Basdeo Panday’s Address to the National Assembly

Basdeo Panday’s Address to the National Assembly 
Saturday August 19, 2006 @ Rienzi Complex

My Dear friend Sir James Mitchell, Members at the Head Table, My Sisters and Brothers all,


I am sure that you are all aware that since my return from abroad in July of this year I have been making desperate efforts to heal the wounds in the Party and to bring the contending sides together. The problems in the Party began with the elections of the National Executive of the Party last year. It was an election in accordance with the Party Constitution to elect the leadership of the UNC. All members of the Party know that when we joined the UNC we solemnly agreed to abide by the Party’s Constitution. We are the only Party in this Part of the world in which the Leadership is elected by the rank and file of the membership on the basis of one-man-one-vote. No other political party can boast of this depth of democracy.

During that election we handed over on a platter to Winston Dookeran the Political Leadership of the Party by persuading the membership not to put a candidate against him. I myself signed his nomination form. I also submitted my nomination for the post of Chairman of the Party which post also went uncontested. This latter fact seemed to have caused much concern among Mr. Dookeran and those around him insisted that I leave the political scene all together. Since it appeared that I was not doing so this resulted in two slates for the election, which in itself is not a bad thing. That is the nature of democracy; it gives the people a chance to choose their leaders. The problem began when the Dookeran slate lost the elections and they refused to accept the democratic will of the members of this Party.

Mr. Dookeran refused to work with the newly elected Executive and began setting up a parallel organization, operating as a party within the Party. This of course led to a widening gap between the two factions in the Party and that has given rise to the situation we have today. Of course, the PNM financiers saw this as a golden opportunity to ensure a victory for the PNM and began financing the Dookeran faction, not because they wanted him to win but because they wanted to keep the division in the UNC which would ensure a PNM victory.

Having handed over on a silver platter the Political Leadership of the Party to Winston last year, I was forced in April of this year to relinquish the post of Leader of the Opposition when the PNM hierarchy interfered with the Magistrate in my trial by threatening to charge him with corruption if he did not send me to jail. The post of Leader of the Opposition then became vacant. The post of Leader of the Opposition is, by law, filled by an election among the Opposition members in the House of Representatives. You cannot hand over that post to anyone. It is not a bag of sweets you can hand over to any Tom, Dick or Harrylal. The majority of the members of the Opposition in the House must love you and respect you enough to elect you. When the PNM maliciously deprived me of that post the Opposition members of the House elected Kamla Persad Bissessar as Leader of the Opposition---while I was in jail. Winston was so angry that he was not chosen he left the front bench of the Opposition in Parliament and went on the back bench. I suppose that was yet another example of integrity and democracy. He felt I should have influenced the members of select him instead of Kamla, even though I was in jail. So much for integrity and the respect for democracy. 

On May 1, 2006, speaking through my daughter, Mickela, at a public meeting at Felicity I informed our supporters that I had tendered my resignation as Chairman of the Party and was leaving electoral politics for another and higher kind of politics. In so doing I promised that come what may I shall never abandon you.

So today, I address you as a man with no office…not Prime Minister, not Political Leader, not Leader of the Opposition, not Chairman of the Party; not even a functioning Member of Parliament; in fact I address you as a nobody. I have no office and I crave none. I repeat: I have no office and I desire none.

It is against this background that I began the task of trying to unite the Party, the United National Congress, the UNC, the Party to which we gave birth eighteen (18) years ago; the Party to which we have given so much of our blood, sweat and tears to give birth, to nurture and sustain; the Party they are trying to destroy because they cannot control it completely. Those who were defeated in the election were saying that the other side ( the side that won) must had over the Party to them lock, stock and barrel. Hand it over they say, as if it were a cow or a mule; take the end of the rope which is tied around the Party’s neck and hand it over to those who were in the bosom of the NAR trying to kill the UNC baby as we were trying to give birth and life to it. Hand it over, they say, pointing a gun at our heads. If you don’t hand it over, lock stock and barrel there will be no unity; that is there threat. They don’t care if the PNM wins. My Sisters and Brothers, I can now understand why they have no love, no feeling for the UNC; they did not feel the pain of giving birth to it, of nurturing it, of seeing it grow from a child into a strapping young man of 18 years.

