Cabinet Ministers are well placed to be members of the People’s National Movement’s executive, as they are the ones who’ll have to make the decisions after listening to what party members want.
This was the word from PNM chairmanship candidate Stuart Young (Energy Minister), who has defended the decision of several ministers to contest executive posts in PNM’s internal election.
He did so at Wednesday night’s launch of Dr Keith Rowley’s Leaders in Service slate of candidates at the Belmont Community Centre. Rowley’s slate is contesting the November 26/27 and December 4 internal election against 23 opponents.
Young said, “I’ve heard a lot of ole talk that you shouldn’t have Cabinet members on the leadership. We are your Government, we are a PNM Government, we come to General Council to listen to our membership tell us what needs to be done.
“If you have the powerful members of Cabinet sitting in your leadership as the PNM leadership, who you think’s going to make the decisions after we come down on the ‘ground’ and listen to you all? And make the decisions how we’re going to engage with the communities.”
He added, “So don’t be fooled by those out there who have suddenly surfaced and claimed they have a PNM membership card under their shoe somewhere. And then those others who have suddenly risen because they like the idea of being a leader in the PNM leadership.
“One thing I’m certain of, having lived breathed, walked, slept with PNM for the last seven years exclusively and totally with you, is that the PNM membership isn’t stupid - you can’t fool PNM members, you can’t fool PNM!”
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, who is vying for vice chairman, said, ”You’ve seen the work ethic of Stuart Young, Faris Al-Rawi and myself, cooking in the ‘pressure cooker’. But how you get diamonds? By pressure! So, we’ve been raised as the diamonds in PNM created by you the people.”
Among Wednesday’s crowd was Minister in Finance Brian Manning, who’d withdrawn from the race for vice chairman. Yesterday, he confirmed that he fully supports San Fernando East chairman Patricia Alexis, who’s the LIS team’s candidate for assistant general secretary.
The LIS team yesterday issued notice that its candidate for social media officer (SMO) is Kwasi Robinson, and not a woman who’s also vying for the post.
After Wednesday’s meeting, where Robinson was presented as the candidate, a list of the team’s candidates was circulated showing the woman’s name for SMO instead of Robinson’s. The team’s deemed that “fake.”
They also noted another SMO candidate falsely circulated his name as being supported by “We the People” - the hashtag initially used by LIS candidates to promote their team prior to nomination.
PNM PRO Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing said, “The election’s generating a lot of excitement. Wednesday’s gathering, which filled Belmont Community Centre and was out in the yard, showed the high energy. But I question the motives of those who abandoned the party post-2010 and along the way up to the present and now are taking the opportunity to ride the PNM to fulfil maybe sinister political agendas and for personal aggrandizement. However, no one’s fooled. There’s only one group of Leaders in Service, to country, people and party.”
Lezama-Lee Sing rubbished claims of a race war in the election.
“There’s much false information out there from the ‘usual suspects’. But people know T&T’s a diverse country and the PNM reflects all. This is an internal election. All parties have this. But we in the PNM shouldn’t be judged by others’ ‘standards’.”