Mickela Panday, daughter of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, says her father wouldn’t have wanted the Piarco International Airport or anything named after him, but would rather have wanted constitutional reform if anything.
She made the statement while greeting well-wishers and mourners of her father outside the Red House on Friday, where his body lay in State.
Expressing thanks for the outpouring of love, she added, “People say when people send love to you, you feel stronger. We’ve gotten strength from the people of Trinidad and Tobago—the family, me. It’s unbelievable. How do we begin to say thank you. So we say thank you on behalf of our dad as well.”
Ms Panday disagreed with views that her father didn’t get the same kind of recognition in life as he did in death.
“Noooo, I think, he got great recognition and love while he was alive and he’s just getting even more now, which I didn’t think was even possible. So no, he received love when he was alive completely. And even more so now and again, I can’t stop saying thank you so very much to the people of T&T, north south, east west!”
“Thank you to everybody—the media, the Parliament, the Government has been extremely helpful. Everybody came together and made sure of unity in this country. I wish he was here to see it.”
Panday said the family was “coping”.
“Mom is struggling a little bit, but we’ve had love and support, so thank you. She’ll get there, one step at a time.”
On whether her father should be honoured by having the Piarco Airport named after him, Mickela said, “You know I tried to think of what he’d say if he was here and he’d say, ‘What you naming anything after me for? Don’t name anything after me!’ That’s what he’d say, ‘don’t name anything after me’.”
“If he wanted anything, it was never about him, it was not about his name. It was always country before self and therefore, it was what would have helped the country and constitutional reform would have helped the country, so that is what he’d want. I’m echoing his sentiment as I feel he would have said.”
Mickela said it was great that Shiva Boys’ Hindu College was renamed in honour of her father. That decision was taken by the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha executive.
She added, “It’s great if it will inspire the youth because he was interested in the youth, he loved the youth of this nation and he believed they were the future and education was the way out of poverty—how you can change your life and have control of it. So, it’s a wonderful honour, we’re very grateful and I thank them on his behalf.”