Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

An­oth­er Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) war­rior has de­part­ed.

Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley and Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day both paid trib­ute to for­mer PNM min­is­ter and Port-of-Spain South MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald, who died yes­ter­day morn­ing.

PNM ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cial Lau­rel Leza­ma Lee-Sing con­firmed Mc­Don­ald’s death.

The PNM has been re-im­mersed in mourn­ing fol­low­ing Mc­Don­ald’s death, which oc­curred fol­low­ing the re­cent death of PNM vet­er­an for­mer coun­cil­lor Ter­ry Ron­don.

A for­mer PNM deputy leader, Mc­Don­ald, 64, died at the St Clair Med­ical Cen­tre, Port-of-Spain. She had been ail­ing for some time.

Oth­er of­fi­cials said Mc­Don­ald had been ad­mit­ted to the in­sti­tu­tion last month and had surgery at month-end. She was in In­ten­sive Care af­ter. Mc­Don­ald had been deal­ing with chron­ic is­sues over the years.

In a mes­sage on his Face­book page, PM Row­ley stat­ed, “To­day, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment re­ceived the sad news of the pass­ing of a ser­vant and a ded­i­cat­ed col­league, Ms Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald.

“She was a ded­i­cat­ed fight­er who de­vot­ed much of her adult life to the ser­vice of oth­ers. We mourn her loss as we ex­tend our deep­est con­do­lences to her fam­i­ly. From all her col­leagues and the PNM fam­i­ly, may she Rest in Peace.”

Op­po­si­tion Leader Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed, “I’m very sad­dened by her pass­ing. Last we spoke, she in­di­cat­ed she was do­ing well. We were very good friends and I will miss her.

“She car­ried the PNM in op­po­si­tion (2010 to 2015) as chief whip, she was a fight­er for the poor, she nev­er stopped fight­ing for the peo­ple in her con­stituen­cy. Mar­lene was al­so a very up­lift­ing per­sons who was very nice to be around. I loved her very much and I’ll miss her dear­ly. She was a won­der­ful friend.”

Cur­rent PoS South MP Kei­th Scot­land re­called that Mc­Don­ald - an at­tor­ney - of­ten told him that she’d joined the PNM in 1986.

Her po­lit­i­cal life be­gan in 2007, un­der the late Patrick Man­ning’s PNM, when she be­came PoS South MP and went on to serve as min­is­ter in sev­er­al Min­istries. She served in Op­po­si­tion as well (2010-2015) and was a PNM deputy leader from 2010-2019.

Mc­Don­ald’s tenure with the Row­ley PNM Gov­ern­ment was marked by con­tro­ver­sy, in­clud­ing three shifts from min­is­te­r­i­al posts and crim­i­nal charges.

PNM’s PoS South ex­ec­u­tive met yes­ter­day on Mc­Don­ald’s death and are await­ing word from her rel­a­tives and part­ner Michael Carew on fu­ner­al arrange­ments.

The PNM is­sued a state­ment on Mc­Don­ald’s death. How­ev­er politi­cians al­so re­count­ed their mem­o­ries of Mc­Don­ald in­di­vid­u­al­ly.

PNM, UNC, trib­utes flow ...

PoS South MP Kei­th Scot­land: “I’m in pieces. This la­dy ush­ered me in­to pol­i­tics. It’s an im­mea­sur­able loss. She knew Port-of-Spain South like the back of her hand, every nook and cran­ny from Pom Trace to Katan­ga. We’ve lost some­one very dear to me. “She was a cham­pi­on to the end, very pas­sion­ate. I spoke to Mar­lene two weeks ago and was sup­posed to see her Thurs­day. I called her phone the night be­fore but there was no an­swer. She’ll be missed on all lev­els. In her mem­o­ry, I’ll con­tin­ue do­ing my best for PoS South.”

