Jack challenges Bas to resign his seat, says Ramnath was plotting to oust Panday

Fresh from a meeting at which the United National Congress (UNC) failed to proceed with disciplinary charges against him, UNC Deputy Leader Jack Warner addressed supporters at a Platform for Change meeting in El Dorado telling them fear is not an option.

He also dropped a bombshell, stating that less that a year ago Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath "called Ramesh, Sylvester Ramquar and I , for a wife-cooked dinner in his home, to plot the demise of Panday."

And he put out a challenge for his leader.

"Let Bas resign his seat in Couva North and I will resign mine in Chaguanas West and let Bas and me go back up in Couva North. That is the challenge I give him tonight!"

Speaking about the party's attempt to bring 25 charges against him, Warner called it another brazen attempt by the UNC to silence the voice for change from within. "But tonight as I welcome you to this Platform for Change let me warn you that fear is not an option; together we will fight and together we will win," he promised.

He said the UNC's letter accusing him of bringing the party into disrepute seemed to have a finality about it that suggested the party has already made a decision and "judgment had been passed and an executioner appointed".

He repeated the point he made in a letter to the executive - that in his opinion the executive is not properly constituted to summon anyone before it and therefore lacks the moral legitimacy to summon him.

Read the story: Warner strikes back at UNC...

He charged that the group of “good men and women” who had conspired to summon him to an inquisition had made public the most offensive and damaging statements about his character, calling him a schemer.

He wondered how his fellow deputy leader Kamla Persad Bissessar could publicly declare war against him, a sitting UNC-A Member of Parliament, and the party failed to summon her to explain why she was bringing the party into disrepute.

It's part of the UNC's double standard, he said. He raised other similar points to demonstrate bias and wondered how people who have maligned him have not been brought before a disciplinary committee, including ousted Chaguanas mayor Suruj Rambachan who hosts a daily radio show to attack his opponents who have no chance to defend themselves.

He called for support for the Platform for Change, saying "the Rienzi UNC, my people, must be stopped. If it is allowed to continue along this path you the people will suffer."

He added, "For too long we have allowed the “Old” Bas to run things his way and the result is election after election the Party gets weaker and weaker and loses its ability to win any elections."

He referred the people who have been discarded by Panday including Hulsie Bhaggan, Ralph Maraj, Trevor Sudama, Winston Dookeran, Ganga Singh, Gerard Yetming, Manohar Ramsaran, Roy Augustus, Raffique Shah, Gillian Lucky and Sadiq Baksh.

"How much stronger our Party would have been" had their voices not been silenced, he asked.

"Rather than recognize the will of you the people, he rides roughshod in a dictatorial manner over decisions made and installs whomsoever he wishes to the detriment of the party," he said in reference to Panday's history of vendetta.

"His failure to recognize the leadership of Winston Dookeran resulted in the loss of 148,000 people who voted for the COP, and which would have made a difference between being in government and being in opposition," he said.

Warner charged that Panday is obsessed with power and that has "virtually ensured that the Trinidad and Tobago population will never trust another opposition alliance once he stands at the helm or at any point within it."

He wondered why the national executive is bent on judging him when it has not asked Panday to be accountable for the lack of an audited financial report of the Party’s accounts for the last 20 years.

And he had another question: "How come the Natex has not summoned the “Old” Bas to explain why he insists in holding on to office after failing to win six General Elections?"

He referred to Tim Gopeesingh's charge of "ethnic cleansing" against the government as a ploy by people whose backs are against a wall.

At the same time he admitted that the Manning administration is guilty of political, religious, cultural and racial discrimination but insisted there is no "ethnic cleansing".

Related: Panday says discrimination and racism are real in T&T

He called Panday "the most ungracious man I have ever met". adding, "We cannot afford to sit on our laurels under an ungrateful leader...because ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge."

He said the people who support the Platform for Change are not dissidents but the party labelled them so because of what they represent.

And he had a message for the people. "Do not be silent for, if you are, by your silence you will be abdicating your right and your authority to speak up against wrongdoing."

He said he will in the court of public opinion and the the High Court. And he promised that he won't end up in Panday's political cemetery.