Commentary: Kamla's gamble

Up to the last moment, Kamla Persad-Bissessar seemed unsure that she really wanted to make the boldest move of her political career - to take on the mighty Basdeo Panday who has said famously that "if you see me and a lion fighting, feel sorry for the lion."

It was a difficult decision, she explained, but she did it for the party and for the country.

Now it's left to see how her gamble plays out.

For weeks she was hearing the same words from friends, supporters and advisers: Your time has come, only you could do it.

Even her estranged political colleagues Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner and Mayaro MP Gypsy Warner were saying she is fit to lead.

While Peters made it clear he would choose the Siparia MP over his colleague Ramesh L. Maharaj, who is also running for the leadership, Warner was careful not to burn bridges.

He had said Persad-Bissessar was eminently qualified to lead the party and he stands by it. For him, the election is something the membership must decide.

So the starting gun has fired and there are three powerful figures in the race. It is the first time ever that someone has dared to challenge "the chief" head on.

That in itself is a sign of the times and a signal that the UNC is accepting that it cannot be business as usual - or at least some members are accepting that.

Panday still has the support of most members of the Parliamentary caucus, but his detractors say that's all he has and that he would lose in a free and fair vote on January 24, 2010.

But those who support the former prime minister say Persad-Bissessar is taking too much of a gamble and she is destined to be a political footnote, another casualty in the long list of people who have confronted Panday, going back to the earliest ULF days.

But Persad-Bissessar's gamble has some logic to it, and even if she does not win the coveted leader's job she would have demonstrated that she has the courage that leadership demands, the courage to stand up against friends and allies and say, we have to change the way we do things.

And she would have demonstrated the same commitment to the vision of the UNC that attracted her to it following the 1991 election when she was a member of NAR. Even as she told supporters that she was going after Panday's job she was praising her "political guru and mentor" as the best leader the country ever had.

So why make the drastic move?

That, she explained, was because times have changed and Panday no longer has the support to take the party back to government. There is national consensus on that although Panday's closest allies are saying that is not so.

In fact former UNC Senator Robin Montano is of the opinion that despite all the venom from Panday haters, the former prime minister might still be able to command strong support and possibly win back office if he could woo back some defectors to the infant COP back to the UNC.

However, some of Panday's own people are worried that Panday could be pulled under by the tide in favour of Persad-Bissessar. And they are saying rather than shake things up, they'll go with the flow and retire to a comfortable pension after the present Parliament is dissolved.

Popular opinion seems to suggest that if she were going into a one-on-one fight with the PNM today she would defeat the party and become prime minister.

And that really is the gamble.

At 57, she knows that she has limited fighting days ahead. To sit this one out would have meant never having a shot at it again. On the other hand if she pulls it off there is a very strong chance that she could immediately unite the opposition, which is a proposition to make Patrick Manning shudder. And then go the next step and remove the PNM and become Trinidad and Tobago's first female prime minister.

But even if she can't beat Panday there is a chance that she would have signalled her intention to unite and lead a strong opposition. And that would be an important statement not only about her determination to lead, but as a strong representative of her gender.

She set the tone that she was not fighting a personal battle, but a principled one in which there would be no mudslinging to gain cheap political points.

While he made it clear that she still respected the man she is setting out to dethrone she also pointed out without saying it directly, now is the time for him to hand over.

"We have had a leader with vision and foresight in Mr Basdeo Panday. This is a man who led from his heart, with equality as his guiding light," she observed.

But then she declared, "Now is the time to shake this nation out of its slumber. And to do it requires courageous, skillful leaders who can seize the opportunity to change things for the better."

Courageous and skillful were the buzzwords.

She is the one, she was saying, with the courage and the skill to do what Panday had done before but can no longer accomplish, which is "to return this nation to the glory that once defined it before it was abused and polluted by Patrick Manning and the PNM."

It is early days yet. There could very well more more challengers and the leadership candidates are yet to say how they will achieve the lofty goals of uniting the UNC and the rest of the opposition into a battle-ready army to defeat the PNM.

But persad-Bissessar has made a decisive step forward from which there is no turning back. Whether she wins or not, she would have made one bold move for her party and the nation and a quantum leap for women.

Jai Parasram | Toronto, Dec. 12, 2009.