By Stephen Kangal
January 28, 2010
The stubborn and ego-driven recalcitrance of the Leader of the Opposition, Basdeo Panday [failed] to do the honourable thing for the third time in the face of the total and overwhelming humiliation and demolition job that was inflicted on him on Sunday [and this] is of great concern to the entire population and not exclusively of the membership of the UNC. This is the fork-tongued Panday who said that he would go when the members no longer wanted him.
Not only did Kamla pulverize him ten to one but Roodal Moonilal got almost three times more votes than Panday. Even local Councillor Shama Deonarine got more votes than Panday.
What other civilized electoral means must the people use to tell Panday that it is time to get off their backs and ride into political oblivion? What manner of UNC MP’s in the face of the overwhelming verdict of their respective constituents will still support this power-hungry and addictive megalomaniac for the post of Leader of the Opposition? Surely there must be some other legitimate means to restore justice and integrity in the Parliament of T&T. These MP’s must be made to pay the ultimate electoral price for promoting division in the ranks of the Opposition when the population is calling for a united front. Their offices must be picketed by the people to show their resentment to this conduct.
Panday’s intransigence and maverick behaviour is taking us back to indentureship when we could not rid ourselves of our tormentors and massas. He is provoking the people by orchestrating division in the ranks of the Opposition favourable to Manning’s longevity agenda when the UNC is on a high state of post-elections euphoria and unity is a real possibility. I have always known that unity must be under the leadership of Panday and no one else.
That is a road-map for breeding the adoption of unconventional means of removing him, God forbid.
How can this mortally wounded and ageing lion not see that a young lioness has now taken over control of the pasture; that he has more bark than bite; that he can no longer deliver the spunk?
I totally agree with you, if he continues with this foolish behaviour he and his stubborn MPS may have to sign themselves into protective costidy, trust me!
This man continues to hold on to the believe that his type of politics (of blood, sweat and tears) has a place in the T&T of today which has moved generations aways from Panday. Sooner than later he would get the message that his dotish talk abot “do dem before dey do you” and “politics has a morality of its own” would leave him in the political grave yard that he has created. I am hopeful that many are becomeing immune to this tribal type politics, well at least those who are opposed to the PNM. The PNM is another story by itself, the blind loyalists have already been ordered by their father to not “wash” the party’s “dirty linen” in public. This is timely considering whah has happened in the UNC, the very openess have highlighted what was wrong with Panday’s leadership style and Manning is uncomfortable with this. Manning has taken front before front takes him, he is plugging any possibility of challenge to his leadership, and he is doing this by playing on the emotions of the blind loyalists, soon he would remind them that if another party were to get into office, they would loose their CEPEP and URP, but he would fail to remind them about the billions that his govn’t has sqandered.
Steven has always been able to capture the mood of the population in times of such historical events. It is true that the people have spoken but Panday has always lived by this philosophy “politics have a morality of it’s own”. He can be currently ranked with the likes of Mugabe who absolutely refuses to go, despite the fact that the nation is crumbling. Such men can only live with the adulation and adoration of the few supporters surrounding them. They don’t really care about the masses or sees the big picture. Every UNC supporter should engage their MPs is choosing the right course by calling, writing or picketting.
Just go, Bas, it’s over
The disclosure that thousands of alleged application forms for membership in the United National Congress (UNC) were dumped in a storeroom at Rienzi Complex raises questions not so much about the outcome of Sunday’s elections of the party but rather about the organisation and administrative efficiency of the opposition party. How could these application forms have escaped the attention of the general secretary and the general administration of the UNC? Who did the general secretary report to over the period? Are the application forms genuine, coming from people wanting to join the party? And why were they only found two days after the UNC’s internal elections, which resulted in the routing of the party’s founder, Basdeo Panday and his regime, who have long had a stranglehold on the party. And there are many more questions to be asked. Candidly, it seems like an attempt by the outgoing team to discredit in some fashion or the other the victory of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Jack Warner and the others who put a resounding beating on them.
This red hearing would only raise more questions about the leadership of Basdeo Panday, to bring this up at this time is not a good move by the man who has been labled as a “smart politician” thats my view, I hope again that everyone would just dismiss this dotish last grasp at straws by a man defeated, a man obssessed with power.
Yesterday’s UNC may have belonged to Mr. Panday. After his recent defeat, the UNC now belongs to the people. We thank him for his contributions and now we must look to the future. Mrs. Bessessar has earned our respect as indicated by our support. It is time to realize that the torch ha been passed and the Nation looks to the future with great optimism.
