Elec­tion of­fi­cer of the To­co San­gre/Grande con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive John Ma­son is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to step aside as po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in the up­com­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions.

Ma­son's call came hours af­ter the PM an­nounced a reshuf­fle of his Cab­i­net, re­mov­ing Faris Al-Rawi as at­tor­ney gen­er­al. Row­ley shift­ed Al-Rawi to the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son to the Plan­ning Min­istry, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is to Hous­ing and Kaz­im Ho­sein to Agri­cul­ture, while Clarence Ramb­harat re­signed from the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture.

Ac­cord­ing to Ma­son, who is sup­posed to be on the pulse of what is hap­pen­ing with sup­port­ers, keep­ing them in­formed, and ral­ly­ing the troops on the ground to vote in the To­co/San­gre Grande con­stituen­cy, the feed­back has been wor­ry­ing. He said his job was to give the in­for­ma­tion gath­ered on the gound to the par­ty.

Ma­son, who has been with the par­ty for the last 18 years, was the one who led the call for the par­ty to re­voke Mervyn Dil­lon's can­di­da­cy for the To­co/San­gre Grande seat in 2020 af­ter con­stituents claimed that he was un­fit. He was re­placed by Roger Munroe.

Ma­son said for the past three years the PM has been mak­ing some bad moves. Ma­son not­ed Row­ley's re­cent ad­mis­sion that he was the of­fi­cial who met with for­mer po­lice ser­vice com­mis­sion chair­man Bliss Seep­er­sad giv­ing her in­for­ma­tion that ul­ti­mate­ly led the po­lice com­mis­sion­er mer­it list be­ing pulled; jump­ing to the de­fence of the T&T Coast Guard in­volv­ing the killing of a one-year-old Venezue­lan ba­by be­fore an in­ves­ti­ga­tion had been con­clud­ed; re­peat­ed state­ments that of­fend­ed women, among oth­er is­sues. The han­dling of the deaths of four LM­CS divers at State-owned Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny has al­so not put the par­ty in a favourable light, he said.

As chair­man of par­ty group six in North-east­ern Set­tle­ment San­gre Grande, Ma­son said some con­stituents and on­look­ers are "los­ing con­fi­dence in the par­ty" and have been ex­press­ing dis­ap­point­ment about the di­rec­tion the par­ty has been head­ing. Par­ty mem­bers, he said, have been speak­ing in hushed tones.

He said those voic­es start­ed to as­cend on March 6 at the par­ty's last gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing at Cas­ca­dia, when Row­ley of­fered him­self as a can­di­date for the post of PNM's po­lit­i­cal leader in the par­ty's in­ter­nal elec­tions due lat­er this year.

Af­ter win­ning the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, Row­ley had al­lud­ed that it could be his last term in of­fice.

"This can eas­i­ly be my last term in pol­i­tics in Trinidad and To­ba­go. I am not one of those politi­cians who be­lieve that when you come in­to of­fice, you should go out feet first. I have places to go and peo­ple to see. But more im­por­tant­ly, I have a com­mit­ment to en­sure that this is a pe­ri­od of tran­si­tion in the PNM.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley

"And as the longest-serv­ing mem­ber in the Par­lia­ment who will con­tin­ue to serve an­oth­er term, I have a du­ty and a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty dur­ing this term to fash­ion the PNM's fu­ture by en­sur­ing that our young peo­ple are de­vel­oped in such a way that when I am no longer in this po­si­tion to an­nounce an elec­tion vic­to­ry, that the coun­try will not be de­prived of the lead­er­ship it de­serves," Row­ley told par­ty sup­port­ers at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain, dur­ing his vic­to­ry speech.

Ma­son said this made peo­ple in the par­ty feel that they had a chance to vie for lead­er­ship. How­ev­er, there was some shock that he was throw­ing his hat in the ring again.

The elec­tion of­fi­cer said the par­ty has a lot of good prospects. He named Beck­les-Robin­son, Al-Rawi, Stu­art Young, and Fos­ter Cum­mings. He said they are knowl­edge­able and ex­pe­ri­enced and strong con­tenders to take over the helm of the par­ty.

In the last few weeks, Ma­son said, Beck­les-Robin­son's name has been on many lips as the pre­ferred choice to take the par­ty for­ward.

In 2014, Beck­les-Robin­son vied for the lead­er­ship post but was de­feat­ed by Row­ley.

