PNM sources tip Stuart, Foster as top contenders to replace Rowley

The frontrunner for the post of political leader of the PNM is the multi-hyphenate politician, Energy Minister Stuart Young, often dubbed the Minister of Everything.

Dr Rowley described Young as his “Gary Sobers”, the legendary West Indian cricket all-rounder- and apart from his major portfolios over the years and his acting ones, he’s been a Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister. In December 2022, Young was also elected chairman of the PNM.

But party sources, say Young’s competition is Foster Cummings, the Minister of Youth Development and National Service and the General Secretary of the PNM. Cummings was only given a full portfolio in Rowley’s second term in office but actively built his profile among the youth population in the party and on social media. He is widely popular with the party’s base having been a member of the PNM for 35 years, compared to Young’s 10 and a half years.

However, Young holds the distinction that besides Finance Minister Colm Imbert, he has acted as Prime Minister on the last two occasions Rowley has been away.

Both Young and Cummings’ approaches to office and governance have been widely different. While Young is seen as combative in his defence of the Government, the PNM and Rowley- (a trait which has led commentators to compare him to Rowley), Cummings’ approach has been more measured. He has never courted controversy or commented on controversial matters even when he was the subject of them.

In the past two years, while Young has been negotiating energy contracts globally to earn and maintain a revenue stream to fund the country’s expenses, Cummings has been working with the young people of the country to skill them up and give them opportunities for self-improvement and entrepreneurship.

Both have national audiences but speak to them differently- while Young has grabbed newspaper headlines for positives and negatives, Cummings has engaged social media by doing his workout sessions or other social trends.

Both Young and Cummings have weathered their fair share of controversy.

In Young’s case, there have been several calls for him to resign. In May 2019, the Opposition called for Young’s firing after there were 206 murders during his first 147 days as minister, he was criticised by citizens for the border closure during Covid-19. In May 2020, Young faced resignation calls from the Opposition over his handling of the March visit of Venezuela’s Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and last week, political analysts again called for his head over crass remarks levelled at Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar in the House.

Last Friday, Young apologised to the public as well as the House and was not sent to the Privileges Committee.

“It is undeniable that some of the tasks were difficult ones that would have attracted criticism, both warranted and unwarranted, I am always willing to listen and to improve. I am certain that everything I have done was done with the highest level of integrity and with an acknowledgement of the responsibility that I have to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” he had told Guardian Media in an interview published on September 15.

In Cummings’ case, his ministerial appointment was hit with a scandal that he was prevented from doing his Masters at the University of the West Indies because of plagiarism. In a statement, he said a mistake was made and a lesson was learnt.

“The cycle of resilience—mistake made, lessons learnt, future success accomplished—is the principle I hold out to every young person as an invaluable life asset, critical for personal development and advancement. Don’t let your mistakes win; learn your lessons and move on up with humility and persistence,” he said at the time.

While in office, he has been under police investigation and Guardian Media could not get an update up to late yesterday evening on the status of the matter.

In May 2022, Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial, at a political meeting, revealed the contents of the report, which then acting police commissioner Mc Donald Jacob later said was an authentic report-it claimed that Cummings’ contracts with the HDC were used to “conducted unscrupulous business”. In May 2023, in a letter to Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher dated May 3, Cummings’ attorneys-led by Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, asked that the TTPS publicly clear Cummings’ name and acknowledged that Special Branch (SB) report was authentic and addressed each issue raised therein.

In October 2021, police applied for production orders for information from several financial entities as they probed payments to companies formerly linked to the minister. Cummings’s attorneys objected to the police’s application and suspended the production orders.

In an interview in May 2022, Jacob said the FIB was continuing its investigations. At a media briefing a month later acting Snr Supt assigned to the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (ACIB) Deryck Walker said investigations into Cummings can take “from a day to ten years” depending on what was unearthed.

In July 2021, attorneys Asha Watkins-Montserin and Keisha Kydd-Hannibal, who have been representing Cummings, in a media release denied their client was being investigated. At the time they were responding to rumours that the home of a government minister was searched by police.

Days after Lutchmedial spoke about the document, Cummings and his family received counselling, according to his attorneys in their pre-action protocol letter. Cummings also claimed he provided all of the “evidentiary facts” to Rowley after the claims were made.

Asked about it at a media conference a week later, Rowley said Special Branch reports should be taken with a bit of salt. He said while he was not defending the general secretary of the People’s National Movement, he was provided information that contradicted the claims in the report, and it was up to the police to investigate the claims and produce the evidence to support it.

In an interview with Guardian Media on June 28 at Balisier House, Cummings was asked about the allegations and his controversial decision to sue the state over the leaked Special Branch Report. He said his rights were “infringed”.

Asked about being a political leader?

“What I can tell you if there is no vacancy. We will see,” he said.

PNM’s history with

succession planning

Party sources said that Rowley’s indecision has led to speculation which is causing uneasiness in the party as both Young and Cummings have factions of support.

Foreign Affairs Minister Amery Browne, told Guardian Media that he believed the recent public comments of the Prime Minister were not intended to trigger any assumptions or any type of power struggle.

