There was no House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives sit­ting yes­ter­day but the next time the House meets, it will open on the same sad note on which it last did, De­cem­ber 13.

That day in­volved trib­utes to de­ceased MPs Arthur Sander­son and Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald, who died last No­vem­ber and De­cem­ber re­spec­tive­ly. The up­com­ing House will hail late for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day in the same way the next Sen­ate sit­ting will pay trib­ute to late for­mer NAR gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor Ho­choy Charles.

If Pan­day’s life filled vol­umes, Tues­day’s fu­ner­al end was movie ver­sion epic. Pomp. Cer­e­mo­ny. Som­bre per­son­al­i­ties. Shat­tered pub­lic. Dra­ma. Grief. Com­e­dy.

Pan­day’s trade­mark grin would have glowed, in­clud­ing at some ironies and the fact he might be the on­ly prime min­is­ter whose fu­ner­al was “stormed” by no less than po­lit­i­cal hope­fuls, a for­mer PNM Fi­nance Min­is­ter and a PP (COP/UNC) sen­ate pres­i­dent whose po­lit­i­cal cred­i­bil­i­ty was risked by fu­ner­al fer­vour.

In­sight in­to Bas’ wide ap­peal and adding to his “firsts”, in­clud­ing helm­ing the on­ly par­ty to beat the PNM on its own in 2000 and on­ly PM hav­ing a south­ern State fu­ner­al. Pub­lic good­byes from a pri­vate fam­i­ly al­so re­vealed a much-loved hus­band and fa­ther and a close knit clan. Fur­ther mea­sure of the man.

Large in death as in life, po­lit­i­cal sides are now chal­lenged by that, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter Pan­day’s im­age was boost­ed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo’s on-point trib­ute in­volv­ing the lessons his life of­fered—and with which com­par­isons will be made. It re­mains ahead what each side makes of his con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form wish.

This, at a time of cer­tain pub­lic dis­sat­is­fac­tion with both PNM and UNC and the mourn­ing fol­low­ing Pan­day’s death—all races, ages and class­es sym­bol­ic of the na­tion­al par­ty to which UNC and PNM as­pire—be­ing viewed as ev­i­dence of such dis­sat­is­fac­tion.

Lead­ers of both par­ties weren’t speak­ers at the fu­ner­al, there­fore no po­lit­i­cal side was tak­en by Pan­day’s fam­i­ly. On­ly ac­knowl­edge­ment was to For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne spear­head­ing man­age­ment, from Pan­day’s de­par­ture to Flori­da hos­pi­tal to the fu­ner­al. Browne’s com­pas­sion­ate man­ner en­hanc­ing his pro­file, as­sist­ing Gov­ern­ment’s im­age, as it is of­ten seen as cold and re­mote from the pub­lic.

The UNC, which Pan­day found­ed and lat­er lost to cer­tain col­leagues, was at no­tice­able dis­tance. Not on­ly via Mick­ela Pan­day’s De­cem­ber 27 Face­book post, but al­so non-men­tion of the UNC leader’s name in Pan­day’s eu­lo­gy, when she cit­ed the Pres­i­dent’s, PM’s and Chief Jus­tice’s. In­deed, Karen Tesheira’s bar­ri­cade-brac­ing, grabbed a big­ger spot­light than UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Bas’ high style black leather boots are large to fill. It re­mains ahead if his death boosts the life of daugh­ter Mick­ela’s De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Front and what de­ci­sions arise post mourn­ing: if plan­ning time, tim­ing and tide favour her, whether gen­er­al elec­tion al­ter­na­tive, out­reach from oth­ers or uni­ty-seek­ing UNC.

Doors on both sides will be open. She’s hot po­lit­i­cal prop­er­ty—in­de­pen­dence, promi­nent po­lit­i­cal pedi­gree, par­lia­men­tary ex­pe­ri­ence—at a time when new blood’s need­ed on T&T’s land­scape.

Pan­day’s death had al­ready es­tab­lished Mick­ela’s lead role; grief adding di­men­sion to her per­son­al­i­ty. Sup­port of her moth­er, Oma, ar­riv­ing with the body. Out­reach and thank­ing cit­i­zens wait­ing at Par­lia­ment to pay their re­spects. Con­sol­er of el­der sis­ter Niala on Mon­day. Lead­ing the fam­i­ly at fu­ner­al. Tot­ing on her shoul­der her fa­ther’s cas­ket. Among con­trib­u­tors to the pyre af­ter Pan­day’s broth­er Sub­has and nephews Satesh and De­o­raj ig­nit­ed the flame rit­u­al, which of­fi­ci­at­ing Pun­dit Art­ma Ma­haraj con­firmed was prop­er­ly ini­ti­at­ed by the re­quired males and no tra­di­tion was bro­ken.

As it stands, the po­lit­i­cal road’s opened be­fore 2025 polls. Any loss of UNC’s ap­peal of its elec­tion pe­ti­tion on Lengua/In­di­an Walk—an area in Mr Pan­day’s Princes Town turf—could see a by-elec­tion there. By-elec­tion’s al­so pend­ing af­ter Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ram­nath Diptee (Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo coun­cil­lor) died in De­cem­ber.

PNM and UNC con­tin­ue elec­tion prep­ping. Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, open­ing the Phoenix Park In­dus­tri­al Es­tate with good news/op­ti­mism pack­age fur­ther to New Year’s mes­sage of­fer­ings; Jan­u­ary 22 En­er­gy Con­fer­ence’s pro­nounce­ments com­ing. UNC re­turns Mon­day to its elec­tion mis­sion—an­ti-crime fo­rum, in the em­bat­tled East-West cor­ri­dor.

But: af­ter Bas’ blaze of glo­ry de­par­ture, it’s a changed po­lit­i­cal land­scape.