Political resurrection unlikely for Panday

Since resurrection is unlikely to be a viable strategy, the Pandayites, whose political careers depend on their Maximum Leader, have adopted the next-best option: trying to make Mr Panday into a martyr. The UNC spin on Mr Panday’s criminal conviction has taken three tacks - stating that the conviction came about through a PNM conspiracy to persecute the UNC leader; that persons from the PNM have not been charged with similar offences; and that the sentence was a ‘travesty of justice’.

The pretence here is that Mr Panday did not have over 100,000 pounds in a London bank account; held by his wife under her maiden name with an address that did not reflect where she actually lived; which Mr Panday did not declare as part of his assets. It is these facts that have killed Mr Panday politically - and, despite the accusations of persecution, his death was suicide, not murder. The court did not accept Mr Panday’s claim that the account in a London bank, which included over a million dollars from CLICO’S Mr Lawrence Duprey, was his wife’s and that it existed for his children’s education and did not declare the sum to the Integrity Commission as required by law. Even if no politician on the PNM side is ever convicted of any criminal offence, this would not change the fact of Mr Panday’s guilt. And it certainly would not change the perception in the public mind as to Mr and Mrs Panday’s motives in hiding this account.

Apparently, though, the UNC spin-doctors think otherwise. They think they can portray Mr Panday as the victim of a conspiracy hatched by his political enemies. But the only persons who would swallow this are those fanatic supporters who would never believe any wrong about their leader, and who become vociferous about corruption, racism and bad governance only when the other side does it.

Ironically enough, Mr Panday realises far better than his sycophants what his conviction means for him politically. That is why he has adopted a statesman-like tone, speaking about the need to respect the law and saying that there is political activity which is not electoral. These are statements impelled not so much by sincerity, but by the realisation that electoral politics is no longer an option for him.

However, now that he is out on bail, Mr Panday may be tempted to revise his strategy. And there will be the inner circle which has taken over the executive which will be egging him on. But, if Mr Panday succumbs to such hubris, it almost surely means that the UNC will never win another general election. The assumption of the persons heading the party seems to be that whipping up ethnic paranoia, while painting the PNM as more corrupt than the UNC, will be sufficient to make the UNC viable in voters’ minds. Perhaps this cynical estimate of the populace is accurate, perhaps not.

We suspect it is not. It may be true that the country’s electoral politics is shaped by race, but these lines are not fixed. In politics, race is really an analogue for values - ie persons perceive leaders of their racial and ethnic backgrounds as sharing their concerns and interests. This is why PNM leader Patrick Manning feels comfortable publicly declaring himself a born-again Christian; and it is why Mr Panday has always portrayed himself as a grassroots leader despite being wealthy enough to send his four daughters to live in the high end of London. But it is also why, since corruption in public office is now a decisive electoral issue, Mr Panday and the UNC as presently configured are unlikely to find favour with voters.

This means that the UNC can only change its image by sidelining Mr Panday. And that, in turn, means that the UNC will remain the same in the foreseeable future.