Kamla not ready to lead; Ramesh needs to develop stability: Panday

Basdeo Panday in convinced that Kamla Persad-Bissessar is not ready for leadership.

In an interveiw with Anna Ramdass in the Express newspaper, he spoke about the Siparia MP's unity efforts on behalf of the United National Congress as an example of the deficient leadership qualities.

"She was given a chance to prove her leadership. She was actually appointed chairman of a high-powered committee to forward the unity process and she didn’t succeed, so I find it difficult to know what’s she’s talking about when she said she’s the key to unity or she will bring about unity," he said.

He also repeated an issue that he raised in public before, that all the credits the siparia MP claims for her political success is as a result of what he did for her.

"You will recall Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar lost the elections in 1991, was it with the NAR? We brought her in. When we got into Government, I appointed her to act as prime minister; I appointed her as attorney general; I appointed her as minister; all this was giving people a chance to prove how successful they could be as a leader," he said.

The former prime minister said, despite all that he is not convinced that Persad-Bissessar is ready to lead the UNC or unify it.

He also talked about a "weakness" without clarifying what he meant and said UNC members must not hand to the party to a person who is vulnerable.

"She has a place in the politics but she has an awful weakness, and I think you know about that and I know about it and everybody knows about it, and it can make her enormously vulnerable.

"You cannot put the leadership of the party in the hands of a person who is so vulnerable," he said.

Ramdass didn't press Panday on that but asked him about the other leadership contender, Tabaquite MP Ramesh L. Maharaj.

"I believe there is a place for Mr Maharaj as well but certainly, not at the leadership level. Mr Maharaj has certain qualities, he’s a hard worker, people know that and so on; that’s a useful thing, but I don’t think Mr Maharaj himself is ready.

"He's also, if I may say so, a lil’ flighty. He’s UNC one day, Team Unity a next day and RamJack the next day and so on and so on. I think he needs to develop a quality of stability." Panday said.

He also told the Express he is fit mentally and physically to lead the UNC and the government despite his advanced age. In answer to a direct question about his fitness he said: "If you mean physically, my doctors say it’s okay and if you mean mentally, I say it’s okay and so do a lot of people and so did Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who said I was the best prime minister this country has ever seen."

Panday also spoke about succession planning in the party but suggested that leadership is not something that people could inherit.

"I don’t know how people interpret it; they seem to have a monarchical system of succession, that is to say, the king or the queen nominates a dynasty.

"We have a Constitution which says the leader will be determined by the rank and file of the membership, so when you are grooming people as they say, you are really giving them a chance to prove themselves. And we have given people chances to prove themselves many times," he said.

Panday also discussed his successes and failures, noting that one of his weaknesses is in judging people.

"I have an infinite capacity for misjudging people," he said. "I am always sorry for mistakes I made, and I will always continue to make mistakes, and I will always continue to be sorry for them.

"All I can tell you is that when I do things, I do them because at the time, I think I’m doing the right thing, then as time goes on, in hindsight, everything is 2020 vision, I make mistakes like everyone else," Panday told the paper.

Ramdass also raised the issue of Panday's loss of political attractiveness pointing to his declining support even within his own constituency where he was elected with only minority support in 2007, falling with a landslide in 2000.

The Couva North MP deflected the question with a typical Pandayism. He said jokingly, "You know something, when I look and see some of the people who are going up against me, I better looking than them to tell you the truth."

Read the full Q&A in the EXPRESS