dissent.
Incompetence and self-indulgence cannot be tolerated from a Prime Minister, and it is time for a united opposition of citizens to speak out for the future of this country.
This is not a soliloquy of political parties; this must be a national movement of Trinidadians and Tobagonians, regardless of their race, religion, or political allegiances, to transcend the confines of politics and struggle for the welfare of the nation’s people.
If we are ‘forged from the love of liberty’ then now is the time for us to show it.
Jai Parasram and Ajay Parasram | Toronto, May 24, 2008
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