Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­scribed the PNM’s gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing as a “vul­gar and ob­scene cha­rade aimed at hood­wink­ing a des­per­ate, trau­ma­tised na­tion in­to be­liev­ing that uni­ty was achieved among the lazy, greedy, in­com­pe­tent war­ring mem­bers of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s Gov­ern­ment.”

The UNC leader said the “coro­na­tion” of En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has been a “nail in the cross for democ­ra­cy in the par­ty’s on­go­ing soap opera of chaos and in­com­pe­tence.”

In a press re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the fact that Row­ley had to call his “war­ring min­is­ters” to a gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing on Sat­ur­day “to heel over” his high­ly ques­tion­able coro­na­tion of Young, showed his PNM Gov­ern­ment had “vir­tu­al­ly col­lapsed un­der the weight of an in­ter­nal pow­er strug­gle.”

She weighed in on the is­sue of 21 PNM MPs who pledged their sup­port for Young as prime min­is­ter.

“Row­ley must know that re­gard­less of who he co­erces the PNM gen­er­al coun­cil to se­lect as their leader, the par­ty is des­tined to lose the next gen­er­al elec­tion due to all the MPs and min­is­ters’ col­lec­tive dis­as­trous, dead­ly tenure in gov­ern­ment.”

Young re­ceived full sup­port from the PNM MPs to suc­ceed Row­ley af­ter a week of tur­moil in the par­ty.

Fol­low­ing the par­ty’s re­cent re­treat in To­ba­go, Young re­ceived the nod of ap­proval of 11 MPs against  Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son’s nine votes to take over as PM when Row­ley leaves of­fice, last Mon­day.

How­ev­er, eight of Beck­les-Robin­son’s nine MPs re­fused to sign a doc­u­ment de­clar­ing their sup­port for Young.

This led to an im­passe in the par­ty which end­ed on Thurs­day fol­low­ing a cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive meet­ing at Bal­isi­er House where there was a show of sol­i­dar­i­ty among Young, Beck­les and oth­er MPs.

How­ev­er, the UNC leader said Row­ley’s de­ci­sion to pre­side over Young’s “coro­na­tion, has been a dag­ger in the heart of our democ­ra­cy.”

She said cit­i­zens must re­mem­ber that “it is the en­tire cadre of PNM min­is­ters and MPs who have played the most sig­nif­i­cant role in the de­struc­tion of the econ­o­my, sta­bil­i­ty, peace and se­cu­ri­ty.”

UNC’s deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Jear­lean John in a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day ques­tioned what would have led the nine MPs who had ini­tial­ly backed Beck­les-Robin­son to throw their sup­port at Young.

“What is out there in the pub­lic space is that there were all kinds of promis­es and threats and in­duce­ments.”

John said when the MPs kissed and made up, it did not look re­al.

“And if you looked at their faces, all of them look as shame as they should be.”

She said the PNM has cor­nered it­self and has been horse trad­ing with the coun­try. The Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor said the PNM should go back to the peo­ple for a man­date.

“They are play­ing mu­si­cal chairs with peo­ple’s lives.

“And it is a shame and a dis­grace, it is wrong and it is im­moral. What we are see­ing is a Hol­ly­wood pro­duc­tion... a cha­rade. And the on­ly peo­ple who are go­ing to suf­fer...who are go­ing to lose out is T&T be­cause the PNM par­ty has col­lapsed.”

John said go­ing for­ward noth­ing will change and the coun­try should not ex­pect any­thing dif­fer­ent.

“So I am en­cour­ag­ing the sup­port of the PNM this morn­ing, that the house of the ris­ing sun is open... and invit­ing... and ready to wel­come them and to de­fend them and their in­ter­ests. We are say­ing that the UNC doesn’t look at a black young man or a black young woman and say that is a gang­ster, we don’t call them cock­roach­es.”

The UNC, John said, is an all-em­brac­ing par­ty.

Ap­proval through­out
the PNM

Mean­while, sup­port for Stu­art Young as prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate con­tin­ued yes­ter­day through­out the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment. Min­is­ter in the Fi­nance Min­is­ter Bri­an Man­ning said he was pleased a con­sen­sus was ar­rived at on Sat­ur­day.

“This is what we agreed to dur­ing the To­ba­go cau­cus. Plain and sim­ple. Every­one knew what they were vot­ing for and what they agreed to do af­ter the poll was tak­en. One thing I can tell you is that a man who keeps his word is one that can be trust­ed. The Bible says ‘let your yes be yes and your no be no’.”

For­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford was al­so hap­py.

“I am very pleased with the out­come of the par­ty’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing. I was al­ways con­fi­dent that good sense and loy­al­ty would pre­vail. It’s a les­son to par­ty mem­bers es­pe­cial­ly the youths and new PNM mem­bers that they must not al­low our op­po­nents to in­flu­ence their de­ci­sions.

And tem­po­rary PNM Sen­a­tor Tahar­qa Obi­ka said, “ The process has been fol­lowed. Those like Robert Le Hunte who kept harp­ing on the process de­spite it be­ing fol­lowed should now re­spect the will of the par­ty’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil and sup­port the po­si­tion on Stu­art Young rather than try­ing to get peo­ple to drink bush tea for their fever. We need to be unit­ed to sup­port the par­ty’s chances at the polls.”

—With re­port­ing by Gail Alexan­der