Panday’s last dance

Couva North MP Basdeo Panday lost his last vestige of authority in the United National Congress on Thursday, after he was replaced as Opposition Leader by his one- time political prot?g? Kamla Persad-Bissessar during an historic ceremony at President’s House in St Ann’s.

Panday, who turns 77 on May 25, had fought hard to hold on to the post in the aftermath of the Siparia MP’s landslide victory in the party’s internal election just over one month ago, but failed to get the required support from the majority of Opposition MPs, some of whom had been loyal to him over the years.

Now, Persad-Bissessar, the new UNC political leader, is charged with the responsibility of healing the wounds within the party, restoring its legacy and charting its course into Government.

Whether Panday decides to be a part of the renewal process, though, remains to be seen.

Judging from events that have transpired thus far, Panday has not been gracious in defeat. And understandably so, some might argue, for he founded the party some 20 years ago, taking it into Government after winning two general elections, one of which was by a small margin.

Still, Panday, who complained about irregularities in the internal poll, has expressed a willingness to work with Persad-Bissessar on certain conditionalities.

He wants Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner, a former close ally, to account for millions of dollars which he claimed Warner received on behalf of the UNC. Panday also wants Warner to be removed as Chief Whip.

Panday’s apparent placated demeanour is a far cry from what obtained in the days following the January 24 poll.

Before, Panday had distanced himself from meetings organised by Persad-Bissessar and the new UNC executive and offered vague excuses for his absences.

He has also missed several Parliament sessions, including what would have been his last sitting as Opposition Leader on Wednesday.

Panday even downplayed the significance of Persad-Bissessar’s ascent to the position of Opposition Leader.

“I expected it. Everything good has to come to an end,” he told Newsday on Wednesday.

Political observer Reginald Dumas said Panday’s loss of grip on the UNC cannot be an easy pill to swallow.

“Panday lives and breathes politics. That has to be shattering, losing what he created,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Dumas, a former head of the public service, further suggested that the fact Panday lost to someone for whom he had no great regard and having some of his own loyalists desert him had to be among the low points of his political career.

Persad-Bissessar’s status as a Hindu woman, Dumas reasoned, may have also been a key factor in Panday’s reluctance to relinquish control.

“Hindu men of a certain generation cannot bring themselves to accept Kamla because essentially they consider women inferior,” he added.

Nevertheless, Dumas said Panday should be invited to assist in the progress of the UNC, if only by virtue of his experience and political acumen.

“But what he must not do is undermine the leadership of the party which is there because of the very democracy that he introduced,” Dumas said.

“He talked about democracy and he must accept that (Persad-Bissessar’s victory), not act as a petulant child. He is only looking foolish.”

That Panday recently cleared his space at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition on Charles Street in Port-of-Spain to make way for Persad-Bissessar was perhaps metaphorical, signalling the end of an era and the last act in a colourful, but turbulent political career which began in the bowels of the sugar belt in Central Trinidad.

Born on May 25, 1933, in St Lucien village, Princes Town, to Harry “Chote” Sookchand and Kissoondaye Panday, both of whom were East Indian immigrants, Panday attended New Grant Government and St Julien CM School before moving on to Presentation College in San Fernando.

The eldest of three boys — the others being Rabindranath and current Princes Town North MP Subhas Panday — he excelled academically as well as on the sporting field.

At Presentation College, he played football and was said to be a “tricky dribbler in the left centre field.”

As a young man, eager and industrious, Panday tried his hand at several jobs in order to make ends meet.

He worked as a sugar cane weigher for one year at the now defunct Caroni 1975 Limited, a primary school teacher at Seeraram Memorial Vedic, Chaguanas, and a public servant at the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court where he took notes for the late President Noor Hassanali.

During that period, he also cultivated a liking for music, chess and reading.

Interested in law, Panday was accepted at Lincoln’s Inn, England, in 1957. He also attended the University of London, where he read for an economics degree, as well as the London School of Dramatic Arts.

Several years later, in 1965, he was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to read for a post-graduate degree in economics and political science at the Delhi School of Economics and Political Science in India. However, he turned down the opportunity opting to return to Trinidad to practise law and to make a contribution within the changing political climate in the country at that time.

In the end, politics, not law, would consume his being.

Although he enjoyed a shaky start to his political career, running unsuccessfully for Parliament as a candidate for the Workers and Farmers Party in 1966, Panday strengthened his credentials and appeal through his affiliation with the then Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers Association, a large and powerful trade union during the early 1970’s.

