GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO and JENSEN LA VENDE

Ra­goonath: It does not mean all is well with­in the par­ty

While En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has re­ceived full sup­port from his Cab­i­net col­leagues as suc­ces­sor to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bishu Ra­goonath says it does not mean that all is in fact well with­in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment.

At a press con­fer­ence fol­low­ing the gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing at the par­ty’s Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Young and Fos­ter Cum­mings, Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment, pre­sent­ed a unit­ed front, clasp­ing hands, main­tain­ing that Young had the bless­ing of all gov­ern­ment min­is­ters to take up the man­tle up­on the res­ig­na­tion of the PM.

Ra­goonath told Guardian Me­dia the move was ex­pect­ed.

“I ex­pect­ed that the po­lit­i­cal leader Kei­th Row­ley would have used what­ev­er mech­a­nisms nec­es­sary with­in the par­ty to en­sure con­sol­i­da­tion of the par­ty, and since a pub­lic de­ci­sion was al­ready an­nounced, it would have been in poor faith for the par­ty to go for­ward and change that at this point in time. So I think that’s the con­text in which I would say that I did not ex­pect any­thing dif­fer­ent ...

“I don’t think all is re­al­ly well. I think the fact that the PNM did not make a de­ci­sion to­day to go to a na­tion­al con­ven­tion will tell us that there are still very much fears and con­cerns, and if they go to such a na­tion­al con­ven­tion, there will be chal­lenges to Stu­art Young as the leader.”

Ra­goonath added that yes­ter­day’s out­come, which he ex­pect­ed, re­moved some of the dis­trac­tion “for the time be­ing” as the par­ty pre­pares for a gen­er­al elec­tion.

“So it’s a good sign that the PNM has shown that they have con­sol­i­dat­ed,” he added. 

Ghany: Stu­art as PM-des­ig­nate shows uni­ty, but PNM’s twin-head­ed strat­e­gy risky

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Prof Hamid Ghany said the sup­port of Young shows that the par­ty is uni­fied go­ing in­to a gen­er­al elec­tion.

“I think that what has hap­pened is that the PNM has set­tled now on hav­ing a two-pronged strat­e­gy in an elec­tion year of hav­ing Dr Row­ley as po­lit­i­cal leader and Stu­art Young as prime min­is­ter. And they clear­ly are go­ing to go ahead. I think Dr Row­ley was able to get his way in this mat­ter be­cause he has not re­signed as po­lit­i­cal leader, so there was noth­ing for the gen­er­al coun­cil to dis­cuss in terms of fix­ing a date for in­ter­nal elec­tions or a spe­cial con­ven­tion to dis­cuss lead­er­ship.”

Ghany added that the strat­e­gy is a risky one, but it gives the sup­port­ers and elec­torate time to ac­cli­ma­tise to Young. The risk, he said, may be that the par­ty may se­lect a leader who will lead the par­ty in op­po­si­tion, rather than the next PM.

“The PNM needs to be care­ful with this strat­e­gy be­cause the is­sue of who will be­come the po­lit­i­cal leader if the pop­u­la­tion does not em­brace this twin-head­ed strat­e­gy, the is­sue of po­lit­i­cal leader, could be a dis­cus­sion about who would be the leader of the op­po­si­tion. So, they need to be very care­ful how they’re go­ing to play this.”

He added that with the prime min­is­ter’s suc­ces­sion set­tled, the next fo­cus will be on de­ter­min­ing the lead­er­ship of the par­ty.

Ram­per­sad: Sup­port for En­er­gy Min­is­ter may be about sav­ing face, not uni­ty

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist In­di­ra Ram­per­sad be­lieves the sup­port for Young is more about the par­ty at­tempt­ing to sal­vage its im­age rather than gen­uine uni­ty.

“Re­mem­ber, they al­so have to save face, be­cause in these last few weeks, start­ing with the State of Emer­gency, well, apart from all the es­ca­lat­ed crime and prob­lems with the econ­o­my and the whole mess that is go­ing on in the coun­try, the PNM has been in the dol­drums with­out a doubt. So, they have to save face, and this ral­ly­ing around Min­is­ter Stu­art Young may be to do just that, but that does not mean that they’re all very hap­py and that all is well and love and war.”

Ram­per­sad said the di­vi­sion be­tween Young and Pen­ne­lope Beck­les for lead­er­ship of the par­ty may not be set­tled, adding that pol­i­tics is most­ly about pow­er.

“We know that there was di­vi­sion be­fore in Mag­dale­na. I would find it rather strange that even if the gen­er­al coun­cil ral­lies around Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, there wouldn’t be some, you know, dis­sat­is­fied sen­ti­ment from some peo­ple who are not very pleased. I would be in­ter­est­ed in learn­ing how Min­is­ter Beck­les feels about this move and the oth­er eight who didn’t agree (with choos­ing Young) in the straw poll tak­en at Mag­dale­na ear­li­er this week.”

She added that the next thing that needs to be done is a clear and de­fin­i­tive time­line for the hand­ing over of pow­er from Dr Row­ley to Young and the elect­ing of the po­lit­i­cal leader of the par­ty.