Yvonne Ba­boolal

Whether PNM sup­port­ers want for­mer Deputy Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and for­mer Ari­ma MP, Pene­lope Beck­les as a fe­male po­lit­i­cal leader is not the crit­i­cal fac­tor in the life of the par­ty at this time, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath be­lieves. Ra­goonath made the com­ment re­spond­ing to whether the PNM wants a woman leader, akin to UNC leader and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. He said it first needs to be es­tab­lished whether Beck­les, who was side­lined on two oc­ca­sions by the PNM in her can­di­da­cy quest in the re­cent gen­er­al elec­tion, wants to be par­ty leader. "No­body has yet been able to con­firm whether Pen­ny wants to be PNM leader," Ra­goonath said.

Sev­er­al ef­forts to reach Beck­les to find out if she is vy­ing for the lead­er­ship in the up­com­ing PNM in­ter­nal elec­tions proved fu­tile. "If she's not in­ter­est­ed, that's the end of the sto­ry," Ra­goonath said. The po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist not­ed, how­ev­er, that lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions are some four months away and could even be held ear­li­er. He said the PNM's main chal­lenge right now is find­ing the right leader who can steer the ship. Gen­der, he stressed, is not an is­sue. "The par­ty needs to elect, se­lect or hire a strong leader now who will gain re­spect and who will be able to mo­bilise its sup­port­ers as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

"The PNM needs a leader who will be able to over­come the pain of its re­cent de­feat. "It's not a mat­ter of fol­low fash­ion as far as a woman leader is con­cerned." So is for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, re­cent­ly ap­point­ed Op­po­si­tion Leader, not a good leader for the PNM? "At this point in time, Row­ley could be deemed to be the leader by ac­cla­ma­tion. It's on­ly a mat­ter of for­mal­is­ing that now. "Whether the par­ty would want to go to an­oth­er can­di­date is yet to be an­swered. "Row­ley is al­ready ahead of the race. He is al­ready in Par­lia­ment.