"Peo­ple are call­ing Pen­ny the next Mia Mot­t­ley be­cause of her down-to-earth per­son­al­i­ty, po­lit­i­cal ex­pe­ri­ence and car­ing spir­it. Would she be brave enough to chal­lenge the PM again? It is all left to be seen," Ma­son said.

'Mem­bers afraid to talk'

Ma­son said, "Every­body afraid to talk be­cause they don't want to ruf­fle any­one's feath­ers. I am not go­ing to put wa­ter in my mouth. And if I have to pay a price for that, then so be it."

Speak­ing his mind, Ma­son said, peo­ple don't like to hear the truth.

"I know the re­sults of the next lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions will be a gauge for the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion. If we lose the up­com­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions that will be it for us. We will be giv­ing our fi­nal rites. Too many of us have put our blood, sweat and tears to see this par­ty go un­der. All I am ask­ing Row­ley is to hang up his guns to save our par­ty from ru­in."

Call­ing on par­ty troops to re­build, re­group, re­fo­cus and re­or­gan­ise for the up­com­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions, Ma­son added that the PNM needs se­ri­ous in­tro­spec­tion.

Minister of Local Government Faris Al-Rawi.

OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

MP: Ma­son does not rep­re­sent the en­tire To­co/Grande ex­ec­u­tive

How­ev­er, Ma­son is not get­ting the sup­port of MP for the area Roger Munroe.

The MP made it clear that Ma­son does not rep­re­sent the en­tire To­co/San­gre Grande ex­ec­u­tive or every­one in the con­stituen­cy.

"I dis­as­so­ci­ate my­self from any­thing that Mr John (Ma­son) may have men­tioned. He does not rep­re­sent the en­tire Toc0/San­gre Grande ex­ec­u­tive."

Mon­roe said he has re­ceived no neg­a­tive feed­back re­gard­ing the PM's move to throw his hat back in­to the ring for the post of po­lit­i­cal leader.

Ron­don: Don't go, Row­ley

Mean­while, for­mer chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ter­ry Ron­don said he was ral­ly­ing be­hind Row­ley.

Fol­low­ing the 2019 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions, Ron­don crit­i­cised the PNM for se­lect­ing "friends and fam­i­ly" to fight elec­toral dis­tricts in the San­gre Grande dis­trict which led to the UNC tak­ing con­trol of the cor­po­ra­tion

"I am beg­ging him to con­test. Dr Row­ley has been with us through thick and thin. This is what makes a PM stands out."

Ron­don, a long-stand­ing mem­ber of the PNM, said Row­ley was the best Prime Min­is­ter we ever had.

Minister of Planning and Development Pennelope Beckles-Robinson.

PRO: Min­is­ters still on a learn­ing curve, young peo­ple be­ing trained in lead­er­ship

Ma­son said with Row­ley, 72, hold­ing on to the post, it gives the im­pres­sion that no one in his Cab­i­net is be­ing groomed as his suc­ces­sor.

How­ev­er, Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer of the PNM Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing sought to dis­pel the per­cep­tion that no one is be­ing groomed.

Leza­ma-Lee Sing said that since as­sum­ing of­fice, Row­ley "has in­vest­ed in a num­ber of young peo­ple in his Cab­i­net" who are be­ing trained in lead­er­ship skills.

"Lead­ers don't emerge overnight. All of his Cab­i­net and MPs are still on a learn­ing curve. Even he as Prime Min­is­ter is still learn­ing be­cause I don't think he en­vi­sioned be­ing a Prime Min­is­ter dur­ing a pan­dem­ic. These are cer­tain­ly some ex­ces­sive­ly try­ing times.

"The coun­try needs sta­bil­i­ty and ex­pe­ri­ence and that is what he has been giv­ing to the coun­try over the past two-and-a-half years."

Asked if any­one is be­ing groomed to suc­ceed Row­ley, Leza­ma-Lee Sing said yes.

"There are many per­sons who in due course can even­tu­al­ly be­come the po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM. It is an in­sti­tu­tion of learn­ing." The iden­ti­ties of these peo­ple were not dis­closed. How­ev­er, she said any gov­ern­ment MP can con­test the top post.

Minister of Youth Development and National Service Foster Cummings.

OFFICE OF THE PARLIAMENT

Re­gard­ing Row­ley's an­nounce­ment to fight the lead­er­ship post, Leza­ma-Lee Sing said the feed­back has been pos­i­tive.

"The par­ty has not con­vened in any fo­rum to dis­cuss that mat­ter. But the in­di­vid­ual feed­back that I have been get­ting from peo­ple is that they seem to be very sat­is­fied with the Prime Min­is­ter and they are in agree­ment with him of­fer­ing him­self again to serve as po­lit­i­cal leader. The news has been wel­comed tremen­dous­ly by many peo­ple who I have spo­ken to."

