UNC Disaster

It was just 25 days ago that UNC leader Basdeo Panday declared, “There’s no disunity in the party anymore.” Just 25 days for Mr Panday to, once again, demonstrate that his statements cannot be taken at face value. Now, the removal of attorney Robin Montano as an Opposition Senator has fueled speculation that Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj will be stepping into the post - an event which, if it does happen, will surely widen the breach within the UNC. That breach was most starkly demonstrated on Friday in the Lower House when Chief Whip Ganga Singh made a not-so-veiled attack on Mr Panday, by talking about the lack of ethics of politicians who “sleep with the Devil” in order to win elections.

Mr Panday must know that bringing Mr Maharaj back to the UNC will provoke further strife. But it may be that he calculates that Mr Maharaj’s return will have political benefits that outweigh the damage of infighting. Indeed, he may even see this return as a way to get rid of those MPs who oppose him, without having to make any direct intervention. If this is so, it means that Mr Panday calculates that the rank-and-file of the UNC membership, as well as the wider populace, are more likely to support a Panday-Maharaj combo than a Panday-Dookeran one. Or it may be that he calculates that a triumvirate of Panday.

Dookeran and Maharaj will have the best chance of taking the next general election. Mr Panday may not be wrong in his estimate. The fractious faction in the UNC which is opposing Ramesh’s return has adopted the line that Maharaj “betrayed” the party and caused them to lose the government in 2001. What remains unmentioned is that Mr Maharaj’s bone of contention was corruption within the UNC regime and the refusal of then-Prime Minister Basdeo Panday to deal with it. And, while the issues involving former UNC Government Ministers and financiers are still to be settled in court, the public has already agreed with Mr Maharaj’s ostensible reasons for breaking away from the party. And that, ironically, may well be one of the reasons Mr Panday wants Ramesh back in the fold.

The UNC leader is most likely hoping that, since Maharaj made such a dramatic stand against corruption, his presence will serve as a guarantee to the voting populace that, were the UNC to be returned to office, it would not repeat the mistakes of the past. This is a point that has been missed by the Dookeran faction who, even more ironically, support Mr Dookeran because they want the UNC to shed its corrupt image. But these MPs probably also support Mr Dookeran because they see him as a more accommodating leader than the formidable Mr Maharaj. At any rate, the answers to these and other questions should be given next Sunday, when Messrs Panday, Dookeran and Maharaj are supposed to appear on the same platform. However, that event had better come off, and come off smoothly, because a failure here will be disastrous for the UNC.