SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ac­cused sup­port­ers and mem­bers of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of at­tempt­ing to un­der­mine him and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley as the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tion draws clos­er.

Young made the state­ment on Wednes­day while de­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress at a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing at St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege, Bel­mont, mere days from the PNM’s Sep­tem­ber 30 elec­tion.

Row­ley was ab­sent from the meet­ing, hav­ing trav­elled to Guyana hours be­fore to sign an MoU.

The Port-of-Spain North/ St Ann’s West MP said for the PNM to win the 2019 lo­cal gov­ern­ment and 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions, Row­ley need­ed a team he can trust, hence the rea­son why he care­ful­ly hand-se­lect­ed his slate who would not go against the par­ty or its po­lit­i­cal leader.

“If our po­lit­i­cal leader is sur­round­ed by peo­ple who he can­not trust and peo­ple who are go­ing to un­der­mine him and un­der­mine the par­ty,” Young said, the PNM will run the risk of los­ing both elec­tions.

Young said the next gen­er­al elec­tion will be the moth­er of all bat­tles for the PNM as they are in an all-out war with the UNC and oth­ers.

He plead­ed with sup­port­ers to put their trust and faith in Row­ley, even though some have been, “do­ing all that they can to up­set the ship.”

In any bat­tle, Young said, the leader of an army can­not have his lieu­tenants and gen­er­als do­ing things that could lead the ranks astray.

In the last few weeks, Young said, he has seen some dis­ap­point­ing be­hav­iour by some sup­port­ers and mem­bers of the par­ty.

“In fact, I have seen some dis­ap­point­ing be­hav­iour as we sit here tonight be­cause there are per­sons, right here, in this au­di­ence tonight, as we speak, who have been tak­ing to so­cial me­dia in an at­tempt to un­der­mine me per­son­al­ly… right here.”

While Young did not call any­one’s name he said, “But that is what our po­lit­i­cal leader faces.”

Young re­peat­ed­ly de­clared that he was not afraid of any­one and will do his job to the best of his abil­i­ty.

“As the peo­ple sit here know­ing what it is they are do­ing…. try­ing to un­der­mine team Red and Ready, you go home and you stay up from now till the 30th and be­yond, but team Row­ley is go­ing to put re­sound­ing licks on those who op­pose the leader.”

He in­sist­ed that now was not the time to “break ranks” as every­one in the par­ty need­ed to go in one di­rec­tion and be co­he­sive.