Look in the mirror

Can you imagine how different this country could have been today, if Basdeo Panday had managed his temper, swallowed his pride, and not defected from the NAR to form Club ’88?  Political discretion was never the better part of Panday’s valour.

The year 1986 was Panday’s first real chance to change the course of our social and political history, and he failed to see the larger picture. He should have thought about how he could right the wrongs he quarrelled about as Leader of the Opposition, and formulate a strategy as to how he could bring about meaningful change by fighting from a position of power in government.

Instead, he opted to retreat to the predictable impotence of opposition, and condemned us to a lifetime of PNM incompetence. He chose personal power and fame over country and people. His political career is littered with fragmentation, destruction and re-creation. He lacked vision and patience. Today, we are paying the price for his selfish choices that predictably led to the re-election of the PNM. Even now, a shadow of his former self, Panday still thrives on the sound and fury of self-destruction and internecine warfare, and is opting for the path that will entrench the PNM.

The PNM has returned the favour by keeping Panday in politics, because his irrational behaviour is a bonus. The year 2009 would mark a decade since Panday allegedly made false declarations of his income and assets to the Integrity Commission. Panday’s retrial is virtually stuck in the mud, because yet another judicial review has been filed to challenge the refusal of Magistrate Espinet to disqualify herself from presiding over his trial, on the basis of her perceived links with the PNM.

Panday was lucky to have his previous conviction and sentence set aside, after it emerged that the Chief Magistrate had compromised himself and the integrity of the trial by failing to disclose his involvement in a land transaction that involved assistance from high-ranking members of the PNM.

There is a conspiracy theory that the PNM is doing its utmost best to keep Panday alive. He is the single largest obstacle to political unity of the opposition forces, and as long as he is politically alive and active, the PNM is safe.

Why/how did secret, confidential discussions between former AG John Jeremie and Chief Magistrate McNicolls leak out? Are we to believe that a political party with over 50 years’ experience, that has protected some of the most corrupt deals ever made, was so naive that it couldn’t keep the lid on the infamous land transaction? I doubt it.

Maybe McNicolls was set up and didn’t realise it. What if we all got it wrong from the start? There was never any intention to bribe McNicolls to ensure he convicted Panday. What if the plan was to muddy the waters of the trial to ensure that if Panday was convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in excess of one year (thereby disqualifying him from holding political office under the constitution), he is given a lifeline by being able to challenge his conviction on the ground of bias?

What better gift could the PNM want than an opposition leader indelibly tainted with the brush of corruption with a re-trial hanging over his head? Keeping Panday in this state of limbo suits the PNM well.

His re-trial is set to proceed, and Magistrate Espinet refuses to step down, despite her links with a politically inspired charitable organisation founded by a PNM stalwart. It has now emerged that her father was a PNM minister. Had she simply stepped aside and allowed a different magistrate to do Panday’s case, he might have been convicted and removed from the political equation. But that could spell disaster for the PNM.

I’m not suggesting that Espinet is part of any political conspiracy, but a simple administrative transfer of a case, to avoid yet another series of judicial reviews that would delay (yet again) the start of Panday’s re-trial would have solved the problem and upheld the integrity of the administration of justice.

Panday personally administered lethal injections to the UNC government, by unnecessarily forcing internal elections that created enemies and division within his own camp along old fault lines. It started with his declaration, as PM, that he didn’t intend to stay on forever, and wanted the party to choose a successor.

Kamla, Ramesh and Carlos slugged it out, and Panday’s reputed blue-eyed boy, Carlos, lost to Ramesh. Dookeran was next in line, as Panday nominated him political leader, but ran a competing slate against him for control of the executive.

Many watch in horror as Panday continues to stab the UNC, even while it nurses yesterday’s self-inflicted wounds. He will boast that he was able to bury and resurrect many political enemies during his colourful career: Kelvin Ramnath, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, and Winston Dookeran, to mention a few.

One thing he will never be able to answer, though, is who was primarily responsible for keeping the PNM in power for over 40 years. To answer this, he must look in the mirror.

By Anand Ramlogan 2008-12-07