Panday: Wherever UNC moves, incompetence will follow

FOUNDER of the United National Congress (UNC) Basdeo Panday says the relocation of the party’s base from central to south Trinidad is no cause for concern.

“The most important function of a political party is to serve the people. For the present UNC, I don’t think that location would make any difference to their incompetence.

“Wherever they go, that incompetence would follow so long as the leadership doesn’t inspire people. If they went out on the Soldado Rock, it would not make a difference, really.

“The incompetence has been so widespread, so great, I don’t think there is any recovery, no matter where they are located.”

Panday was commenting on the decision of the party, under the leadership of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to move its base from Southern Main Road, Couva to M Rampersad Building, San Fernando.

Both UNC chairman  Dave Tancoo and and PRO Kirk Meighoo, said it was a matter of convenience, as covid19 has forced a more concentrated effort on virtual interaction with the people. They said the new building is more modern in terms of creating the virtual space to function as a party.

Tancoo said it did not matter where the UNC operated from, once it was effectively serving the people.

The party, since its inception in 1989, was first based at the Rienzi Complex. After 27 years it  was reportedly evicted and moved to a smaller space for five years.

Asked about the significance of having a central base, Panday explained that when he became leader of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Union, the union had no headquarters.

He said he set out to build a headquarters, and the land  available was in Couva.

The headquarters became the Rienzi Complex, named after Adrian Cola Rienzi (Krishna Deonarine) a trade unionist, civil-rights activist, politician and lawyer who founded both the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Union.

Panday said Rienzi Complex became a centre for intense struggle, a place which saw the genesis of many political groupings, including the United Labour Front (ULF), which all culminated in the UNC.

“And the Rienzi Complex became the (UNC’s) headquarters until the party was evicted from there.”

Panday, a former prime minister who ran the Basdeo Panday Foundation from an office at the Rienzi Complex, was evicted in 2020.

He said he filed an action in court and the court ordered his reinstatement.

“But in breach of the court order, they have not done so.”

He said because of the covid19 pandemic, it has not been possible for him to pursue the matter further.

Panday now runs the foundation from his home at Palmiste, San Fernando.