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Patriotic Front Leader Mickela Panday said the PNM government’s relationship with their supporters could be described as an abusive one. She said her party, which was fielding 41 candidates, was an option for people who wanted to get away from that relationship.
Speaking to media after filing her nomination papers at Church Street, Chase Village, Carapichaima on April 4, Panday said, “If a man treated a woman the way the government and the PNM has treated its supporters, we would say it’s abusive. And then we asked people, 'Why, why, why are you going back? You have an option.'
"Well we ask women that too. You have an option, yes you have an option but you are dependent on this man, whether it is that you have children, whether it is financially, whether it is for housing, and it is the same thing manifesting itself in the politics of TT. Both parties do it. You make people dependent on you and you treat them like scum.”
Panday said her party was giving people an option to leave the abusive relationship.
“Isn’t that what democracy is about? We are supposed to stand here and do nothing, and if we do something, we’re doing it wrong, for giving people an option, for giving young people an option, whose future is in tatters? Young people don’t dream in this country anymore. The abuse stops today. You have an option.”
She said she hopes to give Couva North, the constituency her father held for 30 years under the UNC, proper representation if she wins the seat. She confirmed that she had put up 41 candidates for the upcoming general election. She said she felt emotional contesting her father’s former seat.
“It’s about honouring a legacy. It’s about ushering in a new era into politics and for the people of Couva North, to ensure proper representation. I know it’s what he would have wanted. They’ve been neglected for a very long time. The country has been neglected for a very long time. The people in Couva North don’t have proper representation, just like the rest of the country, and I’m here to do that.”
Panday said one of the pressing issues she saw included the economy, which previous governments had failed to diversify.
“The failure to stop the reliance on oil and gas and now just oil has left us in the worst predicament at the hands of others. There are no jobs for young people. Where do you expect them to go and what do you expect them to do? They turn to crime, to the demon-hunters on the corners of the street to send a package for $500 somewhere.”
She said the damage to the economy by the two years of lockdown needed to be investigated, as people lost their savings and were on the breadline.
“Instead of coming with your big truck and blaring, get a hamper for someone. People don’t ask me for money in my office, they ask me for food. I feel passionate because people don’t have basic necessities, they don’t have food to eat, and a man can come into my office and ask me for a food card because he doesn’t have food to send his children to school.”
Panday called on the people to hold the government accountable for what it was doing with the country’s resources.
“All the asphalt, oil and gas, the natural resources, the land, they don’t belong to me or the government, they belong to the people. We are asking you for the opportunity to manage it, and then we too will go and somebody else will come. If you think the other two parties have mismanaged, surely you want to give somebody a chance to manage it properly, and that’s what we will do. We will manage it with transparency and accountability so you the people of TT know what we’re doing with your money.”
Asked what she thought about comments that the Patriotic Front would split votes, she said she hoped no-one split their votes.
[caption id="attachment_1147771" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Patriotic Front leader Mickela Panday with her party's candidates Trivet Phillip (Moruga/Tableland), Afifah Mohammed (Chaguanas East) and Sacha Mangroo (Princes Town).[/caption]
“We’re not a voter-splitting party. Your vote does not belong to anybody. Every person owns their own vote and if there is an assumption, maybe because of my race or my surname, that there is a particular vote that is going to be split, then I disagree with that.
“In fact, more people don’t vote than vote in this country, and if it is that people want change, and real change for this country and their constituency, there is only one real option and that is the Patriotic Front. There’s no splitting vote in that. People want to lead political parties because they’re not functioning, that’s not my fault.”
Panday said the party’s candidates chose not to be surrounded by supporters and noise while filing their nomination papers.
“It’s not about us, it’s about the people. You go in, you do the business of the people and you come out. Not only that, it costs a lot of money, and that could be better spent elsewhere helping people who need it rather for vainglorious matters.”
The other candidates contesting the Couva North seat are the UNC's Jearlean John, a former candidate for La Horquetta/Talparo in the 2020 general election, and Brent Maraj for the PNM.
 
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