Panday’s cry from the heart

Former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday’s decision to resign as Chairman of the UNC was announced at a meeting on Monday night in Felicity. The latest development in the on-going turmoil in the Opposition was made public by Mr. Panday’s daughter Mikela who read Mr. Panday’s statement at the meeting. Here is the full text of the message to his supporters sent by Mr. Panday.

My brothers and sisters of the UNC, friends and well -wishers. There is nothing more I would have loved than to be with you here tonight to see you and to speak with you in person but my doctors have insisted that I stay at home. I was hoping that at the last moment he would change his mind, but he did not.

I wanted so much to be with you to embrace you face to face and thank you from the innermost depth of my heart for all your prayers and all your tears, for all your hopes and all your fears, for the confidence and kind wishes, your unequivocal support, your undying loyalty, all of which fortified me and gave me strength during my recent trials and tribulations. But most of all it was your love that sustained me in Gethsemane. Do not worry about me; my enemies may destroy me but they shall never defeat me. I shall be with you soon.

The most important thing at the present time is to retrieve our country from the clutches of this wicked and vicious PNM; to return your beloved land and our homes to the peace and security and prosperity we enjoyed not so long ago. There is only one way to do this: we must unite as we have never been united before. I heard about the massive meeting you had in Debe when I was in jail, and I am sure this meeting tonight will be an equal demonstration of your strength and your determination to rid this country of this menace called the PNM. Should they win the next elections you shall have to run for your lives. Guyana under Forbes Burnham will seem like a paradise compared to what you will have to suffer here. You must win and to win you must unite.

I know that you the people, the rank and file, the strength and backbone of this Party are united; your presence here and at other meetings is incontrovertible evidence of that. The impression of division comes not from the rank and file members but from a few at the top who refuse to unite because they will not accept the democratic will of the members of the Party nor the majority decision of our members in Parliament.

I take this opportunity to publicly appeal to this very few to put aside for the time being their lust and greed for power, nay, not power but office; I appeal to you to unite. If you fail to win the elections the little petty offices for which you now strive will be worthless than the most trivial sinecures. Put aside all your differences, real and perceived, and unite as one solid body and I assure you that victory will be yours. Do it for the people’s sake. This is my plea.

In order that there shall be no obstacle in your path to victory I have this morning tendered my resignation as Chairman of the Party. I cannot send my Party into the battle of an elections with the yoke of my conviction and sentence hanging around its neck. This does not mean that I am leaving you, I shall never leave you. Our association has been long; our love deep, our emotional ties unbreakable. Forty years is a long time; during that time I have been blessed with not only your support but the support of your father and mother, your grandfather and grandmother. I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never repay. I shall always be there for you...until death do us part.

For me the objective of politics has always been the improvement in the quality of life of the people I serve. Now I am leaving politics so that I may enter into politics. Politics has consumed my both body and my soul for some forty years; but that was electoral politics. Electoral politics is merely the means by which you acquire power and resources to improve people’s lives. I now leave electoral politics so that I may enter into a new kind of politics: politics at a higher level; It is that politics that will determine the politics.

Thank you once more for all you have done for me. May God bless you all.