A prime minister for the poor

THE EDITOR: Around early to mid-2002, my wife and I went to collect our first car, a roll-on/roll-off station wagon. The price averaged around $25,000.

While waiting to collect it, there was a mother and her two daughters who were ahead of us, and who had just collected the keys to their own station wagon.

To this day I have not forgotten the screams, hugs and look of absolute joy on the faces of her daughters. They had accomplished something they never thought they would be able to do – own a vehicle.

This was made possible by the policies of the then UNC government led by prime minister Basdeo Panday.

To date, it is the only non-coalition party to defeat the PNM in a general election.

He ran the country at a time when oil prices were as low as US$13 per barrel. He did not increase any taxes nor did he increase gasoline prices (ahem). He did not introduce any property tax.

In 2000, he introduced the Interim Revenue Stabilisation Fund (IRSF).

In 2007, the PNM, under Patrick Manning, established the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF) Act and transferred all the monies from the IRSF into the HSF.

On April 6, 1998, Panday established the very first minimum wage in TT, at $7 per hour. For 42 years before that, the previous governments never bothered to consider the working poor.

It was under Panday’s administration, in 1999, that Dole Chadee and eight of his henchmen were hanged. Murders were at an all-time low as a clear message was sent by the government.

In 2001, he introduced the Dollar for Dollar education programme which paid 50 per cent of university tuition fees for students.

In 1998, construction started on a new airport terminal. It was completed in 2001. This became embroiled in what was known as the Piarco Airport scandal.

On November 17, 2001, God showed my deceased uncle Panday “with a heavy load on his shoulder, and the people who were putting it on his back were strapping it down. The strap extended from his shoulder to his waist and he was bending because he could not straighten under the weight.” The heading was “Panday carrying a heavy burden.”

In 2005, Panday was charged with corruption. Eighteen years later, in 2023, and mere months before his death, the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped all charges against him.

He was, perhaps, the most charismatic leader we have had.

Thank you, Panday, for your decades of service to TT.

LINUS F DIDIER

Mt Hope