?The now opposition People's National Movement (PNM) is on the ropes, having received near deadly body blows on May 24 from the newly constituted People's Partnership (PP), which overthrew the 54-year-old venerable political institution 29-41.
In the wake of this completely unexpected development, the responsibility of its leaders, more so then Prime Minister and PNM political leader Patrick Manning, some are saying the injuries are fatal and the PNM could never recover from the devastating PP beating. I beg to differ but how soon the party is able to rebound, to make itself once again an attractive governing entity, depends on a lot of things, most of them in the hands of the new, or more accurately interim, leader Dr Keith Rowley. The people have placed great confidence and hope in the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led PP, and it would take monumental mistakes or misdeeds on its part to dislodge it from its hard-fought-for political leadership of the country. Even though the PP enjoys tremendous support at this time, for a democracy to be truly functional an equally strong opposition is mandatory. Only time would tell if Rowley and his group would provide that kind of check and balance to keep the PP regime on an even keel.
Or if the PNM would ever be able to walk the corridors of power again. Unfortunately, Rowley, in his haste to earn his spurs as Leader of the Opposition, is behaving like the old-style PNM. Instead of looking to score political points against a regime that is enjoying the traditional honeymoon period, he should be concentrating on rebuilding the PNM. Employing the time-worn tactic of waiting to catch the Government out on some matter or the other, like he has chosen to do with the Jack Warner/Fifa non-issue, would not cut it. Rebranding the PNM is the only way he can ever hope the party could become a political force to be reckoned with, and to achieve this it is imperative that Dr Rowley immediately embarks on a path of restructuring the party. Politicians in this country have a penchant for ignoring columnists, arrogantly dismissing us with the mantra that they were elected by the people and who the hell are these pesky writers to tell them what they should do. Verily, they do so at their own peril and they just have to look at the immediate past Prime Minister who epitomised the negatives of political arrogance.
So for whatever it is worth, let me give Dr Rowley a little advice on affording the PNM a greater chance of becoming once more relevant to the country's politics as I believe the party would never die. To start with, the member for Diego Martin West must move to have the party adopt a one man, one vote process in electing its national officers. Yes, the change so successfully achieved by Jack Warner in the United National Congress, which was the catalyst for the PP to reach where it is today, even though it was not in the picture at that time. The delegate system is used by the PNM and as Rowley himself would testify, this can be manipulated to achieve a fraudulent result. It would be virtually impossible to do so with the more transparent system under which Persad-Bis-sessar was able to trounce Basdeo Panday and take over the UNC. Who knows, Patrick Manning may not have been able to win the 1996 election battle in which he beat Rowley. There are many questions surrounding the fairness of that event.
I would never forget the dejected, solitary figure of Rowley, face down on a counter at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre, when he realised he had lost the contest. So he should be in the vanguard to make his party a more democratic entity in keeping with the changes that any organisation must undergo to meet the requirements of the real world. The PNM must also do away with this archaic unwritten rule that speaks of the paramountcy of the leader, so destructively operating under the guise of "discipline." Demagogues and despotic leaders breed and thrive under such a system, as numerous PNM functionaries know so horribly well. No longer should people be subject to the patronising and disrespecting declaration of "the prime minister has spoken..." Another sore point which is stubbornly being maintained by the PNM is this dictum that its ministers and councillors must wear party ties at official functions, even in Parliament.
As harmless as this might appear, the balisier is a divisive symbol in that it represents a political party of which not every citizen is a member–or supporter. By all means wear your tie or whatever party symbol you may want but only at PNM occasions. After all, we are not living in a dictatorship where the party and the leader are paramount. In other words, Keith Rowley, you must remove the PNM from its prison of yesteryear and tweak it into the 21st century. Who knows, you might be able to achieve something which at this time seems impossible.