Gail Alexan­der

"I'm not my broth­er's keep­er."That was for­mer UNC leader Bas­deo Pan­day's re­sponse on the dis­missal of his broth­er Sub­has Pan­day as Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Sen­ate leader and ju­nior min­is­ter.Pan­day and his daugh­ter, Mikela, at­tend­ed yes­ter­day's launch of the new par­lia­men­tary ses­sion and were the cen­tre of at­ten­tion of many from the PNM as well as Gov­ern­ment.Pri­or to the start of the ses­sion, PNM MPs came over to hug and shake hands with Pan­day as did oth­ers, in­clud­ing TOP leader Ash­worth Jack and for­mer House Speak­er Baren­dra Sinanan (who once sus­pend­ed Pan­day from Par­lia­ment).

Af­ter the launch, dur­ing a re­cep­tion in the Red House ro­tun­da, Pan­day was sim­i­lar­ly greet­ed by many, in­clud­ing for­mer PNM MP Di­ane Seuk­er­an and COP leader Win­ston Dook­er­an with whom he spoke hearti­ly.Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar passed by Pan­day once, but didn't stop at that point.On Per­sad-Bisses­sar's re­moval of his broth­er from the Gov­ern­ment, Pan­day se­nior said: "I'm not my broth­er's keep­er and the Pan­days are well known for their fierce in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty and act­ing in ac­cor­dance with their con­science and be­liefs so they un­der­stand the con­se­quences of their de­ci­sions."He said he was not sure if reshuf­fling the Cab­i­net would pro­duce per­for­mance.

He added: "Since mov­ing a per­son from one post to an­oth­er may not do that. I don't think the prob­lem is with the min­is­ters, it's with the Prime Min­is­ter. "She must lead and have a vi­sion, be able to in­spire and have dis­ci­pline and all of that is miss­ing."Pan­day said the Prime Min­is­ter could ex­change places with Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards since the lat­ter had told the Gov­ern­ment what to do in his "throne speech"."I sug­gest he (Richards) take over the lead­er­ship of the Gov­ern­ment," Pan­day added.Deem­ing the Gov­ern­ment in­ef­fec­tive, Pan­day said Op­po­si­tion leader Kei­th Row­ley had failed in cast­ing a new im­age for the PNM and the par­ty re­mained weak.