"I don't trust Mr Panday": Dookeran

Congress of the People (COP) leader Winston Dookeran said on a morning radio show Friday morning that he does not trust Basdeo Panday.

Dookeran was speaking with Hansly Adjodha on the U-talk show on 97.5fm.

Asked about whether he can work with the leader of the United National Congress (UNC) for a united opposition, he said he cannot trust Panday because he reneges on what he says.

Dookeran has pledged to unite all opposition forces to defeat the People's National Movement (PNM) and has said his party is the only one that is capable of doing that because it reprents a new, forward thinking brand of politics.

He criticized both Panday and prime minister Patrick Manning at a political meeting earlier this week, saying both men have formed an alliance to protect their dwindling support among their own constituencies.

Read the story: COP leader demands Panday, Manning reveal "secret agenda"

Panday has criticized Dookeran for suggesting that the UNC should join COP, saying a party with no representation in Parliament is out of place to tell the UNC, which has 15 MPs, that it is irrelevant.

Dookeran siezed on that comment to say because COP does not have a seat in Parliament it has become the political movement to speak for all the people. "We will stand up for all the people," he said.

"For too long we have been fooled and for some time thought that there was hope, but time has passed, the days are over, a new generation is on the scene, a new dynamics is in our country," Dookeran said.

He added, "We can no longer remain a country in which we simply talk about our ills...We in the COP tell you this is the time for action and we shall lead this country out of the mire it has found itself."