Griffith, Panday talk opposition unity

Basdeo Panday has again called for opposition unity in Trinidad and Tobago as the only means of defeating the governing People's National Movement (PNM). But so far there has been a cool response from the country's other opposition party, the Congress of the People (COP), led by former UNC leader, Winston Dookeran.

Panday met recently with COP founding member Gary Griffith, who is urging his leader to join Panday again befor the COP loses more support.

Griffith was Panday's security chief at his official residence when Panday was prime minister and was a member of the United National Congress (UNC) before leaving to join COP before the 2007 general election.

In a letter to Dookeran about recent talks with UNC leader Basdeo Panday, the former soldier COP leader Winston Dookeran to get an accommodation effort moving before COP loses more support.

His meeting with Panday was as a private citizen. Griffith and other COP members have planned to speak at public meetings to urge supporters to work for a united opposition. In a letter to his leader about the talks with Panday,

Griffith said: “The meeting with Mr Panday was not on behalf of the COP but in my capacity as a concerned citizen looking for the right channel to remove a PNM dictator. However, we as opposition parties are busy fighting with each other over the scraps.

“Mr Panday was honest enough to admit that some UNC members will be reluctant to have an accommodation as they want to ensure that the COP is crushed in the next local election poll. “Mr Panday stated that such a ploy would not help remove the PNM. He seems fully aware that the only way to remove the PNM in the present political framework is via some type of compromise,” Griffith added.

The former UNC security adviser told Dookeran: “If we continue down this road of hating Basdeo Panday more than our love for T&T and not giving the 350,000 anti-PNM supporters some degree of hope, then we are no better than the PNM.

“Our hate and resentment for Panday cannot be at the expense of the common good of the 350,000 who are looking to the leaders of both the UNC and COP to do the right thing.”

Griffith is determined to take the issues directly to the people because he feels it's the only way to hear their views. But Griffith's overtures might not make any difference to the COP hierarchy since he has been a pariah for some time since challenging Dookeran on the question of leadership. His showdown with the party came around the same time that another high-profile COP member quit.

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The former central bank governor was never elected by the COP membership and up to now the party has delayed holding a leadership vote. Griffith was ostracised for demanding such a vote and for saying that Dookeran is part of the problem with COP and is responsible for the party's waning support.

While he has some serious reservations about Panday, Griffith is convinced that each party needs the other. He said the COP can never win an election while Panday is alive, adding that the UNC's reduced support means it also cannot win an election. However their combined strength can easily return the opposition to power.

Panday has repeatedly sent that message to the COP and other political groups in the country. On the eve of the Nov. 2007 election he made a plea to everyone to put party aside and vote to "save the nation". It didn't work.

All through the campaign he publicly expressed a deep interest in joining with the COP but that sounded hollow and insincere since he was appealing for unity with a party that he dubbed the CORPSE.

Panday’s view is that the COP's reluctance to talk unity is keeping the PNM in power. Since the election and his bitter "look in the mirror" attack on COP for allegedly handing victory to the PNM, Panday was sought to put the past behind him and appeal for a united opposition.

He told a UNC congress recently he can't change the past but now is the right time for opposition forces to unite. And his deputy, Jack Warner, has been preaching the same sermon, offering to meet with COP to deal with the matter.

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COP chairman Roy Augustus, who used to be one of Warner's employees while the two were on different sides of the political divide, has rejected the unity overtures. His leader remains silent on the issue but Dookeran has stated often enough that he would never join Panday.

And while COP executive member Anand Ramlogan and some other executive members are in favour of unity, they have refused to consider the idea if Panday is part of the equation.

Panday is determined to press on. “Sometimes my calls meet disdain but I’ll continue to call for unity as my duty. The people all want the same thing. It is leaders who are power hungry. Lust and greed for power makes asses of men," he told the Trinidad Guardian.

He said those who are power-hungry are delaying unity and added that ultimately the democratic process dictates that the people must decide.

In an interview recently with hotlikepepperradio.com he said the real issue is that some people feel he must just hand over his power base and disappear. "That's not how it works," he said. "Power comes from the people; they choose their leader, not the other way. You cannot hand over power because it is something that is earned through trust and dedication to the people," he explained.

He said anyone is free to create a party or a political movement "but only the people can create change through their genuine response to those who are capable of leading." He pledged to keep working for unity.