Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is ques­tion­ing whether the Prime Min­is­ter’s Cab­i­net re­align­ment was dri­ven by in­ter­nal pow­er strug­gles in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress.

In a state­ment on so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day, Beck­les said Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was “play­ing smart with fool­ish­ness,” as she had de­nied ru­mours of a Cab­i­net reshuf­fle just weeks ago.

Beck­les said the na­tion awoke on Sat­ur­day to the an­nounce­ment of a “ma­jor port­fo­lio reshuf­fle,” car­ried out in the “dead of the night.”

“Fol­low­ing what has been a record of no de­liv­ery, no ac­tion and no per­for­mance, oth­er than the Land­mark scan­dal, Sad­dam Ho­sein has been re­ward­ed with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for key agen­cies and pro­grammes.

“The new as­sign­ments give him re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for, among oth­er ar­eas, the Gov­ern­ment-Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing Pro­gramme, the Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme and sev­er­al state en­ter­pris­es,” Beck­les said.

Ho­sein al­so now has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Hy­dro­graph­ic Sur­veys, Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed, Gold­en Grove Buc­coo Lim­it­ed, Pa­lo Seco Agri­cul­tur­al En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed (PSAEL), Rin­con De­vel­op­ment Lim­it­ed, Sug­ar Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, the Sug­ar In­dus­try Labour Wel­fare Com­mit­tee, Tau­rus Ser­vices Lim­it­ed and TRIN­TOC Ser­vices Lim­it­ed.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia she was very con­fi­dent that Ho­sein can man­age the ad­di­tion­al work­load.

Beck­les al­so slammed the re­as­sign­ment of the On-the-Job Train­ing Pro­gramme to the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, say­ing the pro­gramme is now set to re­ceive its fi­nal rites.

“One won­ders whether these re­as­sign­ments have re­sult­ed from any se­ri­ous re­flec­tion on the na­tion­al in­ter­est, or whether they have much more to do with the UNC’s in­ter­nal elec­tions.

“Are our young peo­ple, al­ready threat­ened by harsh re­stric­tions and fines cour­tesy the UNC, now to be used as pawns in a re­cruit­ment and mo­bil­i­sa­tion dri­ve for a par­tic­u­lar as­pir­ing Prime Min­is­ter with­in the UNC?” Beck­les asked.

Say­ing the coun­try de­serves sta­ble, pa­tri­ot­ic and peo­ple-cen­tred lead­er­ship, Beck­les said af­ter a year of non-per­for­mance by her min­is­ters, the Prime Min­is­ter car­ried out a sleight-of-hand Cab­i­net reshuf­fle.

“... which rais­es se­ri­ous ques­tions about whether these changes are be­ing dri­ven by the na­tion­al in­ter­est or by in­ter­nal pow­er strug­gles with­in her own par­ty and the in­ces­sant need to paci­fy the friends and fi­nanciers of the UNC.”

— Shar­lene Ram­per­sad