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!