Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

T&T has lost an­oth­er po­lit­i­cal gi­ant. For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, 90, al­so known as “The Sil­ver Fox,” died at a hos­pi­tal in Flori­da, US, yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. Soon af­ter the news of his pass­ing was post­ed on so­cial me­dia by his daugh­ter, Mick­ela, trib­utes be­gan pour­ing in from the Pres­i­dent, Prime Min­is­ter. Op­po­si­tion Leader and politi­cians from all sides.

Mick­ela post­ed the fol­low­ing an­nounce­ment: “With deep sor­row, we would like to share that our lov­ing hus­band and fa­ther Bas­deo Pan­day passed away on 1st Jan­u­ary 2024, sur­round­ed by his fam­i­ly.

“In life and death he was a fight­er. He passed with his boots on, keep­ing every­body around him on their toes with his wit and hu­mour. He will live on in all of us, re­mem­bered as a won­der­ful hus­band, fa­ther, grand­fa­ther, leader and friend.

“He was an in­spi­ra­tion to his fam­i­ly and every­body that knew him. we will con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate his life and trea­sure the time we were able to spend with him, (heart emo­ji).”

Pan­day was tak­en to hos­pi­tal in Flori­da in the sec­ond week of De­cem­ber and there had been im­mense con­cern in var­i­ous quar­ters fol­low­ing word of his de­par­ture for Mi­a­mi and ill health.

Soon af­ter he left, his daugh­ter post­ed that af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with his doc­tors in T&T, Pan­day had trav­elled to the US to in­ves­ti­gate med­ical con­cerns about his health.

She end­ed the post by stat­ing: “Our fa­ther looks for­ward to a bright and pros­per­ous 2024.”

How­ev­er, Pan­day died at a hos­pi­tal in Jack­sonville, Flori­da yes­ter­day. His fam­i­ly is said to be com­plete­ly dev­as­tat­ed.

He is sur­vived by his wife, Oma, and daugh­ters Niala, Mick­ela, Nico­la and Vasta­la .

Over the years Pan­day had dealt with health is­sues, in­clud­ing triple by­pass heart surgery in Lon­don in 1989 and an an­gio­plas­ty in 1995 af­ter ex­peric­ing angi­na pec­toris pain.

Last night, his broth­er Sub­has, al­so a for­mer politi­cian, said: “I was rest­ing at home when my daugh­ter called me with the news around 6 pm.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go has lost a leg­end, one of a kind and I no longer have any broth­er to speak with. Bas had come to see me a month ago when I was not well. But the en­tire fam­i­ly, we were all to­geth­er for his 90th birth­day when his chil­dren all came to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“He was the ap­ple of the eye of our fam­i­ly. We had five sis­ters and three broth­ers and an­oth­er in Venezuela. Now it’s on­ly my­self and two sis­ters sur­viv­ing. My broth­er was wit, sharp­ness, elo­quence per­son­i­fied. I will miss him dear­ly.”

Pan­day had been out and about in re­cent months, ap­pear­ing quite well and at­tend­ing events, in­clud­ing a re­cep­tion af­ter the Pres­i­dent’s in­au­gua­tion in March and the launch of the fourth ses­sion of Par­lia­ment in Sep­tem­ber where he was greet­ed by politi­cians from both the PNM and UNC.

He was al­so among news­mak­ers of 2023 when the Pi­ar­co fraud case against him was dropped in March.

Trib­utes were paid to him yes­ter­day by PNM Gov­ern­ment mem­bers head­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and UNC mem­bers head­ed by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

A state­ment was al­so is­sued by the of­fice of Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo who said she was deeply sad­dened by Pan­day’s death: “Union leader, politi­cian, states­man, hus­band and fa­ther. Mr Pan­day, though diminu­tive in stature, was a gi­ant of a man who led this coun­try with pas­sion and com­pas­sion.

“On be­half of the na­tion, Her Ex­cel­len­cy ex­tends deep­est con­do­lences to Mr Pan­day’s fam­i­ly, friends and all who mourn his pass­ing.”

Trib­utes to Pan­day

This is a man, a cit­i­zen, whose im­pact was felt at every step of the way as he made his mark so in­deli­bly on the peo­ple of our na­tion. Hav­ing served the na­tion for so long and in so many dif­fer­ent ways, with such re­solve and panache, he can on­ly be rec­og­nized as a true be­liev­er in this na­tion and its po­ten­tial.

