Panday tries to heal old political wounds

ON FRIDAY December 2, during the absence from the country of United National Congress (UNC) political leader Winston Dookeran, his predecessor Basdeo Panday, who now holds the post of party Chairman, attempted to convene a "unity meeting".

The session, held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port-of-Spain, was supposed to bring together several former and current UNC MPs and officials who have been estranged from the Opposition party. Many of the invited had parted ways with the UNC after bitter, public falling outs with Panday.

Only three former MPs responded to the unity call — Mervyn Assam, Trevor Sudama and former House Speaker Nizam Mohammed. Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, former Attorney General and Leader of Government Business in a former UNC Administration, was invited but missed the meeting because he was out of the country. According to reports, he gave his full support to the unity talks and promised to attend any follow-up meetings.

Noticeably absent from the session, however, were UNC Independents Gillian Lucky and Fuad Khan, St Joseph MP Gerald Yetming, Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh, Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal and Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Deputy political leader Austin "Jack" Warner, who had publicly criticised Panday for not stepping down as Opposition Leader to make way for Dookeran, played a key role in arranging the meeting and used the occasion to apologise to Panday. From all accounts, that was the only real reconciliation to come out of the meeting.

Instead of achieving the desired goal of healing major rifts within the country’s main opposition party, the unity session only brought renewed focus to the deep divisions within the ranks. Condemnation of the talks came almost immediately. Lucky and Khan dismissed the meeting as a sham and said they had not been invited to the meeting and Yetming described it as "theatre".

Outspoken UNC executive member Gary Griffith questioned the "authenticity and legality" of the unity talks and said it was tantamount to "political mutiny".

The current crisis is just the latest in a series of bitter break-ups and rows that have plagued the party throughout its 16-year history. In fact, the UNC is the product of a major political split in a party which had gained power in this country as a unifying force.

In 1988, following a break-up with then Prime Minister ANR Robinson, Panday and several other MPs left the ruling National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and formed the Caucus for Love, Unity and Brotherhood (Club 88), the political movement that eventually evolved into the UNC.

In the years since then, the party has weathered several major break-ups. The first major fall-out came in 1995, four years after the party won enough seats to become the official opposition, when Hulsie Bhaggan, MP for Chaguanas, left the party following a very public and protracted dispute with Panday.

Bhaggan, who tried to remain in politics and formed the short-lived Movement for Unity and Progress (MUP), is now completely off the scene.

The UNC survived that crisis and went on to win 17 seats in the 1995 General Elections, hammering out a deal with Robinson to form a coalition government with the National Alliance for Reconstruction which had won two seats.

As is the case with the current UNC crisis, one of the biggest rifts in the party emerged after internal elections in 2001 when Attorney-General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was elected deputy political leader.

When Panday refused to appoint Maharaj to act as Prime Minister during his absence, the AG countered by initiating investigations into allegations of corruption by Panday and his supporters. Panday responded by stripping Maharaj and two other MPs — Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj of their ministerial portfolios.

As that political crisis escalated, Panday called early elections in 2001 which resulted in an 18-18 deadlock with the People’s National Movement (PNM). The latter party was called upon to form the government and the UNC has remained in opposition since them.

The following year, in the elections of October 7, 2002, the UNC won 16 of the 36 seats.

The UNC suffered another depletion in April when Pointe-a-Pierre MP Gillian Lucky and San Juan/Barataria MP Fuad Khan declared themselves Independent UNC members and relocated to the Opposition backbenches where they have remained since.

Now, with the risk of even more fall-out from the party, Panday is trying to unite his deeply divided UNC while trying to hold on to office as Leader of the Opposition. Although he now has Ramesh Maharaj and "Jack" Warner in his corner, the veteran politician faces an uphill battle as he tries to heal the UNC’s old political wounds.