PNM faces another leadership question

It’s easy for the reporting and opinion media to get caught up in the ruling People’s National Movement’s electioneering around a possible early poll call by its political leader and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, and indeed whether he intends to stay on or anoint a choice.

Or is all of the believed-to-be signals of PM Rowley in the Parliament that he is leaving town to enjoy family life and farming in Tobago “ah set ah mamaguy,” setting “lagley” to catch those with ambitions to power, and even to rattle the Opposition Leader and her troops so that they waste their political powder on making preparations for an early election?

Such political game-playing was established as a relevant and legitimate tactic by PNM founder Dr Eric Williams, when he waved goodbye at a convention in 1973 to induce none other than one of his deputies, Karl Hudson-Phillips, to show his hand prematurely. That effectively was the start of the political demise of Hudson-Phillips, as Dr Williams never intended to leave Balisier House.

Is it that Rowley is now desirous of having MP Stuart Young succeed him but is getting resistance from within the party and therefore he is provoking reaction as a sounding board over “who to put?”

Maybe he is even seeking, as suggested above, to scare Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her hierarchy into believing the election is close and so get them all agitated and, in the process, commit too early to an election strategy that will grow stale? Maybe it is a combination of all possibilities.

As the reporting suggests, MP Young, who has survived his degrading mauvais langue in parliamentary cross-talk, and the seemingly fast-rising Foster Cummings are the front runners. Political leader Rowley has made it obvious that Young is his choice. He has placed him in critical ministries in the Office of the PM, gave him a stint in national security, but quickly removed him from getting badly damaged in that no-win situation, and has appointed him Energy Minister, the action point of the economy. Most recently, PM Rowley showed his hand by having Minister Young, the PNM’s chairman, act as prime minister when he left the country.

However, the question has arisen as to whether Minister Young will be accepted by the broad PNM membership, which is overwhelmingly Afro-based while Young is predominantly of Chinese ancestry. That is a reality which cannot be wished away.

On the other hand, while MP Cummings fits the bill of long membership within the PNM and is of the right ethnic and social group that is for the comfort of the party membership, he has not had anything like a distinguished career as minister; nor has he been outstanding as a party representative in his critical seat.

Does the above conundrum leave the door open for one of such outriders as Planning Minister Pennelope Beckles-Robinson or Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne to slip into position amidst the wrangle between the two favourites?

The little fancied George Chambers was eventually given leadership over deputy political leaders Kamaluddin Mohammed and Errol Mahabir at the passing of PM Williams in 1981. On this occasion, however, it will not fall to the President of the Republic to make the call if there is indecision within the ruling party, hierarchy and general membership.

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