Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

In the Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West con­stituen­cy yes­ter­day, there was a wave of re­ac­tions to the news that the area’s Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, Stu­art Young, is the prime min­is­ter in wait­ing.

Res­i­dents who spoke with Guardian Me­dia viewed the de­vel­op­ment with full sup­port and as a sym­bol of sta­bil­i­ty, or with scep­ti­cism.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view along Ob­ser­va­to­ry Street, Port-of-Spain con­stituent Mon­i­ca Ja­cob said Young has her sup­port in his new role.

“I want him as the prime min­is­ter be­cause I like him, yes, I like him.”

Back in 2015, Young took the ba­ton from for­mer MP Pa­tri­cia Mcin­tosh in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) strong­hold. At the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions, he re­ceived over 80 per cent of votes, en­sur­ing the par­ty’s grip on the seat.

In Bel­mont yes­ter­day, res­i­dent Lawrence Al­leyne said Young’s ex­pe­ri­ence po­si­tioned him as a front-run­ner for the post.

“Stu­art Young has been well taught, and he is a peo­ple per­son. As an MP, he has done a good job in meet­ing with the peo­ple.”

In the St Ann’s West area, how­ev­er, some con­stituents ex­pressed cau­tious op­ti­mism over the de­vel­op­ment.

An­tho­ny Con­stan­tine, 66, said he was con­fi­dent that Young pos­sessed what it took to lead the coun­try.

“He have the knowl­edge and he fol­lows in a step that re­al­ly and tru­ly, he might be a bit rough but trust me, he know how to get things done. We have to wait and see but I al­so would like to see him stay as MP.”

But some be­lieved Young’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion had shaped their ex­pec­ta­tions of him as a leader.

“He didn’t rep­re­sent us when he was there, how he go have the time now to rep­re­sent, as he go be the prime min­is­ter? It ain’t go be any bet­ter for us as far as I see, it go be worse I feel.”

An­oth­er ven­dor in the Cas­cade area said she was not con­fi­dent in Young’s abil­i­ty to unite the par­ty and get the sup­port to make mean­ing­ful change as prime min­is­ter.

Robert Harp­er, who is among the con­stituents to have had Young’s ear for the last ten years, now has a clear mes­sage for Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s suc­ces­sor.

“Be bold and be will­ing to do some­thing dif­fer­ent to try and get what­ev­er we need done in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Old peo­ple have a thing about square pegs in round holes that is a con­tin­u­ous plague with us po­lit­i­cal­ly. So be bold and dif­fer­ent to try some­thing dif­fer­ent. Na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty is a ma­jor is­sue that should al­so fea­ture high­ly in his things to ad­dress.”

Com­ment­ing on the sce­nario, mean­while, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Derek Ram­samooj said the de­vel­op­ment can dis­rupt the coun­try’s lega­cy of trib­al pol­i­tics.

“Per­haps it’s about time that we need to change the dy­nam­ic of our pol­i­tics be­yond tra­di­tion­al eth­nic vot­ing to that of vot­ing where you can de­liv­er bet­ter ser­vices.”

Ram­samooj al­so not­ed that eyes will be fo­cused on whether Young will able to bridge the gen­er­a­tional gaps with­in the PNM and ap­peal to the younger elec­torate.

“We must be aware that there is a phe­nom­e­nal lev­el of young vot­ers in our so­ci­ety and we need lead­er­ship that can at­tract them to the tra­di­tion­al vot­ing pat­terns. We are at a cross­roads when it comes to na­tion­al lead­er­ship. Lead­ers must now be able to re­late to the Gen Z vot­ers and first-time vot­ers in ad­di­tion to the tra­di­tion­al par­ty sup­port­er,” Ram­samooj said.