Now that he is no more, we are called up­on not just to mourn but to cel­e­brate his life and en­deav­our to be wor­thy col­leagues of his lega­cy. My con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly, friends, and col­leagues.

I am sad­dened that Mr Pan­day has passed away. I will al­ways love him and be grate­ful that he was a sig­nif­i­cant in­flu­ence in my life. He was a great leader and spent most years of his life help­ing the op­pressed and poor. Mr Pan­day will al­ways be re­mem­bered with love and ado­ra­tion by all of us whose lives he touched.

I ex­press my con­do­lences to all his loved ones. My his soul rest in peace. He will be missed but will al­ways be re­mem­bered and moved.”

My sin­cere con­do­lences go out to the Pan­day fam­i­ly on the pass­ing of Mr Bas­deo Pan­day. He was a fear­less fight­er and a po­lit­i­cal gi­ant in his time. My prayers are with is fam­i­ly and friends at this time.

I will nev­er for­get that man. I con­sid­er Bas­deo Pan­day to be an out­stand­ing re­gion­al states­man. I spoke with Oma a few min­utes ago. Nat­u­ral­ly the fani­ly is very up­set. He died at a hos­pi­tal in Jack­sonville, Flori­da.

He was in many ways my re­spect­ed men­tor and a deep in­spi­ra­tion to me in my short po­lit­i­cal ca­reer. He placed a lot of trust and con­fi­dence in me. Bas, in my re­spect­ful view, lit the im­por­tant flame of and for na­tion­al uni­ty. Our fam­i­lies be­came close friends and bond­ed well, shar­ing many deep ex­pe­ri­ences. That trust will nev­er es­cape me. I per­son­al­ly share the fam­i­ly’s pain at this mo­ment of grief.

Mr Pan­day was a pa­tri­ot who served our coun­try with hu­mil­i­ty, elo­quence, the sharpest of wit and an abid­ing con­cern for the poor and dis­ad­van­taged. This con­cern, which came out of his trade union back­ground, led him to au­thor very im­por­tant pieces of leg­is­la­tion like the FOIA, Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty and In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life.

He was re­spon­si­ble for me join­ing the UNC in the mid-1990s and he men­tored me there­after and un­der him and with Fazal Karim the UNC won a gen­er­al elec­tion on its own for the first and on­ly time.

I think as a prime min­is­ter com­ing from south of the Ca­roni Riv­er, he was very un­fair­ly treat­ed by pow­er­ful en­trenched, em­bed­ded PNM forces with­in the pub­lic ser­vice and in the TTPS. Our head­quar­ters was raid­ed at least once by the TTPS, sup­port­ers were charged with not a sin­gle con­vic­tion. He even en­dured im­pris­on­ment.

In all his suc­cess­es and tra­vails, he was a fight­er who stood his ground re­gard­less.

Om Sadgati for­mer PM Bas­deo Pan­day.

I of­fer my deep­est con­do­lences to Mr Pan­day’s fam­i­ly and loved ones at this dif­fi­cult time. Through­out his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer and even af­ter, Mr Pan­day did it and said it his own way and etched his name firm­ly in­to the lega­cy of our na­tion.

May he rest in eter­nal peace.

Bas­deo Pan­day’s death is a per­son­al, po­lit­i­cal, and na­tion­al tragedy. His life was ded­i­cat­ed to im­prov­ing the lives of all the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. His un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to pub­lic ser­vice trans­formed mere pol­i­tics in­to a no­ble pur­suit of im­prov­ing lives. He was a man of im­mense courage, charis­ma, char­ac­ter and in­tegri­ty. Through tire­less ad­vo­ca­cy and strug­gle, he cham­pi­oned caus­es that raised up com­mu­ni­ties and an en­tire coun­try, leav­ing a pro­found and last­ing im­pact on all of our so­ci­ety, re­gard­less of race or re­li­gion.

I will al­ways trea­sure his lead­er­ship and coun­sel in and out of the Par­lia­ment, as well as the pri­vate and per­son­al mo­ments that our fam­i­lies spent to­geth­er. Of course he is best re­mem­bered for his wit­ty re­tort and acer­bic tongue. He wield­ed words like a fine­ly craft­ed sword, nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex web of lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions with fi­nesse and in­tel­lect. His strate­gic acu­men shaped our na­tion dur­ing a dif­fi­cult time, and his lead­er­ship left an in­deli­ble mark on our his­to­ry.

