For­mer UNC min­is­ter and ILP po­lit­i­cal leader, Jack Warn­er, is warn­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley that he should be cau­tious, as se­nior Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) mem­bers are sup­pos­ed­ly up­set that he chose Stu­art Young to act in his ab­sence.

Row­ley flew to the Unit­ed States on Sep­tem­ber 1 for rou­tine med­ical tests and will re­turn some­time next week.

This is the sec­ond time that Young, the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, has been ap­point­ed to act as prime min­is­ter. His first stint was on Ju­ly 28, when Row­ley at­tend­ed the 47th Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment in Grena­da.

Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Colm Im­bert usu­al­ly acts as prime min­is­ter and had been the sole per­son to do so since the PNM took of­fice in 2015 be­fore the choice of Young.
How­ev­er, on the first oc­ca­sion he was not se­lect­ed, Gov­ern­ment sources said he was in Eu­rope on hol­i­day.

Yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar would on­ly say that it is the Prime Min­is­ter’s pre­rog­a­tive to de­cide who will act in his ab­sence.  

But Warn­er, who served as act­ing prime min­is­ter dur­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s tenure, said while it is the PM’s sole dis­cre­tion to choose his tem­po­rary re­place­ment, it seemed Row­ley has se­lect­ed Young as his “heir ap­par­ent.”

He al­so ad­dressed sug­ges­tions that Im­bert is too busy with the bud­get ahead to take on the po­si­tion, and said he be­lieves he (Im­bert) and oth­ers feel snubbed.

“Bud­get in the elec­tion year is a bud­get of milk and hon­ey, so there is noth­ing dif­fi­cult about that. So that is no big thing for him (Im­bert). The fact is that not on­ly Im­bert but all the se­nior mem­bers of the par­ty are very an­gry, and they are keep­ing it un­der their breath, so to speak, but they are an­gry, and they are talk­ing about the el­e­va­tion of Young, who on­ly came in the par­ty in 2015.

“In 2014, he didn’t know any­thing about PNM and less than 10 years af­ter­wards he is be­ing tout­ed as the next po­lit­i­cal leader and prime min­is­ter. I mean, is mad­ness,” Warn­er said. 

Young ac­tu­al­ly joined the PNM in 2014 and served as a tem­po­rary sen­a­tor when the par­ty was in op­po­si­tion.

Mean­while, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath em­pha­sised that as par­ty chair­man, Young holds sig­nif­i­cant pow­er, sec­ond on­ly to the po­lit­i­cal leader.

He drew a com­par­i­son to the events fol­low­ing for­mer PNM leader Dr Er­ic Williams’ pass­ing on March 29, 1981. Then-Pres­i­dent Sir El­lis Clarke sought the in­put of the PNM’s chair­man, Fran­cis Pre­vatt, who chose George Cham­bers as PM over more ex­pe­ri­enced par­ty mem­bers.

Ra­goonath sug­gest­ed that this sce­nario might be a rep­e­ti­tion of his­to­ry, al­beit on a small­er scale.

“That could eas­i­ly mean that the chair­man of the par­ty (Young) has de­cid­ed that he is go­ing to push the Prime Min­is­ter to make him act as prime min­is­ter when the Prime Min­is­ter is out of the coun­try. The Prime Min­is­ter has al­ways showed some de­gree of sup­port for Stu­art Young, be­ing an up-and-com­ing leader of the par­ty and I don’t think that the Prime Min­is­ter will be averse to the idea that Stu­art could re­place him,” he said.  

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr In­di­ra Ram­per­sad, how­ev­er, was not sur­prised that Im­bert was not cho­sen, not­ing he is not the most pop­u­lar politi­cian. Al­though she does not think Young will be se­lect­ed to of­fi­cial­ly re­place Row­ley, she con­sid­ers him to be part of the par­ty’s in­ner cir­cle.

As for con­cerns that there could be a brew­ing rift in the par­ty, Ram­per­sad said any­thing was pos­si­ble.

“To spec­u­late that there may be some­thing amiss, maybe there is as much, as the Fi­nance Min­is­ter is per­haps not the most pop­u­lar min­is­ter right now. There may al­so be oth­er rea­sons – the Fi­nance Min­is­ter is too busy – but it does raise eye­brows and it does leave room for spec­u­la­tion,” she said.  
Guardian Me­dia reached out to Young and the Fi­nance Min­is­ter for their re­sponse to Warn­er’s claims but there were none up to late yes­ter­day.