Mr Panday has destroyed his legacy. He is becoming more and more pathetic, due to his stubborn, ill advised desire, to retain power at any cost.
He has proven himself to be a liar, disruptive, deceptive and very untrustworthy. There has to be some way in the UNC’s election rules of forcefully removing this cancer.
I hope he comes to his senses soon and do the honorable thing, for the sake of the party and the citizens of T&T.
I am going to say something that should not shock the few who understand by bloggig escapades on this forum. I think some of you my well intentioned fellow nationals are being too tough on Mr. P. You are asking a man who had dedicated half his life to fighting for his people ,and the wider community, to just chuck it in, and tamely ride off into retirement after this tremendous defeat .If I might use the analogy , it is tantamount to requesting that Castro and his brother just suddenly drape themselves in the flags of the USA, and tout everything capitalist , including the democracy mantra that Obama is pushing on the table after he Castro defied most of the world for over six decades.
Utter naivety my friends!
Give him time , he’ll come around hopefully. How the victors divide the spoils in this moment of victory is also critical as history would show that more harm has accrued when wrong choices are make at this delicate stage of the political game .
The future new Opposition leader ,and party head must move forward wisely. For example, in big brother America ,Ronald Reagan made George H Bush his VP after destroying him in the polls. Change agent Obama went into bed with one time political enemies Hilary Clinton , and Joe Biden even after contentious victories. In the wider community , having learned from WW1 postwar debacles,Germany and Japan were not treated as pariahs after WW2, and so post conflict reconstruction became more palatable , and thus resulted in Win/ Win for all parties concerned .
I am not saying that Madame P should do the same , or really care to be frank what any of our local politicos do to consolidate power , but simply wish that we fully appreciate that politics is a science like any other. Therefore in this case our expectations should be always realistic. This is N your humble voice of reason.
Love country .
Regards.
Neal
Please remember that since 2005 Mr.Panday’s hold on the people has entered the decline mode. He refused to concede to Mr.Dookeran and conducted an internal jihad against Mr. Dookeran.Kamla finished the job that Dookeran started in 2006. Politics is neither a soorooj puran nor a bhagwat. Mr.Panday is holding on to reach into his quiver for sharpened arrows to isolate Kamla. He will form a new party to upstage Kamla and create hardam and kuchoor. Mr Panday is not an infant in politics and should go just as a PM demits office after defeat. This is not about Panday and his dolly house.He treated with Kamla as if his name is permanentlt etched on the second seat of the Opposition benches. The agenda is about creating a cohesive undivided Opposition UNC that can enter into fruitful negotations with the COP to forge an invincible unit that can attract and lure the huge pool of floaters looking for a safe and viable landing. Even the dual nationalities will not return to the UNC in the current crab in the barrel syndrome. The persistence of Panday is having the negative effects of deflating the post-elections Kamla generated euphoria and making the divided Oposition a laughing stock to which no sane thnking voter will gravitate. Panday has his divisive agenda that does not take into account the urgent imperative of restoring good and caring governance in T&T. Having overstayed his time it is time to face the music. He has squandered any sympathy and empathy that we should have for him. Having played by the sword he must politically die by the sword according to the tenets of karma of which he is a Hindu believer. If not there will be political imbalance and anarchy. His behaviour post- January 24 is in accordance with my prediction in my one but last article. It is unforgiveable and unpardonable and to be condemned in the most obscene and vulgar terms. I want to breathe again and not to be suffocated politically. Kamla is the wind under our wings. Please Bas go and salvage what little declining legacy you have left. That is the honourable course of action for you to abort the embarrassment that you are paying back to us for years of geneflection and adulation.
I can agree with you, actually I had at one time indicated that the manner in which many were “forcing” Panday out of the party was not the way to get him to understand that he must give up the leadership post in order to build a stronger opposition. But, I am always, self-reminded that Panday has and would have done the same to anyone, had he won this election, he would have done worst. So I am one who would in fact join those who are telling him to go, go, go with his boots on in a blase of glory, into the sunset, his horse is fed, has a new set of shoes, a new sadle and Oma is already straped in.
Mr. Panday, do the honorable thing, leave in peace. This will enhanch your stature as an elder statesman and give your a great legacy.
