For­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor, Ralph Maraj, says the lat­est Cab­i­net re-shuf­fle was done in­ten­tion­al­ly, to en­sure the rul­ing PNM gets back in of­fice.

Speak­ing with CNC3 NEWS to­day, Mr Maraj said it is not strange the change has come at this time, giv­en that this is an elec­tion year, and it is po­lit­i­cal­ly mo­ti­vat­ed.

He points out that the Prime Min­is­ter's as­sump­tion of the Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment port­fo­lio could be seen as de­mo­tion for Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, who has been moved to the So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­istry… But it is not.

He says her move to that min­istry is a strate­gic and tac­ti­cal one.

"Or­di­nar­i­ly it would have seemed to be a de­mo­tion, if it had been done in the sec­ond year or so,” he ob­serves. “But this is a spe­cif­ic ob­jec­tive, where this par­tic­u­lar min­is­ter, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, is be­ing en­trust­ed with the ob­jec­tive of ap­peas­ing the pop­u­la­tion, with cer­tain hand­outs and things like that."

Ralph Maraj says the for­mer So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn, has clear­ly been de­mot­ed, since she will now serve as a min­is­ter in the Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­istry, un­der the new min­is­ter, the Prime Min­is­ter him­self.

He is of the view that ap­point­ing Sen­a­tor Fos­ter Cum­mings as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­istry, may have an el­e­ment of to­kenism, since this may be the on­ly of­fi­cial ap­point­ment Mr Cum­mings has had, apart from that of be­ing a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor.

And ac­cord­ing to Ralph Maraj, an­oth­er naked po­lit­i­cal move in this lat­est shuf­fling in the Cab­i­net, is the switch­ing of Laven­tille East Mor­vant MP, Adri­an Leonce, as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary for the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­istry to the Works and Trans­port Min­istry.

"Sinanan maybe needs some help to get all of these roads paved, so that peo­ple can feel good about them­selves and their coun­try and their gov­ern­ment—and vote the Gov­ern­ment back in­to of­fice,” he points out. “Whether that will work, I don't know... We will see. But I think that is the pur­pose of send­ing Mr Leonce there -- to help Mr Sinanan to pave the roads."

The po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor says all the ma­jor projects and de­ci­sions for the Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­istry would have been made al­ready un­der Camille Robin­son-Reg­is' stew­ard­ship, and the Prime Min­is­ter him­self may not need to shoul­der too much re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

He be­lieves Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn may play a care­tak­er role of sorts.

How­ev­er, Ralph Maraj says time will tell whether there may be some­thing ma­jor hap­pen­ing in the min­istry in 2020, to which the PM him­self may wish to give lead­er­ship.