Those who speak of handing over the Party belong to the old school of politics. They are remembering how Bhadase Sagan Maharaj handed over the PDP to Rudranath Caplideo who turned it into the DLP. I have been trying my damnest to find out how to hand over this Party to anyone, assuming that I could. We handed over the political leadership of the UNC on a platter; the Political Leader refuses to work with the Executive, calling it a cabal. You disrespect the members of this Party when you referred to their elected representatives as cabal. We are told that we should now hand over the Leader of the Opposition. Don’t they know that no one in the Party can hand over the leadership of the Opposition to anyone? That is an Office created by the national Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago that says how the Leader of the Opposition is appointed; that is the function of our members of Parliament. What more do you want in order to unite the Party? What more do we have to give you? 

Brothers and Sisters, this reminds of the story of the man who was wandering in the streets. You call him in and gave him a lodging. A few weeks later he wants his own room; you give him his own room. A few months later he says he wants the whole house; you give him the house. And when he gets the house he says: now what about wife and your children?. He wants that too.

As part of my attempts to unite the Party I attended the joint Conference of the Women’s and Youth Arm of the Party on Saturday, July 22, and succeeded in getting them to postpone a motion of no-confidence in the Political Leader which they had on the Agenda, pleading for time to allow me to meet with Mr. Dookeran to find out what he wants in order to agree to unite the Party. On Monday July 24, I got in touch with Winston and we met for the first time on Tuesday 25. At that meeting nothing substantial was achieved. I tried to get from him specific details of what he wanted. Try as I may I could not pin him down to anything specific. If you know Winston you will know what I mean; he never gives you a straight answer. From that meeting I gathered that he was saying that issue was not unity but leadership; that the duality of leadership was causing a problem; that I was trying to lead the Party from outside; that he must allowed to lead (I asked who was stopping him, to which I got no answer, of course); that he must be given the uncontrolled right to decide on any matter in the Party; that he must be supported on everything he wishes to do even if others do not agree with him. By that I understood him to mean that he was insisting that he be made Leader of the Opposition in addition to being Political Leader; that I must exit the political scene completely and irrevocably; that he must have total and absolute control of the Party. I requested that we put what we had talked about in writing so that there could be not dispute as to what was said at the meeting. I even suggested that we tape the proceedings. He refused. The only thing we agreed upon was that we should meet again. That was Tuesday 25. 

I did not hear from him on Wednesday, Thursday Friday. I called him several times on the telephone but was unable to reach him until he returned my call on Friday about 6.00 pm saying he wanted the week-end to ponder over the matter and we would meet the following week. We did not meet again until the 9th August. In the meantime I attended the National Congress of the Party on the Sunday 30th July and again persuaded them not to pursue the motion of no-confidence in the Political Leader, all in the cause of uniting the Party.

At our meeting on the 9th the pattern of discussion was similar to our first meeting. I could get nothing definite or precise from him. Instead of going through the details of that meeting let me read to you a letter which I wrote to Mr. Dookeran following that meeting.

Sunday 13 August, 2006

Dear Winston,

For the purposes of the record I would like to put in writing what transpired at our unity meeting on Wednesday last, August 9.

You emphasised that the meeting was not about unity but about leadership. I tried to get you to be more specific as to what exactly that meant but was unsuccessful. However, from our conversation I gathered that your demands for any kind of unity were as follows:

1. You must be acknowledged as the undisputed, supreme and absolute leader of the Party and be allowed to lead. By that you meant that you must get the full support of everyone in the Party for everything you did or proposed to do even if they did not agree with you.
2. You will not work with the present lawfully elected National Executive of the Party because they have insulted you. You did not state what is to be done with them given the provisions of the Party’s Constitution.
3. I (Basdeo Panday) must ensure that you be made Leader of the Opposition, even though this was a post which was filled by election among the Opposition members of Parliament.
4. I (Basdeo Panday) must distance myself from all and any kind of political activity; you will determine what role I play, if any. But in any case I must give you my absolute support in anything you do.

I told you that I was of view that the issue was unity if we are to confront the PNM successfully in the next elections. Our supporters knew this and they were crying out for unity. But if leadership was your problem then I proposed the following as a transitionary measure:

I proposed that we set up a Leadership Council made up of a core consisting of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Winston Dookeran, the two other Deputy Political Leaders—Jack Warner and Wade Mark-- Dr Tim Gopeesingh, the Party’s Chief Executive Officer, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, with power to co-opt other members from time to time as they see fit.

