Panday waves the olive branch, appeals for opposition unity

Basdeo Panday launched a vicious attack on Winston Dookeran and his Congress of The People (COP) on Nov. 5, 2007, blaming COP and its leader for reinstating the PNM in government. On Sunday he sounded almost repentant as he called for unity among all opposition groups including COP.

"There is no point in crying over spoilt milk," the opposition leader said. "We cannot undo what was done on Nov. 5, 2007 but we can make sure that it does not happen again. That is why we must make sure that we never again divide our votes."

He was speaking at the national Assembly of his United National Congress (UNC) at the Rienzi Complex, Couva. And he was referring to the PNM's strong 26 seat majority in general elections while the combined opposition vote was higher than the PNM's.

In the aftermath of his defeat Panday blamed Dookeran and COP for their own defeat and the defeat of the UNC Alliance, which won 15 of the 41 seats.

"I want to say to every one of you who voted for Corpse, every time one of your family or friends is murdered, kidnapped, beaten, robbed and raped, I want you to go in front of a mirror and look at yourself. And I want you to confess to yourself because you are responsible because you voted PNM or you voted COP or you did not vote at all," Panday told the handful of supporters at the Rienzi Complex.

And he blamed Dookeran. "Winston Dookeran, not all thy tears and all thy regrets shall wash away an inch of what you have done to yourself and your country. Shame on you! And shame on the Corpse!" he declared.

Read the speech: Panday verbatim

On Sunday Panday apologized for the absence of key UNC members Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, deputy political leaders Jack Warner, Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Wade Mark, and Kelvin Ramnath. Some of them were out of the country, he explained, while others were ill.

The former prime minister spoke of the need to end divisive opposition politics while pointing out that the government had failed to deal with the most pressing national problems. He said the return of the PNM to office brought a dark cloud over the nation.

Trinidad and Tobago in 2008 is a nation where "the poor is becoming poorer and the rich have become super rich," he said. And he added that it is all because the opposition failed to unite as a combined force against the PNM in the last election.

"Unless we can face the fact there is no hope for us. Disunity and division are the reasons why today we have to weep as we see the earth turned red with the blood of our children...this is the punishment we must endure for that tragic mistake we made on Nov. 5, 2007 when we divided our votes and allowed the PNM to win the elections," Panday lamented.

And he once again offered to unite the opposition. The UNC stands ready, willing and eager to engage in discussion and dialogue with any and all groups that want to see change for the better in this country, he told supporters.

"We set no preconditions. We shall approach any and all unity talks with an open mind not knowing where these talks will take us. What we do know is that we must begin by sitting down and hammering out the conditions for lasting unity. We are prepared to conduct these talks in public if needs be so that we will hide nothing from our friends and supporters", he pledged.

Panday's call comes within two months of Dookeran's own musings about opposition unity.

Speaking in September shortly after his return from a teaching assignment in Helsinki, Dookeran said his party was ready to talk with other opposition groups with the aim of forming a coalition to defeat the PNM.

"The overriding urge for coalition politics to beat the PNM has been echoed so often. But remember we will need to take whatever is required to build a grand consensus, including talking to all the civil society organizations and, if necessary, the political parties," Dookeran said.

It was an about turn from his stand a year ago on the eve of the 2007 election when he rejected all calls from Panday to unite the opposition.

On Nov. 3, 2007 Panday went on national radio and appealed to the the nation to come together as a united opposition and defeat the PNM. And he invited Dookeran to join his call. COP insisted it would stand alone and win.

Time had softened Dookeran's position. “We will need to walk that road, but we will walk that road without giving up in any way what we know is necessary. Change is what we want,” Dookeran told supporters.

At that time Panday welcomed Dookeran's overtures, saying the door of political unity was still open to the party.

"We’ve always been open; we’ve always been for unity. We have not changed our minds."

Panday and Dookeran worked together as far back as the days of the United Labour Front (ULF) when Dookeran was elected as the MP for Chaguanas on a ULF platform. His first break with Panday came when Panday and some of his loyal former ULF members walked out of the NAR government.

Dookeran remained with Robinson because he felt it was the right thing to do. As a candidate for NAR in the 1991 election he was soundly defeated by the UNC candidate, Hulsie Bhaggan, who later fell out with Panday and is now an executive member of Dookeran's COP.

Chaguanas was the Waterloo for all who crossed swords with Panday - Dookeran, Bhaggan and Manohar Ramsaran. Dookeran was encouraged to return to the UNC and Panday gave him the safe St Agustine seat, which he comfortably won for the UNC in 2002.

Panday went further and personally nominated Dookeran for the leadership of the UNC, telling the party not to run a candidate against him. But shortly after getting the party's leadership on a platter he was hijacked by some dissident elements who helped him create the COP.

In 2007 while the COP generated wide support, getting 148,000 votes, it failed to win a seat while the UNC Alliance won 15 with 199,000 votes. It only made things easier for Manning and the PNM to win because the COP was fishing in the opposition pond and its support was never in PNM territory.

According to one political commentator who asked to be anonymous, there still remains suspicion and policy chasms between Panday and Dookeran.

"But the reality is that Panday still commands a constituency that has remained loyal to him for 40 years. If there is to be any unity it must embrace Panday," he said adding that "the COP experiment in 2007 demonstrated that clearly and also proved that splitting the opposition vote is a gift to the governing party."