Panday must go!
THE EDITOR: After reading the newspaper articles over the past days, it appears that the Opposition leader Basdeo Panday has appointed Mr Winston Dookeran as leader of the struggling United National Congress (UNC) only to take back the mantle of true leader. The meeting between Panday and Ramesh Maharaj suggests that Panday is a drowning man eager to hold on to Maharaj who he sees as a lifeline to save his political skin. Dookeran in recent time has being showing a lot of courage and determination, speaking like a future prime minister. This would have made Panday realise that Dookeran is not the puppet that Panday thought to be. In comes Maharaj, who is Bas fooling? In any event, as the talk shows are reporting, it appears that both Dookeran and Panday have eight members in the lower house in support of their respective position. If that is so, then Panday has lost his majority support and with it his legitimacy to continue as Opposition leader. This is quite interesting since he personally attacked Gillian Lucky which led to Lucky and Dr Fuad Khan (two intelligent UNC MPs) leaving the parliament. How Bas must now regret that he made war with Lucky and Khan. Panday has no other choice but to hand over the Opposition leader position to Dookeran. In fact, if Maharaj has any political role to play in removing the PNM, it is an alliance between Dookeran and Maharaj, both men of proven integrity, who will not let corruption continue in a new UNC government. Dookeran showed leadership when our beloved nation was attacked by the Jamaat in 1990, Maharaj showed courage in calling his own UNC administration to account in the face of serious corruption allegations. Dookeran and Ramesh are the best bet for the UNC. RODERICK LEWIS Tunapuna
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"Panday must go!"