The function of the Leadership Council would be to run the Party, building its strength and mobilizing its forces to take us to victory in the next elections. 

Since what really appeared to be the critical question: “Who will be the Prime Minister in the event that we should win the elections?”, I proposed that before the General Elections are held a Special Assembly of the Party would elect him/her on the basis of one-man-one-vote. The membership would have had an opportunity to observe the leadership at work and will determine who, in their view, is the best person to lead the country. Nothing could be more democratic.

You indicated that you wanted time to think about my proposal. Surely you have had enough time.

I shall be honored if you would confirm that the above represents an accurate account of our meeting. If there are any errors, omissions or corrections please be good enough to so indicate in writing so that there can be no misunderstanding as to what was said.

I also expect a response to my proposal. 

With Best Wishes,
Basdeo Panday

On August 18, I received from Winston the following reply.

That reply gives you some indication of what I had to endure during our talks. My letter was very specific: it said this was my impression of what transpired at the meetings. It also went on to say that if my impressions were wrong please state what is the factual position. That is all I ask: please tell me specifically what we have to do to bring about unity in the Party. Not a word about that. 

There is another matter to which I would have preferred to make no reference here today, but since they sought to make the contents of that meeting public through the media I think I ought not to ignore it completely. I refer to the meeting at the Maha Sabha Headquarters on Thursday last under the Chairmanship of Dr Vijay Naraynsigh which made the front page of several newspapers yesterday.

On or about Tuesday or Wednesday of last week I received a call from Dr Narinesingh inviting me to a meeting at the Maha Sabha H.Q. on Thursday August 17. I asked him what it was about and he said it was a meeting of the leaders of several Hindu organisations which wanted to bring me up to date on the feelings of hurt that the Hindus are experiencing in the present situation. Having regard to the biased stand that a certain newspaper had been taking against I sensed a set up and a trap; yet agreed to attend. At that meeting I was told that some 28 Hindu organisations were represented. I am not sure on whose behalf they were speaking, what mandate they had, if any, or was it just their personal views. Some of them began asking me questions and I replied by saying that I did not come there to be cross-examined but to hear what they had to say. They persisted in their cross-examination and I decided to allow myself to subjected to the humiliation which had obviously been prepared for me by some of them (not all). I answered as best I could. Several views were expressed for which I thanked them. I kept asking them what they think I should do to bring about unity in the Party; they did not choose to answer then but preferred the newspapers do so the following day. Only one person was specific, and that was Mr. Deokienanan Sharma of SPIC. He said he had spoken to Mr. Dookeran some time ago as to what he wanted in order to bring about unity in the Party and he wrote down what Mr. Dookeran had said. He gave me a piece of paper which I read to you now.

If that were the case it would have been the simplest thing in the world for Winston to tell me that when we met and/or confirm it in writing in his later letter to me…But I shall have more to say about that when I visit the villages and the blocks during in the next few months and interface with the people who really matter. I have asked the Chairman of the Maha Sabha meeting, Dr Vijay Narinesingh, for a list of the groups represented at that meeting together with the names of their representatives so that I could determine whether the views expressed were their own or of the people they purported to represent. This I thought was very important. You will recall that in Guyana the leadership of the Maha Sabha sold out to Burnham and Hoyte, but the rank and file masses of the Hindu population supported Cheddi Jagan’s PPP. Even our own Maha Sabha leaders invited Desmond Hoyte to Trinidad and referred to him and Lord Shiva. But I shall have more to say on this matter as my colleagues from the UNC and I tour the constituencies shortly.

In spite of all that I have said I still ask you not to pursue this motion of no-confidence in the Political Leader. Our people are crying out for unity and we must do all in our power to bring it about. History must never accuse us of not doing all in our power to bring about unity no matter how long it takes. We must be prepared to suffer the greatest insults and provocation; the worst abuse and humiliation. We must display the patience of Job, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the courage of an Elijah; we must exercise the tenacity and wisdom of the Prophet (peace be upon Him), the strength of Hanuman and the humility of a Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Instead of pursuing this motion of no-confidence I humbly and respectfully suggest that the General Secretary send a formal invitation to the Political Leader, Mr. Winston Dookeran, inviting him to attend the next meeting of the National Executive of the Party and to participate fully therein, raising his hopes, fears and aspirations in person and seeking their support in his plans. I also suggest the he be informed of the rules and Constitution of the Party, emphasizing of the rules and Constitution of the Party; that he be reminded that when he joined this Party he solemnly agreed to abide by the Constitution. A man of absolute integrity and principles will surely recognize that he is so bound. If the Political Leader still refuses to attend the National Executive and/or to be an integral part of the Party then follow then my advice is to follow the provisions of the Constitution as it is your duty to do regardless of where the chips fall.

