(Trinidad Guardian) Former prime minister and president, Arthur NR Robinson, on Tuesday told the Commission of Enquiry into the July 1990 attempted coup that a Basdeo Panday-led faction sought to bring down the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) Government. Panday, former prime minister and UNC opposition leader and a member of the NAR Government at the time (a few years before the coup d’etat) went about the country attacking him and his method of governance, Robinson said. He added: “I had information that even in my absence when I was abroad he would use the occasion to attack me in the country. “It appeared that the purpose was to bring down the Government.”
Shortly after the attempted coup, Panday and former prime minister Patrick Manning also mobilised all the support they could to frustrate the Government in all its activities, Robinson added. At the time the PNM was in Opposition having won only three seats to the NAR’s 33 in the 1986 general election. Robinson also recalled that the Government was debating the