Leza­ma-Lee Sing said Row­ley did not make a de­fin­i­tive state­ment on the night of the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion that it was his ab­solute last. "He said it could eas­i­ly be his last term," she added.

Com­ing out of the par­ty's last gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing in Cas­ca­dia two weeks ago where par­ty in­sid­ers said there were rum­blings with­in the ex­ec­u­tive, Leza­ma-Lee Sing said, "I would not say rum­blings." In­stead, she de­scribed it as "sta­t­ic".

She said at the meet­ing the par­ty es­tab­lished that all its arms–the youth and women's leagues, leg­isla­tive, con­stituen­cy and ex­ec­u­tive groups–would go in­to elec­tion mode.

"I sensed that a lot of it has to do with peo­ple want­i­ng to en­sure that par­ty groups are prop­er­ly re­ac­ti­vat­ed and con­stituen­cies are prop­er­ly built. So, I think you would find a lot of en­er­gy be­ing put in­to that. And that is where a lot of sta­t­ic might have come from."

Ques­tioned if the PNM is pre­pared to fight the up­com­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions, Leza­ma-Lee Sing said "the par­ty con­tin­ues to work and coun­cil­lors are very en­er­gised. The par­ty is cog­nisant of the fact that lo­cal gov­ern­ment will soon be shift­ed with the im­mi­nent lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form. Leg­is­la­tion is com­ing to the Par­lia­ment. The com­mit­tee has laid its re­port in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives."

She said mea­sures are be­ing put in place to en­sure the PNM does not suf­fer an­oth­er de­feat at the THA polls.

"While the PNM should win all (seats) be­cause of what we of­fer the peo­ple, this is the na­ture of pol­i­tics, some­times you find favour with the pop­u­la­tion and some­times you don't."

'On a los­ing streak'

Com­ment­ing on what he called the par­ty's los­ing streak, Ma­son said:

*In the 2019 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion the UNC grabbed the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion from the PNM and they al­so lost elec­toral seats in the San Fer­nan­do and Ari­ma cor­po­ra­tions to the op­pos­ing par­ty.

*In the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, Ma­son said, the PNM bare­ly scraped through with a vic­to­ry af­ter cap­tur­ing 22 seats.

"As a mat­ter of fact, af­ter win­ning 23 seats in 2015 we should have im­proved our stand­ings in 2020 but this wasn't the case. We end up with one less seat."

*Ma­son said the PNM faced a fur­ther blow when they faced a 6-6 dead­lock with the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (PDP) in the Jan­u­ary 2021 To­ba­go House of Elec­tion (THA).

"This was an­oth­er in­di­ca­tion for them to sit up and take no­tice."

*To end the im­passe of the dead­lock, the seats were in­creased to 15 and vot­ers were asked to re­turn to the polls last De­cem­ber.

"We all know the end re­sult of that elec­tion, the PDP won 14 of the 15 seats. It was a crush­ing de­feat that we still have not come to terms with be­cause To­ba­go is PNM's stomp­ing ground and the birth­place of Row­ley."

*To fur­ther rub salt in their wounds, Ma­son said, the PNM was again de­feat­ed by the UNC in last month's Debe-South by-elec­tion.

"As the coun­try's longest-serv­ing par­ty our can­di­date on­ly mus­tered 25 votes. Imag­ine the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) which is a new par­ty in the po­lit­i­cal are­na cap­tured 175 votes. This says a lot."

Minister of Energy and Energy Industries and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Stuart Young.

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts weigh in

Dr Win­ford James

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Win­ford James said for Row­ley to of­fer him­self again would give the im­pres­sion that no one is suit­able in his par­ty to lead.

He said that on two oc­ca­sions Row­ley had hint­ed he was step­ping down.

"So his re­cent an­nounce­ment would not be wel­comed in some quar­ters. If I were a mem­ber of the PNM and I had the present po­lit­i­cal leader say­ing that he is go­ing to throw his hat in­to the ring for the po­si­tion of po­lit­i­cal leader...no­body would op­pose him..."

James said any­one who had pre­vi­ous­ly eyed the po­si­tion would now step back.

"They would have to sup­press their hopes. So that is the cul­ture of pol­i­tics in the PNM. You do not go up against the cur­rent leader."

He not­ed that the cul­ture of the PNM is that "the po­lit­i­cal leader is un­touch­able and the coun­try does not know who is be­ing groomed."