As to the lesser of the two major issues raised here today, that is to say, my return to the Chairmanship of the Party, let me defer that matter for the time being. Let me instead demonstrate to you and others that you do not need office do your duty. Many people, especially power-hungry people, crave office because they equate office with power; they fail to distinguish between office and power. So when they get one office and they realise they still do not have the power they expected they want another office, and then another and another and so on. They do not realise that power does not come from office but from the personality of the holder of that office, and very on the charisma of the leader himself whether he holds office or not. Real power comes from the people when they love you and trust you; and they will love you and trust you when you live with them in the trenches, when suffering with them as they suffer over many years you build an unbreakable bond of love and friendship and empathy. Power is not something you pick off a tree or find on the ground; it is not something that you can hand over like a cow or a mule. Those who today so desperately seek power have never been in the trenches with you; that is why they have no real power; that is why they seek power from office and not from the love of the people.

So I plead with you spare me the indignity of office, at least for the time being. I promise you that, God willing, if it becomes imperative in the interest of the Party and the people that I must assume the Chairmanship, or any other post for that matter, I shall unhesitatingly do so. In the meantime, I promise that I shall never abandon you. I shall always be with you for long as I live because I love you as much as you love me.

May God Bless You All.

Speech Delivered by Chairman Basdeo Panday at Mass Rally

Speech Delivered by Chairman Basdeo Panday at Mass Rally  on 2006/2/23

Colleagues on the Platform, Members, Friends and Supporters of the UNC at home and abroad, My Sisters and Brothers, To Be, Or Not To Be? That Is The Question. For the thousands of you who are gathered here today that is the most critical question facing us in the UNC: To be or not to be! That is the question: Whether we will be a united and disciplined Party that will take us into Government, or whether we shall continue as an undisciplined bunch of political miscreants forever running to the public media to air the internal affairs of the Party in public so making us the laughing stock of our political foes and friends alike and so keeping us in the Opposition forever. That is the question! Your presence here this afternoon in your tens of thousands has answered the question. When this Rally was originally conceived by the National Executive of the UNC earlier this month unity was not directly on our minds. The original purpose of this Rally was to bring to the attention of the public the blatant and dangerously frequent of abuse of power by this vicious PNM government in which the Manning administration has been engaged since coming to power in 2001. This blatant abuse of power by the PNM under Patrick Manning was brought once more to the nation’s consciousness when one Vernon Paul, a former associate of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) living in Venezuela, sent a written statement to the Commission of Police, in which he alleged that top officials of the PNM Government (including the Prime Minister) were involved in the plot to import drugs and ammunition from Venezuela and plant the dangerous material in the water tank of Sadiq Baksh, MP for San Fernando West, just before the general elections of 2002. With the ensuing public excitement caused by this stark revelation the UNC Executive thought it would be an opportune time to call a Rally to remind the population of some of the oppressive activities of this vicious Government. The abuse of power by this incompetent and vicious Government are many and we wanted to remind the public of them: the refusal to appoint an independent inquiry into the importation of drugs and ammunition by top officials of the Government from Venezuela, the use of the Jamaat al Muslimeen by the Government in criminal activity, the cover up of the larceny of Government materials intended for building the Scarborough Hospital, the use of a strategy of granting immunity to self- confessed killers to implicate innocent citizens in murder, the cover-up of the PRIDE project and LABIDCO scandals and many others. Ramesh has told you about the abuse of power and the rank discrimination of the Integrity Commission. That is only the tip of the iceberg. These are the thing that we wanted to talk to you about at the rally. The obvious speakers at such a Rally would, of course, be the leadership if the Party: the Party Chairman and Leader of the Opposition, the Political Leader, the Deputy Political Leaders and Sadiq Baksh who himself was the victim of this abuse of power. Ramesh Maharaj is not a member of the Party. The decision to invite Mr. Maharaj as a guest speaker was simply because he was recently involved in a murder trial in which the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions were accused of abusing the power of the State. What is so wrong with that? Why the fuss by so called intelligent leaders of the UNC? Would it have been alright if our guest speaker was Mr. Russell Martineau or Mr. Martin Daily? The reaction of some members of the leadership of the Party to the invitation