What for me was most im­pres­sive was his un­wa­ver­ing dis­ci­pline and ded­i­ca­tion to im­prov­ing the lives of the peo­ple he served, and he saw that as his goal for all the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. In all the time I knew Bas­deo Pan­day, I nev­er, ever once heard him ut­ter a racial slur, ei­ther pub­licly or pri­vate­ly. His lega­cy ex­tends be­yond the po­lit­i­cal are­na, reach­ing in­to the hearts of those who ben­e­fit­ed from his com­mit­ment to pos­i­tive change.”

Un­equiv­o­cal­ly, de­spite our deep po­lit­i­cal di­vide, he will be re­mem­bered as the most loved politi­cian that this coun­try has ever had. We ho­n­our, not on­ly a skilled politi­cian and strate­gist, but a com­pas­sion­ate leader whose im­pact res­onates in the lives of every sin­gle per­son he touched.

He leaves a void in our po­lit­i­cal land­scape that may nev­er be filled. May we re­mem­ber him not on­ly for his po­lit­i­cal prowess but al­so for the lega­cy of progress, states­man­ship and sta­bil­i­ty that he has left be­hind.

May his soul rest in eter­nal peace.

It is with pro­found sad­ness that I learnt of the pass­ing of for­mer Prime Min­is­ter and UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Mr Bas­deo Pan­day. Our coun­try has tru­ly lost one of the great­est sons of our soil, a man whose life ser­vice to T&T was noth­ing short of trail­blaz­ing, in­spir­ing and hero­ic.

“I have lost my po­lit­i­cal gu­ru and men­tor, the man who per­son­al­ly in­spired me to pur­sue a ca­reer in pol­i­tics, and a dear life­long friend.

Bas­deo Pan­day’s life it­self is a sto­ry of in­cred­i­ble great­ness and in­spi­ra­tional hero­ism—a poor, rur­al, In­do-Trinida­di­an boy, con­signed to so­cial and eco­nom­ic mar­gin­al­iza­tion, de­fy­ing and over­com­ing every sin­gle ob­sta­cle, to study law in the UK and then be­come one of T&T’s great­est trade union­ists, politi­cians, prime min­is­ters, and per­haps the great­est pa­tri­ot in our na­tion’s his­to­ry.

Mr Pan­day and I met back in the 1970s, at a func­tion at my late broth­er’s (Jus­tice Lloyd Gopeesingh) home. In 1993, as a then mem­ber of the NAR, Mr Pan­day in­vit­ed me to work along­side him and the UNC to help him achieve his life­long dream of na­tion­al uni­ty.

From 1994-95, I as­sist­ed him in form­ing the Na­tion­al Uni­ty Plat­form, which saw the UNC win­ning 17 seats (from its pre­vi­ous 13) in the 1995 gen­er­al elec­tions, and Mr Pan­day’s his­toric achieve­ment of be­com­ing the first In­do-Trinida­di­an Prime Min­is­ter.

As Prime Min­is­ter, Mr Pan­day ran one of the best gov­ern­ments in this coun­try’s and re­gion’s his­to­ry. His pi­o­neer­ing poli­cies and ini­tia­tives en­sured one of the best eco­nom­ic and so­cial pe­ri­ods that T&T has ever lived through.

He was my po­lit­i­cal gu­ru. I called him Chief all my po­lit­i­cal life in ac­knowl­edge­ment of the fact that all that I have learnt in my 30 years of pol­i­tics is due to his in­spi­ra­tional liv­ing ex­am­ple.

He al­ways taught us, the most im­por­tant cre­den­tials of life in pol­i­tics, which he eas­i­ly summed up in three rules: ‘Don’t ever tell a lie, be­cause it comes back to haunt you; Do what your con­science and heart tells you; and al­ways do what is right;,”

On his 90th birth­day last year, when I called him to wish him the hap­pi­est of birth­days, al­ways the wise teacher, Mr Pan­day gave me his un­end­ing ad­vice and wis­dom, telling me to not let re­grets of the past haunt me and to move on in peace.

May Bas­deo Pan­day’s great light in­spire us for gen­er­a­tions to come. May his fam­i­ly and loved ones find com­fort dur­ing this try­ing time, and may his tru­ly great soul rest in eter­nal peace.