PNM chair­man Stu­art Young, who re­called Mc­Don­ald at a St James polling sta­tion very ear­ly on a rainy morn­ing dur­ing the PNM’s 2022 in­ter­nal elec­tions and al­so at the EBC’s nom­i­na­tion ex­er­cise for Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions: “My col­league ‘Marls’ as I called her was a war­rior and guid­ed the PNM to a re­sound­ing vic­to­ry in Port-of-Spain in the re­cent Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions. She was ded­i­cat­ed to the par­ty and in en­sur­ing our suc­cess. May her soul rest in eter­nal peace.”

For­mer UNC MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh: “Tru­ly very very sad. I worked with her many years in the Par­lia­ment from the time she was an MP in mid-2000s and in op­po­si­tion and gov­ern­ment. She was al­ways per­son­able and ami­able - nev­er dis­crim­i­nat­ed in any form. When for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning was un­der fire in 2010, Mar­lene stood with him strong­ly.

“She em­braced every­one in Par­lia­ment and had tremen­dous peo­ple skills - al­ways com­mit­ted to the peo­ple, a grass roots per­son who rep­re­sent­ed con­stituents with com­mit­ment to rep­re­sent every sin­gle one de­spite neg­a­tive press at times. She was a de­cent hard­work­ing ded­i­cat­ed com­mit­ted work­er for the peo­ple.

“In Op­po­si­tion, Mar­lene nev­er hes­i­tat­ed to de­mand from min­is­ters like my­self then, re­sources for con­stituents, whether in hous­ing, so­cial de­vel­op­ment, ed­u­ca­tion. When­ev­er she was in gov­ern­ment, she like­wise helped those in op­po­si­tion. T&T’s lost a tru­ly great pub­lic ser­vant and one of the best MPs in re­cent times. Her par­ty should see it pru­dent that she re­ceive some ac­knowl­edge­ment for the work she did as an MP all these years.”

For­mer PP min­is­ter Gan­ga Singh: “I’m sad­dened by Mar­lene’s un­time­ly pass­ing. She was a ‘fire­brand’ rep­re­sen­ta­tive of her con­stituents, an un­tir­ing ad­vo­cate of and for her po­lit­i­cal par­ty. She al­ways ex­tend­ed a help­ing hand to my re­quests for as­sis­tance for my con­stituents when she held her min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio. May her soul rest in eter­nal peace.”

Ex-PoS South chair­man Wen­dell Stephens: “Word of Mar­lene’s death spread in the con­stituen­cy very fast. Many post­ed trib­utes and shared mem­o­ries on so­cial me­dia, long­stand­ing ac­tivists like Ken­roy Dop­well and oth­ers. Some PNM ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers who were very close to Mar­lene were in tears at the news. She and I ba­si­cal­ly grew to­geth­er in the pol­i­tics - when she en­tered as MP in 2007, I’d al­ready been in the con­stituen­cy lev­el eight years.”

Ex-PNM min­is­ter Con­rad Enill (now High Com­mis­sion­er to Guyana): “She was a very hard­work­ing min­is­ter and rep­re­sent­ed her con­stituents with pas­sion. She al­ways held her­self as what was pos­si­ble with hard work and ded­i­ca­tion. May she rest in peace.”

Ex-PP min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath: “Deep­est con­do­lences on the pass­ing of Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald, ded­i­cat­ed par­lia­men­tar­i­an. We both served in Par­lia­ment over 2007-2010. Her con­tri­bu­tions as Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter will al­ways be re­mem­bered for their vigour and forth­right­ness. In re­mem­ber­ing Mar­lene, we al­so ac­knowl­edged the chal­lenges she faced dur­ing her tenure a MP. Dur­ing these ob­sta­cles, her ded­i­ca­tion to pub­lic ser­vice leaves a last­ing im­pact.”

UNC MP Roodal Mooni­lal: “Deep­est con­do­lences to Ms Mc­Don­ald’s rel­a­tives, friends and sup­port­ers. I had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to work close­ly with her as chief whip when I served as Leader of Gov­ern­ment busi­ness in the 10th Par­lia­ment. She was an af­fa­ble ded­i­cat­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tive.”

PNM Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne: “Mar­lene was a Cab­i­net col­league when I was first elect­ed in 2007, so I’ve known her for at least 16 years. I was sad­dened to learn of her pass­ing.