of Ramesh has left the Party faithful wondering which side they are on. Although the objective of this Rally was not Unity, but rather to warn the population of the dangers of this Government, one would have been very naïve indeed not to expect it to have implications for unity. We did not think that such a consequence would be resisted by those who wanted to see the UNC in power because we all know that without unity inside and outside the Party our chances of beating the PNM would be severely diminished. I cannot therefore understand why anyone would want us to call off this Rally, or why anyone would want to boycott this Rally, or why anyone would demand that they would only come to this Rally if Ramesh is not here. I can think of only three groups of persons who would not want to see the UNC united: Firstly, there is the PNM. No PNM wants to see unity in the UNC. They are not fools; they know that with the mess the PNM is making of this country they cannot win the next elections…unless the UNC is divided and weak. They will therefore do all in their power to ensure that the UNC is divided and remains divided. They will finance persons and activities inside the Party to give the impression of constant bickering inside the Party. They will create and finance a Party within the Party, a parallel organization complete with their own uniforms and slogans to ensure that the Party’s official organs do not function. They encourage defiance of the decisions of the National Executive of the Party. But there are two kinds of PNM: those who are openly PNM and make no bones about it. Just listen to Umbala and Padmore and the Gladiator without a sword. .But there are also closet PNM; those whose pretend to be independent but are the most vicious PNM in their dealings behind closed doors. They wend their way into the UNC and pretend to be helping, but everything they do is ensure that the UNC remains divided so that the PNM can win the next elections. They finance anti-UNC advertisements, and pamphlets and jersey and pay huge salaries to personnel of various factions in the Party to promote division. Secondly, there are those in the media who will go to any lengths to put the UNC in a bad light. Don’t be too harsh on them; they are merely singing for their supper. They are the hired guns who will shoot down anybody they are paid to destroy. Like the harlot they say they are merely earning a living. Some of them are unadulterated racists and they actually enjoy doing the hatchet job. Thirdly, there are those within the Party who, strange though it may seem, also do not want unity. If you find that strange so do I. Surely, they must know that without unity we cannot win. Without unity we all lose...including them. Why then do they resist unity? The only thing I can think of is that it is all about power. They want to win but only if they are in total control. If they cannot be in total control then they do not care if the whole struggle collapses…they do not care if the Party is mashed up. Some of them suffer from an inferiority complex; they are afraid of competition, of anyone who they feel is brighter or tougher than they are and may take away their position. They prefer to be big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond; they are the ones who harp on the past about who was traitor and who was not, who has principles and who do not. My sisters and Brothers you and I know that a house divided against itself cannot stand; united we stand; divided we fall: a united UNC is a victorious UNC. When the UNC unites the UNC wins. We have done it before and we shall do it again. That is why I give you my unequivocal commitment today that as long as I am Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of this glorious Party I shall do all in my power to build and maintain the UNC as a united disciplined Party. Do You Want A United Party? Do You Want A Disciplined Party? Do I Have Your Permission And Authority To Build A United And Disciplined Party? Do I Have Your Authority To Deal With Indiscipline In This Party? I accept your mandate and give you my solemn word that I shall not let you down and I promise you we shall rise again. Since 1956 the patriots of this country opposed to the PNM have been fighting a battle against that vicious party; many have died in that struggle without seeing victory; it took us some fifty years to reach where we have reached today; during that time many have given not only their blood, sweat and tears but their very lives. Over the past seventeen years many of you have worked your fingers to the bone to bring the UNC to where it is today, and because of your hard work you have won the Government not once but twice. Unite and you shall do it again. Only you who have laboured in the vineyard to create and build this Party can understand the pain you feel when some neophytes do things that threaten the death of this glorious organization. Only a mother knows the pain of giving birth to her child. Those who have not felt that pain care nothing about the survival of the child. Many who want to destroy our child today were not even around when we gave birth to our child. The UNC is our child and we shall defend it with our lives. Recent events have caused what appears to be disunity in the Party; your presence here today in such large numbers is indicative of what I have always believed: there is no disunity in the UNC because there is no disunity in the rank and file of UNC. If there is any semblance of disunity it