Panday won't discuss party matters in public, seeks talks with COP leader

Basdeo Panday disappointed the media and others who expected him to attack his political colleagues Monday night and declared instead that he would focus his attacks on the Manning government, particularly the draft constitution document the prime minister laid in Parliament last week.

And he said any matter relating to the party would be settled internally. To do otherwise, he said, would be "an act of gross indiscipline.”

The media were expecting an attack on Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj who was not on the platform when the United National Congress (UNC) opened its series of Monday night meetings in Maharaj's constituency.

There are conflicting reports on why Maharaj was not there. The MP claimed that his name was scratched off the list, but the party denied that. The other MP was was noticeably absent was Jack Warner, who was not invited to speak. Several other UNC-A parliamentarians were there, including Hamza Rafeeq, Kelvin Ramnath and Roodal Moonilal.

The UNC political leader, wearing bright yellow golf shirt, told supporters Manning's new constitution draft, which would make the prime minister an executive president without facing an election, presents a new threat to democracy. And he said that's what he wants to keep in focus and on his agenda.

He also said he would seek approval from his national executive to hold discussions with Congress of the People (COP) Leader Winston Dookeran on the constitution matter. "That fact will determine how I will use my time on this Monday night forum for the next four months,” Panday said.

On the matter of the perceived crisis in his party Panday was adamant that he won't discuss any internal matter in public. And he served notice that he would fight to the end to protect the UNC, which he and some loyal supporters founded 20 years ago.

“I only want to say that this party this year will be 20 years old, and it took a lot of blood, a lot of sweat and a lot of tears of you and me and all of us to build this party and to carry it where it is. And nobody will destroy this party whether from the inside or the outside, except over our dead bodies.”

In a related development, Maharaj and Warner are holding their own people's forum in Macaulay Thursday and they have invited their opposition parliamentary colleagues to attend.

The agenda for the meeting includes "a report to the people on developments within the UNC-A and the need for the the UNC-A to win government." Other agenda items include crime and social ills and the draft constitution and "dictatorship in T&T".