Mar­lene was ‘Moth­er” - PNM

Late for­mer MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald was fond­ly re­ferred to as “Moth­er” by her con­stituents and those clos­est to her.

“Through­out her three par­lia­men­tary terms of ser­vice, she was al­ways present and stand­ing in the gap for those who she rep­re­sent­ed. Mar­lene was an ex­treme­ly hard work­er, in life and for the PNM, and she’ll def­i­nite­ly be missed by those who worked with her,” PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings said in state­ment on be­half of the par­ty.

“With a pow­er­ful voice, a pas­sion for the peo­ple of Port-of-Spain South, and a clear sense of pur­pose, Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald used her train­ing as an at­tor­ney-at-law to be a cham­pi­on of and for the peo­ple of her con­stituen­cy and of the coun­try.

“She was a fear­less, out­stand­ing de­bater, well re­searched, and al­ways ready to lift the lev­el of the de­bates, both aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and po­lit­i­cal­ly. She pos­sessed a sharp le­gal acu­men which aid­ed her var­i­ous par­lia­men­tary port­fo­lios.

“Her wit was un­matched in the Par­lia­ment, and on the po­lit­i­cal plat­form. As the Chief Whip (in Op­po­si­tion), Ms Mc­Don­ald was fierce and knowl­edge­able, and very ef­fec­tive­ly used the tools of the Par­lia­ment and its Stand­ing Or­ders.

“She served as Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader - Leg­isla­tive from 2010- 2019, and will be cred­it­ed for host­ing ro­bust month­ly group meet­ings. The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment ex­tends its sin­cer­est con­do­lences to Ms. Mc­Don­ald’s fam­i­ly, friends and for­mer con­stituents. It is our prayer that she rests com­fort­ably in God’s eter­nal peace.”

MAR­LENE’S PATH

2007: Suc­cess­ful­ly screened as PNM’s can­di­date for Por-of-Spain South un­der the Patrick Man­ning PNM.

2007: Se­cured a House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive po­si­tion in No­vem­ber, hav­ing won her seat in Gen­er­al Elec­tion. She won PoS South again in 2010 and 2015.

2007-2010: Ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and Gen­der Af­fairs.

2010-2015: Ap­point­ed as PNM’s Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip

2015: She re­turned to Gov­ern­ment with the Row­ley PNM; ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Hous­ing and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment.

2016: Re­moved from Hous­ing Min­istry af­ter she au­tho­rised an HDC house to her com­pan­ion Michael Carew.

2017: Re­hired as Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter in June; fired three days lat­er in Ju­ly 2017, af­ter invit­ing re­put­ed gang leader, con­stituent Cedrick ‘Burkie’ Burke, to her swear­ing-in at Pres­i­dent’s House.

2018: Re­hired as ju­nior Min­is­ter in Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion/Com­mu­ni­ca­tion

2018: Made full Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter in March

2018: Lost Com­mu­ni­ca­tion in June to Stu­art Young dur­ing a reshuf­fle.

2019: Re­moved from Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion on Au­gust 12.

2019: Mc­Don­ald is hit with sev­en charges con­cern­ing Cal­abar Foun­da­tion is­sues, of al­leged mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice. She was grant­ed $2 mil­lion bail. Al­so charged was Mc­Don­ald’s long-time com­pan­ion Michael Carew, plus Edgar Zephyrine, Vic­tor McEachrane and Wayne An­tho­ny. Of­fences al­leged­ly oc­curred be­tween 2008-2009. TTPS probe be­gan in 2016

2019: Her stint as PNM deputy leader ends. She is rel­e­gat­ed to the last seat on PNM’s back­bench in Par­lia­ment and not screened for 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions. Kei­th Scot­land suc­ceeds her as MP.

2022: Mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice charge is dropped; High Court in­dict­ment filed against Mc­Don­ald on six counts of mon­ey laun­der­ing, con­spir­a­cy to de­fraud and mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice.

2023: Mc­Don­ald co-or­di­nates PNM’s PoS cam­paign for Au­gust 14 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions. All 12 seats are re­tained.