A former Prime Minister of T&T shares his wisdom over the years.
Our 5th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, The Honourable Dr. Basdeo Panday was in office from November 1995 – December 2001. A good question to ask is what can he teach us since he left office? He came from a poor family background and worked his way up to eventually become the leader of the political party United National Congress, and then our prime minister. The road has not been easy for him but he managed to persevere. What we can learn from him at this point is to understand that motivation is needed now more than ever! To show his perseverance and dedication, he had to either work during the day and study at night or work at night-time, then study in the day in order to get through his university life as a young man. I asked him what he enjoyed most about his career and he said he liked the feeling of passing all his exams. It must have been a joy for him because that was the strength he needed to continue reaching for the light.
What words of wisdom do Mr. Panday live by and how would he describe his successes? His response was if you want something badly enough, then the motivation is your mind has to be sacrifice, hard work and dedication. He explained with confidence that to have any improvements within our society, first we need to know our society and by us knowing our society, then we can fix the plights. The main challenge faced by this former prime minister was managing and living on his own as a student, but he understood it was necessary to achieve what he has today. His message is doing what you want to do with your life is fundamental because you will know exactly what you need to do to accomplish your dreams...what fine words to live by and this should be a truly defining moment in all of our lives.
With assurance, he declared he doesn't have any regrets in his life because he believed at that point in time he was doing the right thing. Maybe now he would have done things differently, but they felt right during that time, and that was the important factor. Mr. Panday is contented by what he has achieved, however he understands there is much more to be done but he doesn’t have the vigour of youthfulness at this time. He also wished he could have done more in his course of 40 years of being in the public eyes. Nevertheless, he is in the process of reflecting on his experiences to write his biography. His personal credo is "never, never, never surrender…" Such strong words to hold dear! I spent a joyful time interviewing Mr. Panday because he comes across as a humble man with great insight and wealth about our nation. That's the ingredients for all of us to have if we have to love anything to do with words for a great country like ours.
Thank you for your contributions to our nation Mr. Panday. In my opinion, many times we do not honour our heroes while they are alive. That is something I think we have to change because how can we as a people successfully appreciate our own heroes after they have gone; shouldn’t we do it before? Let us practice this and put it in motion because they did something that all of us can learn from, and we can improve on what they learnt from then to now, after they paved the way forward. This is what we should do in our society to grow and become better people. We can change what we do now by changing the present and then the future can be transformed into hope, by us realizing our heroes played a part in our national stage, so we can see ourselves in plain view as our duty to our nation...Yes, let us finally appreciate ourselves with hopefulness against the odds. Thank you for reading and tracking with me again.
Many of us may have started working again but some are still at home during this crisis. If you need to speak to someone or if you are having trouble coping, please email treldonlayne@gmail.com with your name and number.