Call an election now

"He (Manning) would get the shock of his life" when he sees the massive turnout of "the army of the UNC," Panday said.

In fact both Panday and Deputy Political Leader Jack Warner dared Manning to call an election if he believed the UNC was truly in shambles.

Warner, who was described as "Jack the Ripper — with two faces and two knives" — by the Prime Minister, quipped, "After the election they (the PNM) will call me Jack the executioner, mark my words," he said.

The UNC held its second "unity" meeting at the Centre of Excellence, which was well-attended by a wide section of prominent activists and Mps.

Among the persons attending were Winston Dookeran, Gerald Yetming, Ganga Singh, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Kelvin Ramnath, Sadiq Baksh, Winston "Gypsy" Peters, John Humphrey, Nizam Mohammed, Bill Chaitan, Kamal Mohammed, Carlos John, Mervyn Assam, Trevor Sudama and Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan.

Speaking with the media at a joint press conference involving Warner, Panday and Dookeran, Panday conceded that there was a perception of infighting within the UNC, but it was created by the media, he claimed. What was happening in the party was merely "an expression of different views," he said.

Asked who would be prime minister if the UNC won an election, Warner replied that if Manning wanted to know the answer to this, he should call the election first. "Let him call the election and all he had to say about Jack the Ripper and two faces and duck and run Winston and — well he didn’t say anything about you, Bas," Warner said turning to Panday. "Monkey know which tree to climb," Panday mused.

Warner said Dookeran had a packed hall of persons talking about "Ethics and Unity in Politics" with speakers like Desmond Allum and Marjorie Thorpe. "And when I look (at the PNM convention and see that the acting chairman of the party is 75 or 85 or 95 year old John Donaldson, and when I see the youth officer male is the 65-year-old Anthony Roberts, I begin to wonder, because the UNC has a 26-year-old youth officer. So I have no problem. They (in the PNM) will all die together."

On the issue of dual leadership, Panday, who enjoyed undisputed control of the UNC while he was Political Leader, spoke of "collective leadership."

Panday said one of the suggestions was that the roles of all the leaders needed to be defined. However, he said, he thought that "the problem in UNC that people complained about was the maximum leadership. So I don’t think we want to replace one maximum leadership with another maximum leadership. There is no problem with having collective leadership, with different leaders having different roles," he said. When asked his view on Panday’s statement, Dookeran was non-committal.

At the unity meeting, members also asked the UNC chairman to give a definitive date on when he would demit office as Opposition Leader.

But Panday told the media that the question was "misconceived because the leader of the Opposition does not appoint himself, nor does he give up office. So the person who asked that question apparently didn’t understand the parliamentary procedure very well." Panday reiterated that it was the Members of Parliament who decided if the Leader of the Opposition stayed in office or not.

Asked if he supported Gillian Lucky’s decision to defend former PNM chairman and MP Franklin Khan, Panday said, "I could only say that law has its own morality."

Asked if Yetming’s statement — that Khan’s resignation was the decent and proper thing — implied that he (Panday) should have done the same, Panday said, "If that statement were to hold, then all Mr Manning had to do is to get his police to bring charges against every member of this executive and we wouldn’t have one, or every Member of Parliament would all be out."

Warner noted that one of the sentiments expressed at the meeting was that Yetming should return to the front bench. Yetming told Newsday that "like horse and carriage, love and marriage, he would return where he belonged when Panday gives up the post of Opposition Leader by writing to the President and saying that he supports Dookeran.

Both Lucky and Fuad Khan were invited to the meeting but did not attend. Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj could not be contacted by the party, Dr Tim Gopeesingh said.

Dookeran, who said he was satisfied with yesterday’s meeting, said Manning gave a very simplistic analysis of what was happening in the Opposition. He said the UNC was in the process of transition and there was a clash of ideas on the future direction of the party. But this clash was healthy, he said, adding that the only question was whether the process would go on for too long which could affect the party’s ability to prepare for a national election.