Dookeran: I should have been consulted

This was the position of UNC’s Political Leader Winston Dookeran, as he pondered yesterday on the action taken by the chairman and Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday.

Panday, on the other hand, believes that he acted properly and that there was no requirement for him to consult.

Discussing the matter yesterday, Dookeran told Newsday, "Consulta-tion should have taken place, it would have been the more appropriate thing to do."

However, when told that people were asking if he should have consulted Dookeran, Panday said: "You don’t consult before. You speak to the man (Maharaj) first. If he agrees (to accept), you then say, ‘gentlemen I have talked to the man and he has agreed to sit in the Senate.’ It was the right thing to do — to have said ‘Mr Maharaj you have made certain points about crime. Would you like to make these points in the Senate?’"

Panday added that it seemed that people were now suggesting that he was not free to speak to anyone unless he got permission to do so first. "That can’t be right," he said matter-of-factly.

Asked what he felt about Maharaj returning to the UNC fold, Dook-eran stated that he did not want to "zero in" on personalities. Told that one could not get away from the issue of personality, especially when dealing with Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and his bitter break with the UNC, Dookeran said he was not close to that issue. "And I don’t want to be pre-emptive," he said.

Dookeran said he was trying to set the framework upon which the UNC can be transformed into a viable alternative. He added that he would be happy to talk to anyone who was interested in entering the party within this framework.

Dookeran stressed that his long-term goal was to put the party back on track. And he was focusing on getting all the energies to work in that direction, he said.

The UNC’s two top men also expressed different opinions on whether Panday should automatically hand over the position of Opposition Leader to Dookeran.

Dookeran said it was his "expectation" that Panday would do so. "This was the expectation and I expect that at some time it would happen," he said. Asked on precisely what this expectation was based, Dookeran said, "It is grounded in it being the natural thing, I think it was the natural thing to do," he said, after a long pause. Both men will attend today’s first meeting of the new executive.

He said he had not yet discussed the issue with Panday, but he planned to do so.

Asked if he would press for the position on the basis of discussions with Panday or whether he would be prepared to test the numbers in the Parliament, Dookeran said that the matter was still at the stage of discussions right now. He said he was ready and willing to assume the position of Opposition Leader.

Panday, who has been questioned on the issue many times, has consistently stated that the country’s Constitution clearly explained how the Opposition Leader was selected. He appealed to those involved in the debate to look to the Constitution.