Ken Ali

Mick­ela Pan­day says UNC does not look like the par­ty her dad built for more than 20 years...VIC­TIMISED BE­CAUSE OF HER SUR­NAME? When, two-and-a-half years ago, she was first un­veiled po­lit­i­cal­ly, Mick­ela Pan­day was viewed by many as the fu­ture face of Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), and, quite pos­si­bly, its next leader.

She had the right pedi­gree, af­ter all, in ad­di­tion to her youth­ful ex­u­ber­ance and ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion. But on Fri­day, the young Pan­day saw her po­lit­i­cal am­bi­tions crushed–maybe ter­mi­nal­ly–when she was by­passed as the par­ty's can­di­date for Oropouche West.?Still shell-shocked, she spoke can­did­ly yes­ter­day with the Sun­day Guardian.

Q: How does it feel the morn­ing af­ter be­ing side­lined as the elec­tion can­di­date for Oropouche West?

A: I still feel shocked and dis­ap­point­ed. As things be­gin to un­rav­el the day af­ter the night be­fore, it is be­com­ing clear­er that I was vic­timised by my par­ty.

Why would you be vic­timised?

When the can­di­date was an­nounced, I didn't even know who she was. I just heard her name–what is it? (she checks)–Sta­cy Roop­nar­ine. I didn't know who she was. I worked very hard in the con­stituen­cy, do­ing the best I could do as an Op­po­si­tion mem­ber. I al­so thought that the screen­ing went very well. There was re­al­ly no rea­son why I should not have been giv­en the seat to fight. I was the sit­ting Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, and the par­ty nev­er seemed to have any prob­lems or ob­jec­tions with me. But many things have changed since the par­ty's in­ter­nal elec­tion on Jan­u­ary 24, and this may be one re­sult of it.

Are you down­cast?

That is a dif­fi­cult ques­tion. Shocked may be the best word. I don't know why I was re­moved. That's what it re­al­ly is. As a sit­ting MP, I was func­tion­ing, work­ing. I thought the screen­ing com­mit­tee would have been fair. I didn't ex­pect to be boot­ed out. But I ac­cept it.

What do you think of the screen­ing process?

I didn't think I should be judged on any­thing else but per­for­mance. I've been read­ing that the screen­ing com­mit­tee felt this can­di­date was the best per­son. But no­body seems to know who she is. She wasn't present yes­ter­day. We tried to find out when her nom­i­na­tion went in. It is strange that af­ter Oropouche West screen­ing was closed, it was sud­den­ly re-opened on Thurs­day. Things were un­rav­el­ling slow­ly. Lots of peo­ple have been call­ing and say­ing I suf­fered a grave in­jus­tice, be­cause of my sur­name and that I was vic­timised by my own par­ty.

Is this the end of the Pan­day po­lit­i­cal dy­nasty?

I don't think there was ever a Pan­day dy­nasty. Ab­solute­ly not!

Would you main­tain your com­mit­ment to Oropouche West?

There are many ways in which I can serve. I won't desert Oropouche West. We have be­come like fam­i­ly. I won't turn my back on them.

What were your ma­jor ac­com­plish­ments as a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment?

My ma­jor ac­com­plish­ment was that I was able to make avail­able a lot of so­cial ser­vices to con­stituents. A lot of them weren't aware of the so­cial ser­vices avail­able to them. I put in a struc­ture to as­sist them. We had a num­ber of oth­er suc­cess­es. We al­so held cot­tage meet­ings; we were go­ing to the peo­ple. Field of­fi­cers went out. We were al­ways try­ing to bring the pol­i­tics to the peo­ple so they could un­der­stand what is hap­pen­ing in the coun­try, since we ap­peared to be for­got­ten in Oropouche West. We al­so had suc­cess­es with re­spect to wa­ter. We got as­sis­tance from WASA. We held lots of meet­ings. We were solv­ing the prob­lems as best as we could. We al­so held a med­ical clin­ic, along with the Amer­i­can au­thor­i­ties, and ser­viced more than 4,000 peo­ple who didn't have ac­cess to health care and couldn't af­ford it. I was hop­ing my hard work would have paid off.

Would you sup­port the can­di­da­cy of your suc­ces­sor?

Of course! I don't know who she is. I would sup­port the UNC first and fore­most. It is a par­ty that yes­ter­day had its 21st an­niver­sary.

It is a par­ty that, for 21 years, my fa­ther put in lots of hard work to build. I would nev­er turn my back on the par­ty.

What do you think, gen­er­al­ly, of the UNC can­di­dates?

I don't know a lot of them and their his­to­ry. I didn't know who lots of them were. It looks sad­ly not like the UNC we know and love.

Why do you say that?

I don't know the cri­te­ria for se­lect­ing the can­di­dates. I don't know for how long they have been UNC mem­bers and what their strug­gle with the UNC has been. It does not look like the par­ty we know and love.

What do you think of Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's lead­er­ship?

I don't know much about that ei­ther. It is still quite soon, since she was on­ly re­cent­ly elect­ed as leader. I would be sit­ting back and look­ing.

If the par­ty gets in­to gov­ern­ment, would you be pre­pared to play a role?

I would play any role my par­ty asks of me.

What is your fa­ther's po­lit­i­cal mood?

You would have to ask him.

Have you spo­ken to him since the an­nounce­ment of can­di­dates?

Yes, I have spo­ken to him.

Do you think the UNC can win the elec­tion?

I hope so. We need to rid our­selves of the PNM. This is one of the best op­por­tu­ni­ties we have to do so. I hope those in charge do not do any­thing to jeop­ar­dise our chances of win­ning the elec­tion.

Would you be at­tend­ing the par­ty's po­lit­i­cal meet­ings?

Of course! I have at­tend­ed most so far. I would con­tin­ue to at­tend.

What's next for you?

I would con­tin­ue to sup­port the par­ty. I would have to sit back and think deep­er about where to go. I would al­so have to see if there is any role the par­ty wants me to play as a young fe­male-ex-MP. But I would sup­port the par­ty that took my fa­ther 21 years to build.

What do you say to the peo­ple of Oropouche West?

I thank the peo­ple of Oropouche West and the coun­try who have been call­ing me and giv­ing me sup­port. I am hum­bled by it.