“Given my tenure and experience in national politics and in the People’s National Movement, I have come to recognise the dangers of vaulting ambition and the hubris that accompanies it. Such hubris can affect others negatively and lead to unforced errors and to the formation of camps and division in circumstances where the nation needs healing and not more toxicity and strife.

“The PNM has a constitution, protocols, and procedures that have given the party great stability over many years. And in the end, God’s will shall always supercede the best of plans and agendas,” he said.

One of the party’s founding members Ferdinand Ferreira shared the history behind the PNM’s three political leaders-the late Dr Eric Williams, George Chambers and Patrick Manning-who never saw it fit to identify a successor.

The author of two books, Ferreira, 92, said Rowley is the only PNM leader to signal Young as his possible replacement, stating this was an extraordinary move.

“That is unprecedented in the history of the PNM. None of our leaders have ever clearly identified with any successor. Now signals are emerging of the political leader who happens to be the Prime Minister…he has identified somebody who he thinks should succeed him,” Ferreira, told Guardian Media during an interview last Wednesday.

The bottom line is, Ferreira said, Rowley has sent a clear signal of choice in his affinity and praise of Young.

At the PNM’s party conferences held in July and August, the PM expressed confidence in the crop of young people he brought into the electoral fold for the party.

Ferreira said the PNM “has had a checkered history, in terms of succession of leadership” with Williams, Chambers and Manning failing to identify a successor.

“Leave it to Dr Williams alone he would have certainly not selected Chambers… leave it to Chambers he would not have selected Manning… leave it to Manning he would not have selected Rowley.”

Under Williams’ leadership, he hand-picked three deputies, Kamaluddin Mohammed, Errol Mahabir and Chambers.

“But he never indicated whom he favoured to take over the party,” Ferreira recalled.

Ferreira said the population has to remember that Rowley is still the party’s leader and may carry the PNM into the 2025 general election.

“What he is up to we are not too sure. He has not said he is leaving. So who is supporting who at the moment is pure speculation? We don’t know if he (Rowley) is going…because Stuart Young came out openly and said Dr Rowley will lead us in the next election.”

Cummings, the party’s general secretary and Minister of Youth Development and National Service said the same thing.

The bigger question one has to ask, Ferreira said, is if Rowley will accept the nomination for the leadership post.

Former Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Singh said the PNM was groping in the dark with its leadership challenges.

A former longtime member of the PNM, Lee Sing said the party must be cautious in putting someone to lead who has questions to answer.

He said the PNM does not have much stock to choose from within the party.

“The calibre of Rowley’s Cabinet is less than mediocre.”

Lee Sing said the party may have to look beyond the current batch of MPs for a successor.

His personal choice to lead the PNM was former public utilities minister Robert Le Hunte, while Rowley continued to be PM to manage the country’s affairs.

Other contenders in the race

Terrence Beepath, the party’s field officer said anyone interested in running for the party’s leadership can do so as their constitution is clear: “As it is right now there is no (fight for the) leadership because Dr Rowley is there until 2026…constitutionally.”

Beepath said Rowley’s swan song was a probable indication that he may not contest the 2026 leadership post.

Beepath said the PM has indicated that he wants to spend more time with his family seeing that his wife Sharon has retired.

“But certainly he is going to be there to see us through the next election in 2025. After which he would probably look at retirement because he has been hinting that in the public domain.”

While there is speculation that Young is being groomed to take over the PNM and Cummings is being supported by the Black Caucus, Beepath said we should not cast aside Beckles since she challenged Rowley in 2018 for the leadership post.

“I am not sure she is dead as yet…I am sure she may very well put her hat in the ring. We also have Faris Al-Rawi who is also a person who might show interest. I am sure it would not be one person… it would be several.”

Beepath said it was no secret that Young was a “confidante” of the Prime Minister.

While Young may be viewed as a newcomer to the political arena, Beepath said, he has his strengths.

“George Chambers was one nobody predicted…even Mr Manning. Nobody predicted he would have been the leader, you see.”

Questioned if there was a rift in the party regarding talk of a successor, Beepath said there was no such thing.

Beepath also dismissed rumours that Rowley’s health has been sinking.

“He does not seem sick. He is very strong. He’s stronger than me.”

Anthony Roberts who served as the 2022 chairman of the PNM’s Election Supervisory Committee said it was too early to tell who would vie for the leadership post.

“But when that time comes the party will choose. Dr Rowley said he would move on at some time, as everybody else in position would. I was the longest-serving chairman of any corporation in the country. Now I am not because you have to move on at some time.”

PNM member and former Arima mayor and MP Ashton Ford said the choice of a political leader was months away.

“I don’t see it as an immediate issue.”

Ford opted not to say who has the potential to succeed Rowley.

Asked if there have been squabbles in the PNM, Ford said the party continues to stand strong and united.

“There would always be disagreements but there is no rift.”

Former education minister and Arima MP Anthony Garcia, an adviser in Cummings’ ministry said he never thought of Cummings vying for the post of political leader nor discussed the matter with him.

“I prefer not to comment at this stage.”

The Sunday Guardian WhatsApped questions to Cummings, the party’s PRO Faris Al-Rawi, Camille Robinson-Regis (lady vice chairman) and vice-chairman Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly but received no response.

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