Panday: UNC stands alone against PNM

Speaking at a UNC public meeting in Kelly Village on Monday night, Panday said the UNC was the only political party capable of defeating the PNM at the polls, and none of the other "fly-by-night" parties in TT were up to the task.

The UNC leader said there remained a perception in TT that no political party led by an individual of East Indian ethnicity was capable of running the government, and recalled several instances in the country’s political history in which such parties were assimilated into other parties, only to be spat out later on.

One of the instances highlighted by Panday was the incorporation of his now defunct United Labour Front (ULF) party into the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) prior to the historic 1986 general elections in which the NAR defeated the PNM 33-3. Panday said the NAR had no use for its ULF component once it was in office, and then prime minister and NAR leader Arthur NR Robinson "vomitted up" the ULF. This led to the formation of Club 88 and the UNC, which formed a coalition arrangement with the NAR to form the government in 1995 after that year’s General Elections resulted in a 17-17-2 deadlock.

That coalition collapsed after Robinson became president. On December 24, 2001, Robinson appointed Patrick Manning as prime minister following that year’s 18-18 election deadlock between the PNM and the UNC.

The UNC leader said while the party would stick to its policy of inclusion in order to expand its membership, he would not allow the UNC to commit political Hari Kiri (suicide ritual performed by disgraced Japanese Samurai warriors) and die in childbirth to create a new political party.

Panday said he was the "happiest man alive" to see the democracy that was taking place within the UNC today as it prepares for its national executive elections on October 2.

He slammed persons inside of the party who run to complain to the media about what is happening in the UNC. "Some of our own members do not understand democracy," he added.