Remembering the 'Silver Fox'

BRYAN ST LOUIS

TRADE UNIONIST, actor, attorney, politician and Trinidad and Tobago legend, Basdeo Panday has passed.

He was well known for his silvery-white hair, charisma and sharp wit, and was someone many loved to hate politically and ideologically for his style of leadership, his outspokenness and his skilful use of political picong in Parliament and on public platforms.

He was a former president of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers' Trade Union, founding member of the United Labour Front (ULF) and was instrumental in the formation of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) which ousted the PNM in 1986 after approximately 30 years in office.

In 1988 he resigned from the NAR and formed Club 88, which eventually became the United National Congress (UNC). As political leader of the UNC, Panday served as prime minister from 1995 to 2001. His administration was hit by accusations of public corruption during his tenure, which contributed immensely to his party’s inability to hold onto the reins of power thereafter. He also held the position of opposition leader on various occasions between 1976 and 2010.

Subsequent to the 2000 election which the UNC won with 19 seats (the PNM got 17 seats), Panday’s government collapsed after three of its MPs, Ralph Maraj, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Trevor Sudama, fell out with the party. The following year, Panday called a general election which ended in an 18-18 tie. Because of the deadlock, president Arthur NR Robinson appointed Patrick Manning as prime minister in December 2001, in what turned out to be a controversial decision as he cited his choice of Manning instead of Panday on moral and spiritual values.

Panday was ousted from the leadership of the UNC in 2010 by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who challenged him for the political leader post in the party’s internal election.

Many will remember how he was vilified for the controversial and acerbic comments he made at the funeral of his long-time political colleague Kelvin Ramnath in 2012. At the funeral, he accused many of treating Ramnath with contempt while he was alive but now engaging in twisted irony with an outpouring of love and glowing tributes. He was quoted as responding to his critics by saying, “If I have told one single lie, then please point it out to me. I say to them weep not now. You did not weep when they crucified him."

It is sad, however, that now that Panday has died he is similarly being immortalised by many as someone to whom an aura of political statesmanship must be bestowed upon. Maybe if he could respond now he would be making the same bitingly critical and sarcastic comments, like he did at Ramnath’s funeral, to those offering tributes on his passing.

It is time that we as a society put our differences apart and recognise the contributions made by our legends, icons, pioneers and heroes, and take pride in offering them their flowers so they can appreciate them before they transition to the afterlife.

Panday's (affectionately called the "Silver Fox") innings is over, his bat is laid down. Bowled out by death’s unerring ball. And Nelson Mandela said it aptly, “Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people, his country, he can rest in peace”

So ends the era of an individual who contributed and dedicated his working life in service to his country at the highest level. There were many negatives during his tenure as prime minister, but they are outweighed by the positives, as his contributions to our society and the footprints he created on the regional and international landscape cannot be measured.

He will go down in history as one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most dynamic and controversial post-independence leaders and his contributions as a servant of the people will be forever etched in the history of our country.

My condolences to his family and friends.