Panday in dark over move to oust him from Rienzi

Former prime minister Basdeo Panday.
Former prime minister Basdeo Panday.

FORMER prime minister Basdeo Panday is pushing back at attempts he said are being made to oust him from the Rienzi Complex, Couva, the home of the All Trinidad General Workers Union, which, he said, “I built with my bare hands.”

This comes almost three years after the United National Congress (UNC) – which he also founded, losing its leadership to Kamla Persad-Bissessar in 2010 – was evicted from its base there after 27 years of occupation. Money was said to be the cause of this separation.

Panday who is a lifetime member of the union, having served as its president between 1973-1995, was given a guarantee to stay at Rienzi for as long as he wanted.

Yesterday, Panday confirmed what former People's Partnership minister Devant Maharaj said – that for the past several months he has been operating in the dark, as both the lights and air conditioning have been cut off in the office from which he manages the Basdeo Panday Foundation.

“The electricity has been cut, so too the air conditioning,” he admitted.

He said he has not been asked by the president of the union, Nirvan Maharaj, to go but everything is being done to frustrate him into leaving.

However, the defiant Panday said he has “rigged up a lighting system” and leaves the door to the office open, “to get some breeze” as he continues to serve people seeking his assistance.

He told the Newsday yesterday, “I am not leaving.”

He offered several theories as to why he may have overstayed his welcome.

“I think I may have embarrassed him politically. When people come to Rienzi and are dissatisfied with the response from the union, they come here (the foundation). The poor and distressed who suffer tremendously from the monolithic bureaucracy, they come to me for help and I help them, totally free of charge, so I have decided I won’t give that up.

“What I have done is that I have rigged a whole lot of old wires, so I have enough light to operate. I am not a very good electrician, but it works.”

He also suspects one reason he is being singled out may be a clash of ideology given that his daughter, Mickela, is the leader of the National Patriotic Front and Maharaj is also political leader of the National Solidarity Assembly, which is housed at Rienzi.

“I don’t know if that’s the reason. If you find out could you please promise to tell me?” Panday requested.

But Maharaj denied there is any plot to get rid of Panday. As an attorney, Maharaj said, he did not need to use this ruse if he wanted to evict him.

“If I need to remove anybody, I know the procedure to do it. This is our building.

"I hope this is not some sort of gimmick for media attention. We are doing some work in the building and Mr Panday’s secretary is fully aware there will be no air condition, because all of the units have been dismantled for the restructuring."

He said he was not aware there was no electricity.

"Nobody spoke to me, not Mr Panday or his secretary. All he (Panday) needed to do was come across the other side of the building, to the union’s office, and that would have been dealt with.”

Maharaj said being a lifetime member of the union did not give Panday an automatic right to occupy the building.

“If Cabrera (Vincent Cabrera) leaves the Banking and General Workers' Union, he would not have an automatic right to their building. Similarly, when Errol McLeod left the OWTU, he did not get an office at Paramount.”

He said he had allowed Panday’s occupation "because he served the country so well, but I am disappointed that I had to hear about this from the media."

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"Panday in dark over move to oust him from Rienzi"

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