Jack slams Panday for racist attack

Jack Warner slammed into United National Congress leader Basdeo Panday at a meeting in Princes Town Wednesday night for what Warner said was a racist comment from Panday.

Warner told supporters Panday referred to him as a monkey and kirwal, a pejorative Hindi word used to describe black men.

The Chaguanas West MP, who is running for chairman of the United National Congress in this month's UNC internal election, said he was disappointed that for the first time Panday used a racist term to talk about him.

His comment was about statements that Panday allegedly made at a meeting in Felicity. Panday is campaigning for reelection and is facing opposition from two of his MPs - Ramesh L. Maharaj and Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Warner said it is sad that Panday would "stoop so low" and wondered about Panday's relationship with Sen. Wade Mark, a close ally of Panday, who is also black.

He said in all his life he has been colour blind, reminding his audience that he was raised in Longdenville, in Central Trinidad, in a community that was predominantly Indian but only saw human beings.

He and his classmates at Presentation College, Chaguanas, he said, never saw colour and he never felt uneasy about being among Indians.

He added that in his professional life he has always judged people for their competence and suitability for their duties, rather than their ethnic origin. As an example, he said he chose attorney Om Lalla, not for his race but for his ability.

Warner said he is sure that those who share Panday's racist views are a small minority in the UNC, noting that in the 2007 general election he won a landslide in his constituency because of the votes of the mainly Indian electorate.

"They saw a leader, not a black man; they voted for a leader, not a black man," he said.

Warner said he has travelled to 166 world nations and met leaders everywhere, including U.S. President barack Obama, but nowhere did he see people in ethnic terms and neither did they see him as anything but another person.

He said he thought carefully about the racist attack and decided to design an election symbol that rises above that. He promised to reveal the symbol on Monday.

He also raised matters relating to the January 24 election and slammed Mark and his opponent for the chairmanship, Vasant Bharat. Mark is running for reelection as deputy leader.

Warner described Mark as lacking integrity and ethics for seeking reelection when he knows it is against the party rules for a member of the elections committees to be nominated for the election.

He said the rules were designed to ensure free and fair elections. Warner added that Mark has had access to confidential membership data as a member of the membership committee and accused him of "insider trading" in having such access before declaring his intention to run.

He had the same concerns about Bharat, who is a member of the elections committee. He has written to the party asking for both of them to be disqualified from running along with another member of the Panday team.

Warner also accused the party of arbitrarily removing the names of 500 life members from the UNC's membership list and wondered how this could happen while these people are still alive.

A life member cannot stop being a member unless she or he dies, he noted.