Old soldier refusing to hang up boots

In the sincerest of tones and with the animation of one who really cares, he decries Manning’s role in the crime talks, with some justification, but his own underlying objective in participating in these talks is to create the illusion of statesmanship and leadership to give some substance to a fast-fading charisma.

He goes on to talk the language of unity but looking between the lines,his primary aim is to be divisive by retaining the old baggage of the UNC, of which he is the chief example, and in the process to negate the squeaky-clean image of Dookeran, who according to the latest poll, is the choice of the people.

With a seemingly penitent heart, he goes further to speak the language of forgiveness, embracing the wily former attorney general of the UNC.

But what will be Panday’s victory when he prevails over Dookeran? Only the fleeting survival of the self, the ego that refuses to give way for the good of a people under siege, for under his continuing leadership, with all the baggage surrounding him, political and otherwise, the UNC does not have the chance of a snowball in hell to get into government, although the PNM could never be riper for the picking than at the present time. Under Dookeran, the ‘marginals’ whose vote is crucial to any political victory in this country, tired of the posturings of our present crop of leaders, would have voted for a good honest man whom they can trust, and Panday could have put his feet and gloried in the victory of a party he helped to build and of a nation freed at last from its continuing bondage. It would have been an enduring legacy befitting an old soldier who fought hard. But some men are incapable of such vision, such magnanimity.

Such is the suff of which real heroes are made.

BEN E KING

Phillipine