Bas­deo Pan­day shall long be re­mem­bered for his out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to our pol­i­tics. He did strug­gle, and made a tremen­dous sac­ri­fice for the bet­ter­ment of the In­do-Tri­ni com­mu­ni­ty and coun­try as a whole. He did well as Prime Min­is­ter, but failed to man­age in­ter­nal con­flicts and re­sist the se­duc­tive lure of the very par­a­sitic oli­garchy that he so ve­he­ment­ly con­demned dur­ing his strug­gles. He lost po­lit­i­cal cred­i­bil­i­ty in the eyes of non-UNC sup­port­ers a long time ago.

Em­bat­tled and bit­ter

Em­bat­tled and bit­ter, a whirlpool of cor­rup­tion charges swirling around him, he held on­to lead­er­ship of the par­ty which he un­doubt­ed­ly built on the strength of his po­lit­i­cal cap­i­tal. Alas! he made one too many un­forced er­rors. He squeezed Dook­er­an out and spawned the COP, with­out which he could nev­er re­gain gov­ern­ment. The po­lit­i­cal out­cast left home, filed for di­vorce, and 148,000 of his sons and daugh­ters walked. Dook­er­an has had the last laugh over Bas, and has been vin­di­cat­ed in his de­ci­sion to walk. Many, in ret­ro­spect, feel that the de­ci­sion to leave the UNC was a good one, as the par­ty sim­ply went from bad to worse un­der Pan­day's lead­er­ship. His po­lit­i­cal stocks plum­met­ed; the PNM was gain­ing ground. The un­spo­ken mantra on every­one's mind was "if we can't beat them, we might as well join them."

Pan­day spurned every op­por­tu­ni­ty for peace­ful change. A grace­ful ex­it was sim­ply not on the cards. He thought he could de­fy the odds and lead the UNC back in­to gov­ern­ment. He thought peo­ple would be forced to elect him by de­fault, as dis­con­tent with the PNM grew and Dook­er­an fad­ed. The dark horse he un­der-es­ti­mat­ed in the form of Kam­la has run the full course. She bid­ed her time and wait­ed for the last lap. She timed her move well, and made the break for the fin­ish line in a way that caught every­one sleep­ing. Pan­day was keep­ing an eye on Jack and Ramesh, but failed to re­alise that his main chal­lenger was un­der his nose. Kam­la's bril­liance was known to many, but few thought she had the po­lit­i­cal skill to pull the rug out from be­neath Pan­day while he was still stand­ing on it. Hats off to her; she has achieved what no man has ever been able to ac­com­plish be­fore: beat Pan­day in his own par­ty.

Call­ing Pan­day's bluff

The peo­ple have fi­nal­ly called Pan­day's bluff. It is not the first time the UNC had in­ter­nal elec­tions. No one dared con­test the post of po­lit­i­cal leader be­fore. Pan­day backed Car­los John over Ramesh and Kam­la the last time around. He want­ed to prove that he con­trolled his fol­low­ers to such an ex­tent that he could make them vote for an Afro-Tri­ni, if he so de­sired. This was his un­spo­ken com­mand, but Car­los lost to Ramesh. He has got his wish, but in a dif­fer­ent way. His fol­low­ers have ma­tured and opened their eyes. They vot­ed for Jack Warn­er be­cause they be­lieved in him, and his ac­tions spoke loud­er than his words. Could an In­di­an per­son be elect­ed over an Afro-Tri­ni backed by Man­ning and the PNM in an open elec­tion like this? I doubt it.

The elec­tion of Jack Warn­er rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in our racial pol­i­tics. It will re-de­fine race re­la­tions and show that sin­cer­i­ty and hard work can be ap­pre­ci­at­ed, re­gard­less of one's race. (The high num­ber of votes for Wade Mark is al­so sig­nif­i­cant in this con­text.) Jack is a work­er, and his quest for change in the UNC sparked a qui­et rev­o­lu­tion which gained mo­men­tum and forced the pen­du­lum to swing. Jack spent a for­tune on keep­ing the UNC alive and prop­ping up Pan­day. Now, he has spent an­oth­er for­tune on spark­ing a po­lit­i­cal rev­o­lu­tion that will in­evitably lead to po­lit­i­cal uni­ty. The UNC and the na­tion owe him a debt of grat­i­tude for his self­less­ness. The time has come for Pan­day to hand over the reins of pow­er and re­tire with some dig­ni­ty. Fail­ure to do so will re­sult in his fur­ther po­lit­i­cal dis­grace. Gra­cious­ness and states­man­ship are not nor­mal­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with Pan­day's po­lit­i­cal ca­reer, and this might very well be the last chance to prove that he is ca­pa­ble of ei­ther virtue.

Lost the moral au­thor­i­ty

Pan­day has lost the moral au­thor­i­ty to be Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. Cling­ing to the con­sti­tu­tion will not help. In­deed, it will de­val­ue his po­lit­i­cal lega­cy and trans­form what­ev­er re­spect and love peo­ple have left for him in­to dis­gust and anger. Those who sup­port him in this act of po­lit­i­cal sui­cide and im­moral­i­ty will per­ish with him, as the par­ty and na­tion will nei­ther for­give nor for­get this trav­es­ty. Love and loy­al­ty for Pan­day can­not be greater than that for par­ty and coun­try.