Yes Panday, yuh damn right!!...doh go nowhere!!!....
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161562171 'Fight until I die' Panday in election race come January 24For over 40 years, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has devoted his life to politics and, with a fighting spirit and a tone set for battle, he roared on Monday that he is not going anywhere.
In fact, he will be defending his position as political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) at the party’s internal elections come January 24.
If he wins, this means that Panday would be leading the UNC into what may be his last political battle with the PNM at the next general elections.
Panday, who turned 76 this year, slapped all those who have been calling for him to step down as leader, saying he will fight for the people till he dies.
’I want to make an announcement tonight. You see on the 24th of January, I shall be contesting the elections in the UNC as the political leader of the party. And, I want to tell you something, I am going to have a slate also for you to elect an executive that I can work with,’ said Panday.
’...So that those who think or wishing that I will die or that I will commit political suicide, let me tell you here and now, I have no such inclination. I will live until I die, obviously,’ said Panday.
He made the declaration at the party’s weekly Monday night forum at the Spring Village Community Centre, Valsayn. The National Assembly of the UNC is scheduled to meet at the Rienzi Complex, Couva, on Sunday to affirm the January 24 date for the party’s internal elections. Panday joked that people have called on him to go, asking, ’Go where?’ He said other calls have been made for him to ride off into the sunset but quipped, ’Where the horse?’, invoking laughter from the audience.
He said there are those who want his position to become vacant so there would be a vacuum which they would fill to get the support of the people. However, he stressed that he will defend the leadership.
On the issue of unity with the Congress of the People (COP), Panday took to task an article published in this paper where COP member Stephen Kangal accused him (Panday) of double dealing and not being truthful with the date on which he sent a letter of invitation to COP leader Winston Dookeran.
Panday stressed that at the end of the day, even if there was a mix up with the dates, Dookeran received the letter. He re-read the letter where he requested Dookeran to meet to discuss the COP’s document entitled ’The People’s Charter’ as well as constitutional reform. ’I am awaiting a response from Mr Dookeran,’ said Panday. However, he said he believed that Dookeran does not want unity with the UNC and that the people must move to unite from the ground.
Panday said those who wish to lead must be ’willing to sacrifice your career and your life for 40 years...you must go down in the trenches with the people and eat with them, sleep with them and cry with them and when they stand, you stand with them. ’I am convinced there will be no unity from the top...my brothers and sisters, we are going to unite the people from the bottom and we shall win!’
Prior to Panday’s statement about his will to defend the leadership position, he was informing the people of the need for constitutional reform. At this point in time an inebriated man from the audience shouted, ’Kamla is boss!’ Panday, who was visibly irritated by the interruption, said, ’I know they send you for that.’
’Sorry, boss,’ said the man as Panday asked him if he did not just say another person was the boss. The audience had a good laugh.
