SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

More than two dozen Ari­ma con­stituents of Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son left Bal­isi­er House in Port-of-Spain last night feel­ing dis­heart­ened af­ter it was an­nounced that En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young had been unan­i­mous­ly en­dorsed by the gen­er­al coun­cil for the po­si­tion of Prime Min­is­ter-des­ig­nate.

This news left those present in a som­bre mood. Among those who were brought to tears was Ari­ma Cen­tral coun­cil­lor Shel­don “Fish” Gar­cia, who led a del­e­ga­tion to the PNM’s head­quar­ters to ral­ly be­hind Beck­les-Robin­son, the Ari­ma MP who they be­lieved was the best choice to take over as PM.

Stand­ing at the main gate, Gar­cia shook his head in dis­be­lief. He said Beck­les-Robin­son had sup­port­ed him for years. “I am so dis­ap­point­ed. Not on­ly me but all the peo­ple who came here to sup­port Ms Beck­les. I can’t ex­press the way I feel right now,” Gar­cia said, his eyes fill­ing up with tears. Every­body caved in. What can we do? Noth­ing has changed,” he said.

Last Mon­day, dur­ing a par­lia­men­tary re­treat in To­ba­go, Young was se­lect­ed by a ma­jor­i­ty of 11 to nine votes over Beck­les-Robin­son to re­place Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley when he demits of­fice.

Next to Gar­cia was a group of de­ject­ed women wear­ing jer­seys em­bla­zoned with the words “Ari­ma’s Choice Pen­ny.”

They too could not con­tain their emo­tions as their fa­cial ex­pres­sions told it all. Three hours ear­li­er, the women pulled up in a 25-seater maxi taxi to give Beck­les-Robin­son the sup­port she need­ed. Along Vic­to­ria Street, the “Beck­les posse” pitched chairs and wait­ed for the par­ty’s 4 pm gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing to start. They dipped in and out of a blue cool­er with drinks and en­joyed the cool evening breeze as they camped out­side.

“We giv­ing Beck­les we full 100 per cent,” Gar­cia said. Gar­cia was a UNC coun­cil­lor who switched his al­le­giance to the PNM. “Min­is­ter Beck­les is the rea­son why I came back home,” he said, stat­ing that he will for­ev­er be grate­ful to his MP.

On­ly mo­ments be­fore, Beck­les-Robin­son had ar­rived at Bal­isi­er House in the com­pa­ny of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les. Smil­ing from ear to ear, the Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter hugged and kissed one of the four women who was stand­ing on the road­way. Beck­les-Robin­son opt­ed not to speak to the me­dia. She was fol­lowed by PNM sup­port­ers Mel­ba Box­ill and Juli­et Davy, who are al­so fans of Beck­les-Robin­son.

Pac­ing up and down in an­tic­i­pa­tion, Box­ill said the gen­er­al coun­cil need­ed to have more re­spect for black women. She be­lieved the time was ripe for the PNM to pick its first fe­male prime min­is­ter. Box­ill said the par­ty need­ed change.

“A lot of peo­ple say Pen­ny is weak. They on­ly say­ing she is weak be­cause she is not in any bac­cha­nal,” Box­ill start­ed shout­ing. She de­scribed Beck­les-Robin­son as hum­ble and down to earth. “Pen­ny un­der­stands the grass­roots; she un­der­stands the peo­ple on the ground. To me, she is a bet­ter per­son than Young. I don’t know Young per­son­al­ly, but I know Pen­ny is for the peo­ple.”

Box­ill, of Mt Lam­bert, pre­dict­ed if the PNM se­lect­ed Young over Beck­les-Robin­son, the par­ty would be doomed for trou­ble and could lose votes in the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion. “Peo­ple on the ground whis­per­ing, say­ing they rather Pen­ny. I talk­ing with peo­ple and they are say­ing they don’t want Stu­art Young. If they can’t give Pen­ny the po­si­tion, I am vot­ing for UNC; it’s bet­ter I give UNC my vote.”

She said the PNM must re­mem­ber that their votes come from the grass­roots. “It doesn’t mat­ter how much they deal with the fi­nanciers; the 99 per cent is the one who makes the fi­nal de­ci­sion when they go in­to the vot­ing booth. They have the fi­nal say.”

As Beck­les-Robin­son sup­port base grew out­side, on­ly two women wear­ing Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West jer­seys were seen strolling along Tran­quil­i­ty Street. They kept their dis­tance.

At the end of the press con­fer­ence, the mood of Beck­les-Robin­son’s sup­port­ers changed from up­beat to dis­ap­point­ment, de­jec­tion and de­feat. And when Beck­les-Robin­son walked out of Bal­isi­er House around 8 pm, she re­mained silent and looked sad.