Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and for­mer Na­pari­ma Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Rod­ney Charles may have sig­nalled that they’ve had their last run in elec­tions, but oth­er politi­cians are not so open about their po­lit­i­cal fu­ture.

With cit­i­zens vot­ing to­day in the Gen­er­al Elec­tion, some fa­mil­iar faces have al­ready re­vealed their stint in elec­toral pol­i­tics was over.

For the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, now for­mer Laven­tille West MP Fitzger­ald Hinds, for­mer Laven­tille East/Mor­vant MP Adri­an Leonce and La Brea’s for­mer MP Stephen Mc­Clashie have said their chances of be­ing in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives are over as they bowed out of the elec­toral pol­i­tics.

How­ev­er, for­mer Cou­va South MP Rudri­nath In­dars­ingh was coy about his fu­ture in pub­lic ser­vice. He was re­placed as the can­di­date for the con­stituen­cy he rep­re­sent­ed for 15 years by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, which in­stead chose Bar­ry Padarath.

While he said he re­mained com­mit­ted to the par­ty, he was less vo­cal about his plans in the po­lit­i­cal are­na.

Oth­ers like Diego Mar­tin North/East can­di­date for the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Colm Im­bert did not re­spond to ques­tions on whether or not this elec­tion would re­al­ly be his last lap in elec­toral pol­i­tics. He pre­vi­ous­ly said he was have one last run in field.

UNC Po­lit­i­cal Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar didn’t re­ply to ques­tions on if to­mor­row’s elec­tion would be her “last run.”

Sep­tu­a­ge­nar­i­ans Row­ley and Charles, were the old­est on ei­ther side of the two main po­lit­i­cal par­ties. Per­sad-Bisses­sar at the helm of the UNC is now the old­est in pol­i­tics.

UNC deputy leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal- in pol­i­tics for 34 years, said, “On­ly God knows my di­rec­tion—I don’t.”

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance leader Gary Grif­fith said, “It’ll be dif­fi­cult to make that de­ci­sion whether it’s my ‘last run.’ I don’t know what the fu­ture holds for me. If I’m suc­cess­ful, then ob­vi­ous­ly I’ll be in a po­lit­i­cal di­rec­tion. If I’m not, I’ve al­ways been will­ing to of­fer my ser­vices to my coun­try based on what my coun­try re­quires, which my coun­try prefers. So by any chance I or my po­lit­i­cal par­ty aren’t suc­cess­ful at the polls, it cer­tain­ly doesn’t di­min­ish the fact of what I can pro­vide for my coun­try. So I may very well be will­ing to of­fer my ser­vices to my coun­try in an­oth­er sphere.”

NTA’s To­co San­gre Grande can­di­date Chris­tine Newal­lo-Ho­sein, a for­mer UNC Cu­mu­to Man­zanil­la MP said, “It’s a lit­tle pre­ma­ture to an­swer ques­tions whether this is my last run. But I’ll cer­tain­ly con­tin­ue serv­ing my coun­try.”

Dis­si­dents await ‘God’s guid­ance’

So-called UNC “dis­si­dents” have been mum on their path af­ter opt­ing out of screen­ing and not be­ing se­lect­ed to con­test a seat for the par­ty to­day.

Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, for­mer Ch­agua­nas West MP, re­cit­ed Psalm 23 from the Bible when asked.

“As to my past, present and fu­ture, whether in the po­lit­i­cal sphere or oth­er­wise, I can on­ly say that The Lord is my shep­herd; I shall not want,”

Ram­bal­ly added, “Every­thing that was past has been in God’s hand and every­thing to come will be de­ter­mined by God’s will. I pray for God’s grace so as to re­veal the path by which I can be the ide­al in­stru­ment for my coun­try.”

Dr Rai Rag­bir, who re­signed from UNC, has re­mained silent af­ter he said re­cent­ly he had not made any de­ci­sion on his po­lit­i­cal fu­ture.

“When the Lord wants to guide me as to my next chap­ter, I’m sure he’ll send me a sign.”

An­a­lyst weighs in

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed said some politi­cians may be em­ploy­ing a wait and see ap­proach as to their po­lit­i­cal fu­ture.

“It’s im­pos­si­ble to say what the fu­ture of the cur­rent lot of politi­cians’ de­ci­sions will be in terms of run­ning for an­oth­er five years. Ob­vi­ous­ly, all of those run­ning in 2025 will have at their dis­pos­al ra­tio­nal choice which will de­ter­mine what the cir­cum­stances are that will in­form a de­ci­sion to call it a day. Not every­one is like Dr Row­ley who can make a con­scious de­ci­sion on when he steps down.

“Ra­tio­nal­i­ty in­forms us that Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar will be look­ing to close her po­lit­i­cal ca­reer, if she so choos­es, with an elec­tion win which she seems de­ter­mined to do.

“Mrs (Camille) Robin­son-Reg­is, is viewed as the Moth­er of the PNM and has men­tored and coached a lot of the young peo­ple in the par­ty. I’d ex­pect that this may be the term that she com­pletes her men­tor­ship and train­ing - but again, left to be seen.

“This could very well be the last term if he wins for Mr Es­mond Forde and ac­cord­ing­ly Mr Im­bert has played the idea of him want­i­ng one more term to go.”

He said politi­cians con­sid­er­ing whether or not to ex­it, have a lot to­fac­tor in when mak­ing such a de­ci­sion.

“Re­tire­ment in pol­i­tics comes down to the in­di­vid­ual, their pri­or­i­ties, fam­i­ly life com­mit­ments, their health and re­silience. Of course, we’re mov­ing in a di­rec­tion where few want to see el­der­ly par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and at the same time we’re as­pir­ing for high-cal­i­bre ‘New Gen­er­a­tion’ politi­cians. That’s not to say that some of the cur­rent ex­ist­ing young politi­cians haven’t fall­en short of ex­er­cis­ing ex­em­plary lead­er­ship and we have a gen­er­a­tion of mediocre young politi­cians in ac­tive pol­i­tics which I call mis­fits.

“But for there to be a re­al con­ver­sa­tion about po­lit­i­cal re­tire­ment, we need to be­gin a se­ri­ous con­ver­sa­tion about chang­ing our po­lit­i­cal cul­ture and be­com­ing more in­vest­ed in po­lit­i­cal out­look from a se­ri­ous do­mes­tic and geo-po­lit­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty per­spec­tive,” Mo­hammed added.