He subsequently became President General of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union, a position through which he had gained considerable respect.

From this platform, Panday agitated tirelessly for the rights of the working classes in the sugar belt, many of whom were uneducated and disadvantaged, insisting that they receive good wages, proper amenities and solid prospects for advancement.

“I have been Opposition Leader for a very long time. I have been the leader of one of the largest trade unions and I’ve struggled. I’ve been Prime Minister and I’ve been minister for several things. I have been all of those only for one reason, so that I may be part of a struggle to improve the quality of life of my people,” he told Sunday Newsday last December.

To date, Panday regards his ability to give sugar workers the skills to better their lot as the most gratifying and memorable achievement of his professional life.

“When I was with the union, I brought workers out of extreme poverty into at least a decent kind of living. I fought for an increase in their wages and better working conditions.

“It was a monumental achievement that gave me tremendous emotional satisfaction because the children of workers in the sugar cane had to go in the canefields and help their parents cut cane.

“I fought to get them out of the fields and today, they are now professionals, engineers, doctors, lawyers and teachers,” he had said in the interview.

Elected Member of Parliament for Couva North in 1976, a constituency which is still one of the UNC’s major strongholds, Panday has capitalised on the allegiance of supporters in the party’s heartland for much of his career in public life.

He had joined forces with fellow labour leaders George Weekes and Raffique Shah to form the United Labour Front (ULF) and from 1981 to 1986 became Leader of the Opposition.

Carving a niche for himself in the political landscape, Panday later co-founded the National Alliance For Reconstruction (NAR) with former Prime Minister Arthur NR Robinson and legal luminary Karl Hudson-Phillips.

After the NAR’s victory in 1986, Panday became Minister of External Affairs and Trade and had also enjoyed an acting stint as Prime Minister in 1987.

He and colleagues John Humphrey and Kelvin Ramnath were later expelled from the party after a reported disagreement with Robinson.

Panday went on to form a break-away faction of the NAR called Club 88 which was subsequently transformed into the United National Congress. The party would become a major political force in the country.

A powerful orator, with a penchant for enlivening the sensibilities of the masses through fiery speeches, Panday created history in 1995 when he became Trinidad and Tobago’s first East Indian Prime Minister.

This, he accomplished with the support of Robinson and the two seats held by the NAR in Tobago at that time.

“East Indians got a major psychological boost when Panday became Prime Minister,” said Dumas.

Describing Panday’s ascent to the position as one of the highpoints of his career, Dumas also recalled that he had assumed the position during the 150th anniversary of East Indian Arrival in the country.

“It seemed almost fitting and there was some emotional attachment,” he added.

Political analyst Derek Ramsamooj agreed, but offered a twist.

“Mr Panday’s ascendency to the office of Prime Minister in the 1995 UNC/NAR Government coalition signalled the possibility of a weakening in traditional tribal politics and the national acceptance of a Prime Minister regardless of ethic background,” he suggested in an e- mail interview on Thursday.

Of note, too, must be the critical role he played in the formation of a number of Governments, including the coalition in 1986, which resulted in the historic defeat of the PNM, Ramsamooj said.

In 2000, Panday again led the UNC to victory.

“The electoral victory of 2000 and 2001 saw Mr Panday at the pinnacle of his political aspiration — winning the confidence of the majority of the voters with a campaign of him managing a Government that performed,” Ramsamooj said. But internal rumblings had led to another general election in 2001 which resulted in an 18-18 tie between the UNC and PNM.

President Robinson, who was mandated to intervene, gave PNM leader Patrick Manning the authority to form the next Government.

Robinson and Panday have had a somewhat strained relationship ever since.

Called the Silver Fox, presumably because of his silver-grey hair and cunning smile, Panday has proven to be one of the most charismatic leaders in the country’s history.

Drawing from his, humble working class background, Panday tailored many of his Government’s projects toward creating greater educational opportunities for citizens and particularly young people during his term as Prime Minister.

One such initiative was the construction of some ten schools under the Secondary Education Modernisation Programme (SEMP) — the premise being that all children should be given an opportunity to receive an education.

Though noble in intent, the initiative came under heavy criticism from the then Opposition PNM and members of stakeholder groups, some of whom argued that students were endowed with varying aptitudes and, as such, it was foolhardy to place everyone in the same learning environment.

To compound matters, one of the schools under the SEMP, Biche High School, was constructed at a cost of some $30 million, but was never opened due to reports of gas emissions and land slippage.