James said the re­cent Cab­i­net reshuf­fle can lead to un­cer­tain­ty in the PNM camp.

Out­side of Row­ley, James said Al-Rawi, Beck­les-Robin­son and Young have what it takes to lead.

He said Beck­les-Robin­son was qui­et­ed af­ter she chal­lenged Row­ley while no one will have the guts to take Row­ley on.

"If it were to hap­pen that will be an earth­quake be­cause that does not nor­mal­ly hap­pen."

James al­so point­ed out that every time Row­ley de­parts the coun­try on busi­ness, he would leave Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert to act as PM.

He said the PNM, how­ev­er, has "to be­gin prepar­ing for a suc­ces­sor. It seems to me it is bet­ter for the cur­rent par­ty leader to give his bless­ings to the in­com­ing one."

James said the PNM was an or­gan­ised par­ty with a strong in­ter­nal struc­ture, and Row­ley should not be scared to let go.

Asked if a short­age of suc­ces­sors can trig­ger a lead­er­ship cri­sis in the PNM, James said "a par­ty can have lead­er­ship crises at any time and for any rea­son."

He said Row­ley par­tic­i­pat­ed in a cri­sis with for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning a few years ago.

"Row­ley al­so chal­lenged Man­ning for the lead­er­ship in the PNM. These are two ex­pe­ri­enced per­sons. So, if they were in­volved in the cri­sis you can well imag­ine what the less ex­pe­ri­enced ap­pli­cants would be. I sup­posed the more in­ex­pe­ri­enced you are the more like­ly a cri­sis can de­vel­op."

Hamid Ghany

Mean­while, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Prof Hamid Ghany said Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert is one can­di­date who has con­sis­tent­ly act­ed as PM. Im­bert was al­so elect­ed par­ty chair­man in 2018.

"He would be some­one who could con­test for the lead­er­ship of the par­ty. Al-Rawi was elect­ed PRO of the par­ty in 2014 and in­ter­est­ing­ly he ob­tained more votes than what Row­ley got for his vic­to­ry to be­come po­lit­i­cal leader. Pen­ny Beck­les un­suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged Row­ley for lead­er­ship in 2014. She has re­turned as Ari­ma MP since 2020 and it is pos­si­ble that she may want to give it an­oth­er try. All three will have per­son­al de­ci­sions to make if Row­ley de­cides to con­test the po­si­tion again," Ghany said.

He said on­ly a sit­ting MP can be ap­point­ed as Prime Min­is­ter. If some­one who is not an MP is elect­ed leader, they can­not be ap­point­ed Prime Min­is­ter.

"I do not think any of the younger MPs will chal­lenge Row­ley as they do not have the re­quired pro­file to con­vince the PNM elec­torate to elect them as leader. If Row­ley con­tests un­op­posed, the is­sue of lead­ing the par­ty in­to a gen­er­al elec­tion in 2025 will be­come an is­sue be­cause the next lead­er­ship elec­tion will arise in 2026. A lead­er­ship cri­sis could emerge at that time."

Ghany said the ques­tion of who will lead the PNM in­to the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion may have to be de­cid­ed in 2022.

"It is Row­ley who has a de­ci­sion to make both for him­self and for the long-term fu­ture of the PNM."

Maukesh Bas­deo

Weigh­ing in on the is­sue, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Maukesh Bas­deo said for Row­ley to of­fer him­self again as a can­di­date, it could be that there is no po­ten­tial suc­ces­sor or no one is lead­er­ship ma­te­r­i­al to be able to man­age the par­ty.

Even if some­one in the par­ty demon­strates strong lead­er­ship skills, Bas­deo said they would be hard-pressed to go up against Row­ley.

How­ev­er, if the PM is fur­ther em­broiled in con­tro­ver­sy it can lead to peo­ple putting their names for­ward to con­test the lead­er­ship post.

"The ques­tion of lead­er­ship right now is how the PNM man­age their crises. How they man­age will de­ter­mine their sur­vival. Dr Row­ley has an op­por­tu­ni­ty now to man­age these crises. If this is done he will clear­ly demon­strate to the par­ty that he has what it takes to con­tin­ue as leader."

He said the ques­tion one has to ask is if the par­ty has a prob­lem with suc­ces­sion plan­ning.

"If it is there are ru­mours of in­fight­ing and prob­lems, the on­ly way you can look at it is if he goes back up as po­lit­i­cal leader, then one can on­ly as­sume that the in­fight­ing will con­tin­ue."