I see your point , and do agree with the overall sentiments that you along with others have expressed that Mr. Panday should bow out gracefully , rally around the new leader of his party, and be the wise elder statesman willing and able to stay above the fray , perhaps ready to assume the position of the next President should that opportunity presents itself anytime soon.
I am not surprise at the groundswell of support that Madam K has received. She has injected a breath of fresh air into the commonly stale , bland politics that has dominated the scene for quite some time. The challenge now is to make this translate to greater things as she take her broad base change message to the people across the nation .
As a new strategic move, she should now begin the task of reaching out to entice the Panday close political supporters on board as well as disgruntled PNM members and the much maligned COP members that were left standing in the wilderness due to the action of the Machiavellian Mr Panday.
In addition she has to place her stamp on the party and not appear too much beholden to cousin Jack Warner – a very ambitious man indeed ,that many others have foolishly underestimated to their own peril.
Since Mr. Panday does not know how to lose or how to go gracefully, the Trinidad and Tobago Media Association should help him.Practise erasure. Cover nothing that he says or does. He does not exist. He is finished.Let some creative writer do his obituary, and file it away for future use. Only cover him, as any civilian, when his court cases come up. Or, if in a fit of utter madness he runs naked and barefoot through the streets,pulling his hair out. The media gives life to a situation, and the media can take the life out of a situation just as well. We have to be responsible, for those who fail to be responsible themselves. I hereby invite all responsible media,to pretend that HE had died.
Hey, Ms Edwards, this point about the media is so important, the media continues to prop up this failure, if the man spit, they want to cover it. They MUST stop giving him so much exposure and that would do well for this country.
It was the great Italian statesman philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli ,who once said with respect to power that “the wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.”
So you are going for the juggler of the Bengal Tiger Ms. L , and in the process is beseeching the historically complicit noble folks of the local elite ,corporate 4th Estate to do the right thing and ‘bell the cat,’ eh? Again ,I caution many, that the crafty borderline octogenarian might not be amenable to any overtures short of castration , and so still might have a fight or two in him , so the political obituaries might just be a bit premature . In short, ‘it ain’t over until…..’ Well, you knowwhere I am going on that one.
We are acquainted with the man’s philosophy about politics, yes? It “has a morality all it’s own.”
http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/columnist/2009/07/23/morality-its-own
Put differently, in a Hobbesian world, that is ‘nasty , brutish, and short,’Consequentialism ethics comes into play in which ‘the ends justifies the means,’ agreed?
With regard to your profound faith in our media , as Socrates sister ,and wise lady in my grand mother often said , “I rather you , than me.”
Cousin Niccolo also advised us that “one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.” It is therefore new media – which includes us bloggers , podcasting ,and independent equivalent of Democracy Now , Huffington post , Drudge reports, NPR,AlJazeera that can shake up this nation , not main stream traditional media entities, forever beholden to these outdated , idea deficient ,political pranksters that has masqueraded as leaders since 1962 .
http://www.democracynow.org/
Ms. L as you know , there are reasons why Mr. Panday was able to practice his brand of destructive , divisive ,frivolous and non progressive politics for too long . It’s because of the cuddling they gave him and his minions , even when they recognize that he was doing very little to advance the interest of his country.
It is time however for Ms. K to stand on her own feet and do whatever it takes to solidify her position on power once and for all. Stalin, Manning, Rawlings , Iron Ladies Eugenia Charles ,and Thatcher knew what to do when they were in her position. What she and her handlers need to know is that she is that she is clamoring for the rights to be the Prime Minister of unarguably the riches country in the English speaking Caribbean, and not President of the UWI Hugh Wooding Law School Alumni. If she cannot deal with this wounded neo nepotistic tiger with Mikila and baby brother Shuraj lurking in anticipation for their coronations , how is she going to eventually tango with the almighty nepotist himself Uncle Manning and tag team partner Hazel the educator com Caribbean Hilary Clinton, come snap elections ,before she K gets her act together? Hint, hint, hmmmm?
Some folks perched in their usual comfort zones , would look out on the horizon on the world politics, and see smoke , then foolishly conclude that it must be a curryque or a rain dance. Tell them for me , no way my friends . The first lesson I learned in an A Level Tranquility evening politics class , many moons ago while an overworked short pants Cop , is that it is virtually impossible to be “half pregnant.”
And to think that there are political leaders that would pay thousands to lofty high end consultants for this simple yet cogent advice , that I am prepared to offer to Madame K. for free.
Ahhhh , what a tragedy , this act of selling oneself short Neal!