Panday pledges to lead until UNC tells him to go

Basdeo Panday served notice on Sunday that major changes are coming to the United National Congress (UNC) as he addressed delegates attending the party's National Assembly at the Rienzi Complex in Couva.

Panday reiterated that he would contest the leadership at the party's internal election on January 24, 2010 and that he wants a disciplined team with him.

And he also went on the offensive with stinging attacks on the Ramjack team of Jack Warner, Ramesh. L. Maharaj and Winston "Gypsy" Peters. Warner and Maharaj were absent, but Peters was there among the estimated 2,000 delegates.

Maharaj is out of the country and Warner has refused to attend what he deems an illegal meeting. Instead he was on a walkabout in Panday's Couva North constituency.

Panday spoke about discipline and said that is what is needed if the party wants to return to government.

"Give me a disciplined team of officers and I promise you I shall give you the government. We did it once, nay, twice, and we can do it again," he said.

He said discipline is the key, noting that it is the quality that helped send the party to Whitehall in 1995 when the UNC was just six years old.

In a reference to Ramjack, Panday said he doesn't need people around him who "run to the media whenever they do not get what they want". And he repeated allegations of misappropriation of funds, without calling names.

He reminded his audience that it was Maharaj who brought down the UNC government in 2001. Maharaj and two other cabinet ministers left the party over allegations of corruption and tried to make a deal with then opposition leader Patrick Manning.

Panday stopped the plan and called fresh elections, which ended in the 18-18 tie that propelled Manning into office when President Robinson fired Panday saying he need to have a government of "spirituality and morality".

In a direct broadside against Warner, Panday suggested that the FIFA vice chairman is a traitor to the UNC and a dishonest person.

"Where were those who now want to take over the party? Where were they?...they want to rob the UNC of your money and fry you in your own fat. I assure you that will never happen as long as I live," he declared.

"They know that to hijack this party they will have to pass me first, that is why they are trying to pass me out. From the time we called for an account of the millions they received on behalf of this party, they began to call for change.

"They say they want change, well, I want change too. I want the change from the money they collect for this party and for which they refuse to account," he said.

"I have said it before and I say it again, to destroy this party they have to destroy me first...I have always told you I will lead you so long as you want me to. I shall never be a yoke around your neck," he said.

"I shall leave only when you tell me to go", he said, adding that he would never step aside for "those power hungry vultures waiting for me to die so that they can inherit this great party."

Panday said that is why he is contesting the party elections on the 24th January, 2010, which he said would give the party an opportunity to pass judgment and "tell me if to go or to stay."