Sudama: Panday’s departure long overdue

FORMER government minister Trevor Sudama yesterday declared that Basdeo Panday’s resignation as UNC leader is long overdue, and seemed to agree with Prime Minister Patrick Manning that Panday was lingering on the political scene “like an unwanted jumbie.”

Speaking to reporters on Monday night as election results came in, Panday said he was ready to go and the UNC’s second successive defeat to the PNM in two years would not influence the time of his departure. However Sudama told Newsday: “He (Panday) should have stepped down long ago.” According to Sudama, Panday should have resigned after the UNC’s October 2002 loss which was a clear victory to the PNM. He said it was not unexpected in that in the current political scenario, the PNM would have made the inroads they did into UNC heartland territory.

The former minister dismissed Panday’s charge of the PNM using State resources to win Monday’s elections, saying that all parties in power employed that strategy to win elections. Sudama stated the reason for the UNC being out of power was because of Panday’s “intransigence” and failure to deal with corruption allegations against his government. He predicted that Panday would not resign because of the predominant political culture which sees failed leaders clinging to office until they either “die on the job,” or are unceremoniously dumped. Sudama said Monday’s elections show “there is still a stalemate about how people vote” and people automatically voted along party lines instead of for candidates or issues. The former minister added that some form of constitutional reform must be explored which will “get people more involved in Local Government” again.