Richard Lord

In­cum­bent Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Ari­ma Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son is de­fy­ing Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, say­ing she is not ac­cept­ing his of­fer of a diplo­mat­ic post­ing.

Beck­les-Robin­son was asked on Mon­day by Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning to con­sid­er ac­cept­ing a diplo­mat­ic post­ing and not seek nom­i­na­tion as the PNM can­di­date for Ari­ma in the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion. Beck­les-Robin­son, who served as Deputy Speak­er in the last Par­lia­ment, was screened along with Sen­a­tor Lau­rel Leza­ma. The PNM's screen­ing com­mit­tee is yet to de­ter­mine the suc­cess­ful can­di­date. But sources say if Beck­les-Robin­son were to ac­cept the PM's of­fer, the way would be cleared for Leza­ma to be se­lect­ed as the new Ari­ma can­di­date. Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, act­ing on the ad­vice of Man­ning, dis­solved the Ninth Par­lia­ment of T&T at mid­night on April 8. While no elec­tion date has as yet been an­nounced by the Prime Min­is­ter, the polls must be held with­in the next three months. Con­tact­ed for com­ment yes­ter­day, Beck­les-Robin­son con­firmed her de­ci­sion. "I called him to­day and told him that I am not ac­cept­ing the of­fer," she said.

She said when they spoke on Mon­day, there was an agree­ment for her to call him yes­ter­day to in­form him of her de­ci­sion. Beck­les-Robin­son said she re­mained com­mit­ted to serv­ing the peo­ple of Ari­ma and had the sup­port of the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive. Sources close to Beck­les-Robin­son said the lat­est of­fer by Man­ning was sim­i­lar to one he made some ten years ago. They said Man­ning had asked Beck­les-Robin­son then to with­draw her can­di­da­cy then to take a job as T&T's Am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed Na­tions. Beck­les re­ject­ed that of­fer then and re­mained as MP for Ari­ma. She said she met with the Ari­ma ex­ec­u­tive on Mon­day night and was as­sured of its sup­port. A re­lease from the ex­ec­u­tive yes­ter­day said it was ad­vised that the par­ty's screen­ing com­mit­tee had agreed to de­fer the se­lec­tion of a can­di­date for the con­stituen­cy. The com­mit­tee said it wished to "re-em­pha­sise our unan­i­mous sup­port and un­wa­ver­ing sup­port for MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son as our nom­i­nee and can­di­date for 2010 gen­er­al elec­tions...Our po­si­tion re­mains un­changed." The PNM Ari­ma con­stituen­cy "by way of par­ty groups and pop­u­lar sup­port has ex­pressed its firm wish and in­tent to have Mrs Beck­les-Robin­son con­tin­ue to rep­re­sent the con­stituen­cy as they are ex­treme­ly sat­is­fied with her per­for­mance as their MP and ex­pects that this wish will be re­spect­ed by the screen­ing com­mit­tee and the po­lit­i­cal leader (Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning)."

But gov­ern­ment sources have in­di­cat­ed at least three rea­sons why Beck­les-Robin­son should not seek nom­i­na­tion as the next MP for Ari­ma. They said she had fall­en out with key peo­ple in Ari­ma, in­clud­ing the may­or; she had re­moved her con­stituen­cy of­fice to a lo­ca­tion that was not the most ap­pro­pri­ate for con­stituents; and her al­leged role in the award of con­tracts to cer­tain Cepep con­trac­tors in pre­vi­ous years. Oth­er sources say Beck­les-Robin­son's ex­pres­sion of sup­port of Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on her elec­tion as new po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress was not seen in a good light by the par­ty. "I am quite cer­tain she can do the job. My ex­pec­ta­tions are high for her but we as women, if you want to walk the walk, then you need to give your sup­port," she said last month. Beck­les-Robin­son was al­so crit­i­cised in par­ty cir­cles for mak­ing cer­tain pub­lic de­mands on Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Hazel Man­ning at a fo­rum which was dis­cussing de­vel­op­ment plans for Ari­ma last week. She made di­rect calls then for the im­prove­ment of in­fra­struc­ture in Ari­ma.

Beck­les lat­er sought to clar­i­fy her po­si­tion. "I was mere­ly cap­i­tal­is­ing on the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make sure my voice is heard as the MP," she said. "When the plan is made, I don't want it said that I didn't give my view." Man­ning had said ear­li­er that Ari­ma was bush.