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By Jada Loutoo in NEWSDAY
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| Former PM Basdeo Panday, left, and Wendell Eversley outside the Caribbean Court of Justice, Henry Street, Port-of-Spain where the 1990 commission of enquiry is taking place. (Newsday photo and caption) |
FORMER prime minister Basdeo Panday has defended his now infamous “wake me up when it is over” response to the storming of the Parliament by Jamaat al Muslimeen insurgents on July 27, 1990.
According to Panday, the misconception by many, including former prime minister Arthur NR Robinson, that he had prior knowledge of the Muslimeen’s plot to overthrow the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government, was totally untrue.
Panday, 80, was testifying at the July 27, 1990, attempted coup enquiry at its 16th session at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Henry Street, Port-of-Spain. Panday had been issued a Salmon Letter detailing the criticisms made of him by previous witnesses.
According to Panday, the misconception by many, including former prime minister Arthur NR Robinson, that he had prior knowledge of the Muslimeen’s plot to overthrow the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government, was totally untrue.
Panday, 80, was testifying at the July 27, 1990, attempted coup enquiry at its 16th session at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Henry Street, Port-of-Spain. Panday had been issued a Salmon Letter detailing the criticisms made of him by previous witnesses.
Editor's note: Mr. Panday told JYOTI in an interview in 2008 that he left Parliament early on that fateful day and went home, where he took his medication and went to sleep. He had been recuperating from open heart surgery and was very exhausted. He said his wife tried to wake him because reporters had been calling for him. When she persisted, not knowing what had really happened, he told her to "wake me when it is over" and went back to sleep. He said when he discovered what had happened he condemned the Muslimeen action.
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