Jack says he will take Panday to court next week

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner told United National Congress (UNC) supporters Friday night he will take Basdeo Panday to court next week to seek legal redress for public statements Panday made this week suggesting that there might be a link between Warner and drug lords.

Warner was incensed earlier this week when Panday suggested that the $309,000 he presented to the Chaguanas Borough Corporation might have come from drug lords. The MP and deputy UNC leader gave the borough the money to pay the wages for 54 contract workers who had been laid off because of a budget shortfall.

"Mr Warner said it was a grant, where did the money come from? Was the grant made available to Mr Warner or the corporation? These are extremely important questions," Panday said on a radio program.

He also noted that it's important for the country to know whether the money was coming from drug lords seeking to control the borough.

Read the story: Warner threatens to sue Panday...

Warner played a tape recording of Panday's comments. He told supporters he is not forgiving him for slandering him.

Warner said he has reluctantly put the issue in his the hands of his English attorney Alan Newman, QC, who arrives Tuesday to begin proceedings by next Friday against Panday regarding the allegations.

"Never in my wildest expectations did I ever think such a day would have ever occurred as my taking Bas to court. I left that for the government. But Bas has now gone too far and, for me, enough is enough!" he said.

Warner was speaking at a public meeting attended by about 2,000 people following the opening of a private political office in Panday's Couva North constituency.

He said Friday was just the beginning of what's to come. "What you are seeing in Couva North today will blossom and grow and extend to other constituencies as Couva South, Cumuto Manzanilla, Princess Town North, Oropouche West and Caroni East, to name a few"

He invited everyone to "come on board on this vehicle, this Platform For Change. No longer will you be a spectator to change but instead now you will choose change and you will stand up and be counted."

Warner said he had come to Couva North not to lecture anyone, but to listen to what constituents have to say. "We in Trinidad & Tobago are in a bad way, a very bad way indeed under Patrick Manning’s Government but we are in a worse way under the UNC as it is presently administered," he declared.

The Chaguanas West MP said what is most clear is that today the UNC in its present state cannot remove Manning and he said everyone must share the blame for that.

He said no one should delude himself/herself into believing that the UNC can fix itself based "on the whims and fancies of one man – the Chief - the man who has not been seen in some parts of this constituency for more than 30 years."

Warner was adamant that Panday cannot fix the present crisis. "This is a new world today, this is 2009 and not 1989! Trust in the UNC leadership today is at an all time low," he pointed out.

He said the problems facing the party represent only the tip of the iceberg and added that worse is to come unless the UNC membership moves to stop "Panday's runaway political train".

He acknowledged that as Prime Minister, Panday had done a lot for the people and the nation with limited resources, but noted that today Panday is tarnished and has lost the trust of the people.

"There is no politician alive today whom I know that could be as charming and who can light up a room by his sheer presence as Basdeo Panday. But Bas’ politics is no longer relevant today and it will never ever get us back into Government!" Warner said.

"The time has come for a new kind of politics, a politics that takes care of the people first," he said.

"My brothers and sisters, friends and foes alike, today our Party, like our country, faces serious challenges. And as such it cannot be business as usual.

"Let us recognise these challenges for what they are and together let us work to overcome them. Let us take Obama's statement, "Yes you can" one step further to "Yes, we will" and, in doing so, let us create a Party and a country for all generations to come."