is among a small part of the indiscipline leadership at the top. That does not mean that the Party is disunited; the Party is only disunited when you, the rank and file, are disunited. But look around you here today. Does this look like a disunited Party? Disunity is to be found only in the newspapers and some radio and TV stations, not among you. You are stronger than ever and you cannot and will not be led astray. In every political party (indeed, in almost every organization, even the church) there are and always will be people with different views. Such is the nature of man...and, I am told, especially woman. In my forty years in politics I have had my fair share of that...I mean difference of views, not women. But if you really love your Party you will not express those differences in such a way as to bring the Party into hatred, ridicule and contempt. You will not run to the media every time you disagree with something or someone; you will use the Party machinery to discuss your internal problems and so maintain the dignity of the Party while entertaining a difference of views. That is all we ask in the UNC. Is that too much to ask? Those who run to the media after every meeting of the National Executive or the Parliamentary Caucus or the Parliamentary Arm are the first to talk about principles. What kind of principle is that? Humiliating your Party by exposing its underwear to the antagonistic neighbours? Don’t they know that such behaviour will make the Party the laughing stock of our political enemies and so weaken the Party? Sisters and Brothers, if you examine closely those who are always harping about principles you will find that very often they have no principles at all. I can understand the PNM and our other political enemies running to the media to make the UNC look bad; but when our own members do that it makes you wonder whose side are they on. I can only conclude that their intention is to mash up the Party if they cannot control it completely and have their own way. As Chairman of this Party and as one who have helped to give it birth I have a sacred duty to preserve and protect it against all attackers. As I said of my Government when we were in office I now say of my Party: No one will unjustly attack my Party and escape unscathed. I shall defend her, as I would my mother, to the last drop of my blood. Not only will I defender her to the end but I will do all in power to feed her with the finest diet so that she may grow from strength to strength. It is for that reason that I am taking so much blows and enduring so much pain to unite my beloved UNC. We all know that without political power we can do little or nothing to improve the quality of life of the peoples of our beloved country. We also know that we shall not win power unless we unite, first the Party and then the country. But how shall we achieve unity? The mere fact that we are striving for unity is an admission that there are elements of disunity in the Party. In order to deal with that problem we must ask what is, or has been, the cause of this disunity. We are angry with one another because somewhere and sometime in the past we disagreed with one another, we quarreled with one another, we fought one another, so we vex with one another; we not talking to this one and that one. As long as that situation persists we can never unite. In order to unite you have got to learn how to forgive…if not forget. I pray to God for that strength. I struggle to forgive and forget. If there is any man in this huge audience who should want to buss Ramesh head it should me. When he did what he did in 2001 every nerve in my body and soul hurt. For years I dreamt of meeting him in a dark alley and strangling him when no one was looking. But while I was preoccupied with aberration and my anger the PNM was taking my country downhill into a precipice of despair. They were undoing all the work we had done between 1995 and 2001 to improve the quality of life of the people; all the work we had done to control crime, the work we had done in education, with employment, with the roads, the water supply, electricity, sporting complexes to name a few. I slowly began to realise that my despair was taking us nowhere. I asked myself for how long must I carry this burden of hate, anger, bitterness, spite and malice? I decided the time had come to forgive even if I could not forget. I said to myself: I must not allow the chains of the past to so chain me to the present that I cannot move into the future. And I forgave and forgave and forgave. I have always forgiven. In 1986 we saw a chance of removing the PNM that has been in power for thirty consecutive years. Even though I was the leader of my own Party, the ULF, I willingly gave up the leadership to ANR Robinson so that we could form the NAR. One year after the ULF put Robinson in power he ungratefully kicked us out of the NAR and the Government. Winston Dookeran, Bhoe Tiwarie, Yetming and Roy Augustus and others condoned that political massacre and stayed with Robinson. I was deeply hurt by what I regarded as a betrayal but I did not hold that against them; I forgave them all. In fact, when we came to power in 1995 my Cabinet and I made Winston Governor of the Central Bank. We appointed Jerry Yetming a Senator and made him Minister of Finance; we appointed Roy Augustus to the Senate. We held no bitterness, no spite no malice. I have had my fights with Trevor Sudama, Kelvin Ramnath and Hulsie Bhagan and scores of others too numerous to