Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Mem­bers of the for­mer Patrick Man­ning Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion - in­clud­ing cur­rent PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley - who had served with for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, have dis­missed his as­so­ci­a­tion with and en­dorse­ment of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).

Je­re­mie was a sur­prise guest speak­er last night on UNC's plat­form at Bhups­ingh Park, Pe­nal, host­ed by Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, now in­creas­ing­ly hailed as the "in­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter," ahead of the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Je­re­mie told the UNC au­di­ence - among his main points - that he was a child of the PNM, un­der­stood that it is frowned up­on to change sides in T&T's cul­ture and is ful­ly aware of how he can be harmed for this, "and I stand to gain noth­ing for my­self."

How­ev­er, Je­re­mie, who served in the Man­ning gov­ern­ments from 2003-2007 and 2009-2010, said he is a pa­tri­ot, knew Per­sad-Bisses­sar for over 30 years and slammed the "race talk," which he said came from PNM's plat­form re­cent­ly. Je­re­mie al­so said T&T is in cri­sis, peo­ple were not bet­ter off now than 10 years ago and urged peo­ple to vote for change and the UNC.

Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, who gave an im­pas­sioned state­ment at the PNM's La Hor­quet­ta meet­ing last night, where he bit­ter­ly at­tacked the UNC - didn't re­ply to Guardian Me­dia queries on his view on Je­re­mie switch­ing al­le­giance.

How­ev­er, PNM leader Row­ley, who had served with Je­re­mie in the Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion, said via What­sApp, "I have five dogs and I'm handy with a shov­el so John Je­re­mie does not faze me or the PNM."

Min­is­ter in the Prime Min­is­ter's Of­fice Fitzger­ald Hinds said, "Hell hath no fury as a politi­cian who had an un­jus­ti­fied sense of en­ti­tle­ment and feels de­nied of it.

"This does not anger me; it sick­ens me and makes me piti­ful of the likes of him and the St Joseph ex-priest. It re­minds me of Mar­i­ano and the fu­ner­al gate-crash­er. It makes you won­der how PNM and prin­ci­pled these PNM late-starters re­al­ly were."

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne said, "It's a sur­pris­ing de­ci­sion on his (Je­re­mie's) part, but we are blessed to live in a democ­ra­cy in which in­di­vid­u­als are free to make their own po­lit­i­cal de­ter­mi­na­tions.

"I'm not go­ing to do like those in an­oth­er par­ty who spew the low­est bile and ven­om at those with whom they have po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences. As al­ways, I sin­cere­ly wish John Je­re­mie and his fam­i­ly the very best."

PNM Min­is­ters Pen­ny Beck­les and Paula-Gopee Scoon, who'd al­so served with Je­re­mie in the Man­ning Gov­ern­ment, didn't re­ply and had no com­ment re­spec­tive­ly.

Je­re­mie was the sec­ond for­mer min­is­ter from the Man­ning PNM gov­ern­ment to take the UNC podi­um in re­cent weeks to en­dorse Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her par­ty. For­mer min­is­ter of pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion Kennedy Swarats­ingh al­so en­dorsed Per­sad-Bisses­sar two weeks ago dur­ing a meet­ing in St Joseph and was al­so at last night's meet­ing.