A PNM-sanctioned commission of inquiry headed by retired Justice Annestine Sealey subsequently determined there were gas emissions at the site.

The school, which is overgrown with weeds and shrubs, remains an eyesore.

Slim-built and well-groomed, Panday is married to the former Oma Ramkissoon and is the father of four daughters, one of whom, Mickela, is the Oropouche West MP.

During his tenure as Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, he has often projected himself as being both accessible and approachable to all and sundry.

But during his term, he also clashed frequently with journalists over several controversial issues.

These included the scandal surrounding the Piarco Airport Development project, one of his administration’s signature mega initiatives, which remains a major talking point with the ruling PNM.

In May 2005, Panday, his wife, former UNC MP Carlos John and chairman of Northern Construction Ishwar Galbaransingh were arrested on corruption charges.

The State had alleged that the Pandays had received TT$250,000 on December 30, 1998, in exchange for giving Northern Construction the contract for the airport.

Two years later, the Court of Appeal quashed a conviction against Panday for failing to declare a London bank account to the Integrity Commision for three consecutive years — 1997, 1998, 1999 — on the grounds that he may not have received a fair trial.

Three Court of Appeal judges agreed that there was, in fact, the real possibility of bias by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in his ruling on April 24, 2006 which had found Panday guilty of failing to declare the London bank account, contrary to Section 27 of the Integrity in Public Life Act 1987.

It was later suggested that there may have been a link between Mc Nicolls to a multi-million dollar land deal and a company associated with one of the main witnesses in the trial.

Mc Nicolls subsequently failed to give evidence for the criminal prosecution of the Chief Justice. This caused the prosecution to fail in Panday’s Appeal Court Hearing.

Mc Nicolls, who is said to be gravely ill, is currently abroad receiving treatment. The matter is ongoing.

Some commentators contend that these ugly episodes, coupled with his arrogance and unwillingness to heed calls for change within the party, had combined to weaken his influence among a large percentage of the UNC’s supporters.

Ramsamooj concurs. “Sadly, he was unable to manage political conflict and to address the issues of governance, accountability and transparency,” he said.

“The allegations of mishandling political and governance crises such as the Airport scandal and challenges to his leadership resulted in the loss of public trust by even his fiercest of supporters.”

Outlining several areas which worked to his detriment, Ramsamooj said Panday’s inability to recognise the political reality of a changing electorate and his failure to adapt his leadership to meet the challenges of the demands of the electorate had severely tainted his political legacy.

“Politics is about understanding the evolving challenges of the people not being imprisoned in the history of past struggles,” he said.

Ramsamooj said Panday was also challenged in understanding the fundamental rule structure between the Office of the Prime Minister and that of being political leader of the UNC.

“His ability to simultaneously master both roles proved challenging. His wanton disregard to adhere to public procurement policies created opportunities for his political competitors to exploit,” he said.

Ramsamooj recalled that as Prime Minister, Panday had sought to adopt a policy of inclusion which made him unpopular with senior members of his party.

As such, managing the political expectation of his supporters whilst he executed his function of Prime Minister created chaos and conflict, he noted.

“Bowing to internal political pressure to place incompetent political operatives in Government services led to the loss of public trust and his political demise,” Ramsamooj said.

Ramsamooj said as UNC leader, Panday had failed to develop the party.

“Establishing the various organs of the party and revisiting their structure, functions and relevance would have enhanced the UNC electoral appeal beyond their traditional base,” he suggested.

“The stagnated simplistic view of politics by rhetoric, that he solely represented the UNC and that he will die with his political boots on have made him irrelevant to even the hardcore UNC supporters. Political disconnect and political arrogance have sadly led to his political demise.”

Dumas said Panday spent too much time attacking the PNM on issues such as crime and corruption at the expense of his own people.

“The people now have an active dislike if not hatred for him, He dug his own grave,” he said, adding that Panday should concentrate on writing memoirs.

Ramsamooj said, however, that Panday must be given credit for implementing policies and programmes that have addressed the national challenges of race relations and transparency in Government.

“The Equal Opportunity Legislation and Freedom of Information Act are important laws that can advance our national democracy and strengthen our system of Governance,” he said.

Ramsamooj added that Panday’s prudent management of the economy during the period of economic challenges and the capacity to deliver public goods such as water and securing the well being of the society reflected his determination to improve the quality of life for all citizens.

“He attempted to move his politics from beyond Caroni to national in scope,” he said.