SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Fer­die Fer­reira, a found­ing mem­ber of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), says there is a lev­el of “dis­sat­is­fac­tion, dis­com­fort and dis­qui­et” among par­ty mem­bers and of­fi­cers over Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s re­cent hint that En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young is his pos­si­ble re­place­ment.

“It’s no se­cret there are quite a few mem­bers in the par­ty—and promi­nent mem­bers—who are open­ly say­ing they would not sup­port Stu­art Young to suc­ceed Row­ley,” Fer­reira, 92, said in an in­ter­view at his Diego Mar­tin home.

He said some “par­ty of­fi­cers” have ve­he­ment­ly ob­ject­ed to Young tak­ing over the lead­er­ship post when Row­ley steps down.

“There is a lev­el of dis­com­fort in the par­ty in terms of the pro­jec­tion of Young by the leader,” said Fer­reira, who served the PNM in many ca­pac­i­ties.

Ear­li­er this month, Row­ley gave his clear­est in­di­ca­tion that he is ready to re­tire from ac­tive pol­i­tics. Sev­er­al names have been tossed in the ring to re­place Row­ley.

Par­ty in­sid­ers said the fight for lead­er­ship is be­tween Young, the par­ty’s chair­man, and Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Fos­ter Cum­mings, the gen­er­al sec­re­tary. How­ev­er, Young, who has been dubbed the Min­is­ter of Every­thing, is con­sid­ered the front-run­ner for the post.

Young is cur­rent­ly act­ing as Prime Min­is­ter for the third time.

Fer­reira said par­ty mem­bers “are open­ly say­ing they are not pre­pared to al­low the leader (Row­ley) to force Stu­art Young up­on them. They be­lieve the boss­man is try­ing to force Stu­art Young up­on them. They are say­ing it open­ly ... you are not go­ing to force Stu­art Young up­on us.”

He said the prob­lem fac­ing the par­ty is not one of lead­er­ship but rather suc­ces­sion, as some mem­bers feel Young is un­fit to lead the par­ty fol­low­ing his sala­cious state­ments about Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar two weeks ago.

How­ev­er, while one fac­tion with­in the PNM is against Young suc­ceed­ing Row­ley, Fer­reira said an­oth­er is back­ing him to be the suc­ces­sor.

Fer­reira said there will al­ways be dis­ap­provals and ap­provals when se­lect­ing a new leader, he be­lieves the foun­da­tion on which the PNM was built is “very strong and supreme.”

“Who­ev­er they se­lect, from my ex­pe­ri­ence, will fall in line,” he said, not­ing that the PNM par­ty has a his­to­ry of its mem­ber­ship ral­ly­ing be­hind its leader.

Fer­reira re­called that the UNC faced a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion when then-po­lit­i­cal leader, the late Bas­deo Pan­day, tried to anoint Car­los John as a deputy po­lit­i­cal leader. In the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions mem­bers vot­ed for Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj in­stead.

Fer­reira said George Cham­bers and Patrick Man­ning, two of the PNM’s for­mer po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, were ap­point­ed “by ac­ci­dent.”

Cham­bers was se­lect­ed as po­lit­i­cal leader on the ad­vice of then-par­ty chair­man Boysie Pre­vatt af­ter the death of Dr Er­ic Williams. How­ev­er, he bowed out of pol­i­tics af­ter the PNM lost 33-3 to the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion in the 1986 gen­er­al elec­tion.

The three seats were cap­tured by Man­ning, Mor­ris Mar­shall and Muriel Don­awa Mc David­son.

“Muriel was the most se­nior in the par­ty but the PNM was not ready for a fe­male leader and Man­ning hap­pened to be in the right place at the right time and was ap­point­ed leader,” Fer­reira.

When Man­ning lost the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion to Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s par­ty, he was chased out of Bal­isi­er House and Row­ley was se­lect­ed to lead the PNM.

“It was a gen­er­al coun­cil that agreed and vot­ed to in­stall Row­ley as po­lit­i­cal leader.”

Fer­reira said the PNM has nev­er had a suc­ces­sion plan in its 68-year his­to­ry.

“What is brew­ing here is un­prece­dent­ed in the par­ty,” he said.