“Warrior, fighter, giant, gladiator, a name that will never be forgotten.”
This is how Opposition Senator Wade Mark referred to the late former prime minister Basdeo Panday while speaking at a United National Congress (UNC) news conference yesterday.
Mark, who says he was at one point a member of the nation’s trade union movement, spoke of Panday’s contributions as a labour leader and ‘champion of the poor,’ and the ordinary man and woman.
Panday, he said, was “a monumental and phenomenal figure,” who left behind a rich legacy in the field of labour. Among his vast input, Mark said, was his work on behalf of the nation’s sugar workers and, by extension, the sugar industry.
‘fought for sugar workers’
“As president general of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, Basdeo Panday fought even though he was subject to brutality in March of 1975, Bloody Tuesday. He never turned back. He fought for the sugar workers and got guaranteed work all year round rather than seasonal work six months in the year. He brought about equality of pay for women and men in the sugar industry. He brought about a 100 per cent increase in wages for the sugar workers from $5.04 to $10.08.
“He introduced workers’ housing for sugar workers in our country. He has done a tremendous favour to the workers in the Sugar industry. I want to put on record, Basdeo Panday did not close the sugar industry when he was prime minister. Basdeo Panday sought to preserve and expand and diversify…Mr Basdeo Panday made an indelible, rich and lasting contribution to the workers and the offspring of those workers in Trinidad and Tobago,” said Mark.
Mark said that during Panday’s time as prime minister he had instituted minimum wage and abolished sectoral wages- a measure he said that trickled across the board to all workers.
He said that Panday was strongly committed as a leader to the young, the elderly, the women, and the working people of the country.
Over the course of his term as prime minister from 1995-2000, Mark said that Panday had doubled the amount given to pensioners from $356 to $620 and increased the income ceiling from $5,000 to $7,000 to permit persons who were receiving National Insurance to access pensions.
‘achieve phenomenal advances’
“Workers in the public service who for years and decades did not receive a pension of service, through the pension loan form introduced in 1997, any public servant serving more than ten years was entitled to pension. I raise all these things to let you know that Mr Panday, although he spent six years as prime minister, had only a minimum of $12 billion and a max of $16 billion at the end of 2001, he was able to achieve phenomenal advances for the working class,” he said.
In addition, he spoke of the allocation of land to Pan Trinbago to build its headquarters in Trincity and providing an open space to the people of South Trinidad through Palmiste Park.
The introduction of the used car industry, he said, was also a feat attributed to Panday.
“In an effort to give the ordinary man and woman a chance to own a vehicle in 1996, the budget introduced what we call second-hand cars, the used car industry. That contributed to the expansion and growth of the middle class,” he said.
Mark said that part of Panday’s legacy was also the creation of the UNC political party as an institution.
“His charisma, his vision, his mission, and his objective combined has left a rich legacy. I would say from the get-go, Mr Basdeo Panday left an institution. The institution is the United National Congress and will live on forever because no individual is larger than an institution,” he said.
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