mention; I have forgiven them all because that is the only path to unity. I have swallowed my ‘abhimaan’, my false pride, my inflated ego, my arrogance and forgiven them all so that I may be in a position today to issue this genuine call for unity, without which there is no hope for this country. I cannot and must not allow my person feelings to supersede my national duty. I too have a dream that one day all our citizens will be treated equally and equitably. To achieve that dream I will undergo any sacrifice…even sleep with the devil’s father, and that is God. In my Father’s kingdom there are many mansions. There is room for everyone. As an outcome of this call for unity I had hoped one day to present you with a formidable leadership team that would make the PNM tremble. Winston Dookeran is a well respected economist; Basdeo Panday is an old political war-horse; Ramesh Maharaj is a fearless (some say ruthless) fighter of crime, and Jack Warner is the best unifier of our society this country has seen for a long time. Can you imagine a leadership team like that confronting the PNM in the next general elections!!! We shall lick the hell out of them. We are sure to win. I even have a name for such a team: we shall call them the fearsome foursome; or the awesome foursome; or the formidable four. If we are going to win the next elections there is much work to be done. Since the Party had its internal elections five months ago we have done very little work in the field. We have been engaged in the futile exercise of disputing the results of the elections and trying to resist the outcome of the democratic process. Let us hope that from today all that nonsense will cease, and from tomorrow we shall hit the ground running. We must start the mobilization exercise immediately. Seminars, symposia, frequent academic fora and other forms of intellectual masturbation are good but they do not by themselves win elections. It is the hard work at the grass roots that win elections. If, after so many years in politics we do not know what government is about, and if after so many years we do not know what to do when we get into government then we shall never know. We have been in Government before; we know what to do. In fact we have done it to the great satisfaction of the people. As a Government we know that our job is to improve the quality of life for all our people. We will therefore so organize the society and its resources so that their use conduces to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of our citizens. Is that not what we did when we were in power? That is how we were able to deal with crime, the safety and security of our people, unemployment, education, the infrastructure and so on. But to do all of that we must first win the elections; we must have power. Our first job therefore is to put the Party on an election footing. That is a big job; a small handful of Party officers cannot do it alone; we shall need the help of each and every one of you gathered here today. There are certain things we must put in place immediately and you can help. Make sure you are registered to vote and make sure that your neighbours and friends are also registered. Remember in our system of democracy your support counts only if you vote on Election Day. We suspect that the PNM is going to try to steal this election once again by, among other things, voter padding. You must make sure that your neighbours are genuine electors. Guard against the agent provocateurs particularly those in the media who will publish misinformation so as to confuse you into shifting your support to the PNM. And if they come with violence in the elections this time we must be ready for them. Read the letters to the editors with suspicion and caution; some of them are written by stooges working for the very newspapers; they sign false names to give the impression that our supporters are moving away. During the last couple of days there appeared full page ads in some of the news papers calling for Panday to go; it was signed ‘Concerned Citizens’. The irony is that the person who put that ad in the papers is not a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago; he is a Guyanese. All I have to say to him is careful you don’t go before me. I must talk to President Bharat Jagdeo about that. When the time comes for me to go I shall go; when you tell me to go I shall go. Not by Newspaper ads or so called letters to the editor. The letters to the Editor against Panday are always signed by an Indian name. You try to find some of those letter writers and see how many of them really exist. The PNM sycophants know that politics has it own morality. Only hypocrites do not publicly admit it. I have always said that politics is civilized form of war; the objective is the same: to win. The weapons are different but the strategies are the same. Politics, like the priesthood, has its own morality. You must defeat the enemy before they defeat you. The PNM knows that more than anybody else. They will do anything to win, even resort to murder as they were prepared to do with Sadiq’s children when they put five kilos of cocaine in his water tank. Mr. Manning has said that the elections will come as a thief in the night; most likely they will come in the night thiefing the elections. Be like the proverbial virgins: keep your lamps lighted and well oiled. They want to come in the dark. Do not be afraid. Keep the faith, my Sisters and Brothers, Victory is at hand. The Rising Sun will rise again!