Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Af­ter day one of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) par­lia­men­tary re­treat, MPs and Sen­a­tors con­tin­ued to re­main tight-lipped about dis­cus­sions per­tain­ing to the par­ty’s suc­ces­sion plan­ning.

How­ev­er, for­mer chal­lenger to Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s lead­er­ship, Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son, said she would “see how things go” when asked by Guardian Me­dia about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of an­oth­er at­tempt to lead the par­ty.

Beck­les-Robin­son was ap­proached at the To­ba­go Plan­ta­tions be­fore the start of yes­ter­day’s par­lia­men­tary re­treat on if she would en­ter­tain thoughts once again of lead­ing the par­ty.

Beck­les-Robin­son said, “We will see how things go.”

Beck­les-Robin­son is one of sev­er­al names bandied about for the lead­er­ship po­si­tion, along­side En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, Youth De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Fos­ter Cum­mings and Cari­com and For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne.

Beck­les-Robin­son sought to re­mind Guardian Me­dia that she had pre­vi­ous­ly con­test­ed the post.

“Al­ways re­mem­ber that I did chal­lenge and I lost,” she said.

In 2014, Beck­les-Robin­son com­pre­hen­sive­ly lost to Kei­th Row­ley in the PNM in­ter­nal elec­tions. Dr Row­ley re­ceived 18,070 votes com­pared to her 1,314.

Pressed fur­ther on whether she has fu­ture as­pi­ra­tions to be po­lit­i­cal leader, the Ari­ma MP said, “As far as I know, at this point in time there re­al­ly isn’t a va­can­cy. An elec­tion is com­ing, I’ve had the op­por­tu­ni­ty again to serve Ari­ma and I just want to say to the peo­ple of Ari­ma, the ex­ec­u­tive and the con­stituen­cy, what a great ho­n­our it’s been to serve and of course to thank Dr Row­ley for giv­ing me the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­turn from the Unit­ed States as an am­bas­sador and to have had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve in the cab­i­net.”

She said the cur­rent re­treat was her fo­cus at the mo­ment.

Mean­while, Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon said she did not wish to spec­u­late on who she prefers to be the next po­lit­i­cal leader.

“I’m not go­ing to say that now and add fu­el to the fire. Let that be set­tled in­ter­nal­ly and I’m sure the PNM will car­ry a trail­blaz­er as we’ve al­ways done. Cer­tain­ly, I know that we will win the next elec­tion,” she said.

Guardian Me­dia at­tempt­ed to get a com­ment from Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds on his thoughts for the fu­ture PNM leader. How­ev­er, he smiled bright­ly and said, “To­ba­go is a very scenic en­vi­ron­ment and I en­cour­age the world to vis­it To­ba­go. So much has been done to en­cour­age and make tourists hap­py and com­fort­able here.”

Min­is­ter in the Hous­ing Min­istry, Adri­an Leonce mean­while said he had no spe­cif­ic pref­er­ence for par­ty leader.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert al­so ducked any ques­tions about the par­ty’s suc­ces­sion plan­ning and like Hinds, com­ment­ed on how beau­ti­ful the day was.

At 9 am yes­ter­day, par­ty mem­bers with par­lia­men­tary port­fo­lios gath­ered at a tight­ly guard­ed vil­la lo­cat­ed at To­ba­go Plan­ta­tions for their re­treat. They re­mained in dis­cus­sions un­til af­ter 5 pm.

When the Par­lia­men­tary re­treat was first an­nounced in late De­cem­ber, it was stat­ed that its pur­pose would be to re­view its ac­tiv­i­ties and plan its pro­grammes for the new year.

How­ev­er, with the Prime Min­is­ter on Fri­day in­di­cat­ing his de­sire to step down as leader of the Gov­ern­ment and the PNM be­fore his term legal­ly ex­pires, it is be­lieved that suc­ces­sion plan­ning was to be on the agen­da yes­ter­day.

How­ev­er, at the end of the re­treat, most PNM of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing the Prime Min­is­ter, chose not to say any­thing to the me­dia and in­stead drove past re­porters on their way back to the neigh­bour­ing Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort, where most of them are stay­ing for the du­ra­tion of the re­treat.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter and San Fer­nan­do West MP Faris Al-Rawi was the sole PNM mem­ber to of­fer a com­ment, al­beit a guard­ed one.

When asked if lead­er­ship dis­cus­sions came up, Al- Rawi said, “I un­for­tu­nate­ly don’t pro­pose to give any com­ment, I am go­ing to abide by the process­es we are put un­der.”

Guardian Me­dia asked if all mem­bers were told not to speak on the is­sue.

Al-Rawi smiled and re­spond­ed, “I think I just plain­ly said what I could and could not do, no dis­re­spect in­tend­ed, I know that a lot of peo­ple are in­ter­est­ed in what is hap­pen­ing but we’re a very dis­ci­plined and or­gan­ised par­ty and we’ll go through our process­es.”

Pressed fur­ther and asked if a lead­er­ship tus­sle has the po­ten­tial to desta­bilise the par­ty in an elec­tion year, Al-Rawi again de­clined to com­ment.

The re­treat con­tin­ues to­day at 9 am.