THE EDITOR:
I HAVE been a loyal defender and supporter of Basdeo Panday for a very long time but I simply cannot allow him to continue to fracture the UNC as he is doing now.

Overtime, Basdeo Panday has allowed the new to overtake the old.

He has allowed newcomers to take the place of his loyal allies.

When things like Kelvin Ramnath being made to speak before a non-MP and the loyal Wade Mark was being made to speak before Jack Warner, people should have realised that Panday was allowing his friendships to blur his judgment once more.

When we see the Leader of the Opposition too weak and coward to tell him to stop interfering in her Parliamentary agenda, we should have realised that the UNC executive was doing nothing to stop the ship from sinking.

Now, he has brought in more people to hug and kiss and listen to and has moved again to further sacrifice his old allies.

Everyone knows that this unity arrangement will not last, most of all me.

The worst thing is that like every other time when Panday blows the whole thing apart again, he will come running back to his old friends for solace.

I have tried and struggled with myself for too long to continue to justify my support for this man and party that I once respected and held in high-esteem.

Maybe it is time to start looking and listening to the other parties.
After all my condemnation for the COP as a CORPSE, maybe now I can listen and observe without being blinded by my unwanted support for the UNC.

THE EDITOR:
I ATTENDED the Congress of the People (COP) meeting in Chaguanas East on Tuesday night and I am now convinced that this party is not for the common man.

I live in Montrose and was invited by a co-worker to the meeting.
I am not a member of the party but like most of my friends I am looking for a reason to support any party other than the PNM.

My father works at the Brick factory in Longdenville, my mother is a vendor in the Chaguanas Market and my sister and I are store clerks.

We are what politicians call grass-roots people.
After hearing one of the speakers talk about why Nirad Tewarie will be a good candidate I left the meeting disgusted.

The speaker said that Nirad came from “good breeding.”
Probably the rest of us in Trinidad who came from simple homes with humble parents came from “bad breeding.”

After talking to my employer he reminded me that at another meeting in Rio Claro some months ago the chairman of that meeting introduced Navi Muradali as having “pedigree.”

In other words, the rest of us are peasants while those in the COP who want to lead us are nobles.

The COP is not a party for the common man and woman.

The words of Basdeo Panday may really be coming to pass since the UNC is telling us that the COP is not concerned about the simple common people but about those who were chosen by “the gods” to rule over us “common people”.

THE EDITOR:
DO supporters of Congress of the People (COP) believe that Panday will live forever?
This is the only logical reason why the demand for Panday’s departure from politics has been so urgently strident.

Panday has been accused of splitting votes and mashing up the party.

Was it he who absented himself from executive meetings and took to courting the public, refusing to associate with the executive and while pretending to be working for the party busied himself with raising funds for another party which he later conveniently found excuses for launching?

Is it Panday who has consistently refused all approaches for unity?

Is it Panday who refuses to have any interest in uniting with other parties?

Is it Panday’s party that has seen it convenient to support several government bills to facilitate the Government and provide it with credibility?

Would any leader who commands such mass support as Panday does, after retiring and being called back to lead his party, refuse in this final hour to unseat the Government?

Those who support the COP and openly slander Panday unceasingly with the worst of disparaging remarks, have no certainty that the COP will win any seats at all.

The COP has many has-beens and been-theres from Organisation of National Reconstruction (ONR) and National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) failed efforts.

The one sure tried and tested leader who has a distinct following and a successful political record and who cannot hold onto personal power in the present circumstances of age and prosecution, has become so hated to many that they will not rest until he is disgraced in ignominy and virtually exiled.

Yet despite this internecine hatred among his own people, his detractors demand his removal, regardless of the cost to their chances.

Many prefer to cut off their own noses to spite their faces. This self-destructive vision will ensure the continuance of the current administration.

And at the end of its fulfillment, Panday will be blamed for his people’s betrayal of himself and victim shall become culprit.

Dookeran will return to civil service and the COP will decay while the United National Congress (UNC) will return to opposition without Panday in a reduced number emasculated by an overwhelming Government majority free to do as it please. What a sad prognosis self-imposed.