Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s de­ci­sion to ap­point En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young once again to act as Prime Min­is­ter, the third time in a row, leaves cit­i­zens to pon­der aloud on the po­lit­i­cal fu­ture of Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert.

Un­like Dr Row­ley, who gave his clear­est in­di­ca­tion in Par­lia­ment two weeks ago that he is prepar­ing to re­tire from ac­tive pol­i­tics, Mr Im­bert, who is 67, po­ten­tial­ly still has con­sid­er­able gas left in his prover­bial po­lit­i­cal tank.

But alas! He is now play­ing sec­ond fid­dle to Young, who is many years his ju­nior and is al­so ju­nior to him in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

Cur­rent­ly the longest-serv­ing mem­ber of par­lia­ment af­ter Dr Row­ley, Im­bert en­tered the House in 1991 and has giv­en 33 years of ser­vice as an MP.

He has served in some of the most se­nior roles in gov­ern­ment, as Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter un­der for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning be­fore he was giv­en the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance role by Dr Row­ley.

Tenure aside, Im­bert has been cred­it­ed for sta­bil­is­ing the econ­o­my amid dras­tic en­er­gy price drops that wiped away bil­lions of dol­lars in rev­enue when the PNM re­turned to of­fice in 2015.

But his hopes of lead­ing the PNM may nev­er be re­alised af­ter he and Dr Row­ley came up against each oth­er for par­ty lead­er­ship in 2010, fol­low­ing the de­ci­sion by Mr Man­ning, now de­ceased, to step down.

Im­bert even­tu­al­ly gave way to Dr Row­ley in the in­ter­est of peace and har­mo­ny with­in the par­ty.

Since then, Im­bert, who con­tin­ues to strug­gle with pub­lic dis­course and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, has not ap­peared, based on his pub­lic ut­ter­ances and pos­ture, as a se­ri­ous con­tender for the top post in the PNM, or, for that mat­ter, the prime min­is­ter­ship.

For in­stance, who could for­get his snick­er­ing to the pub­lic af­ter rais­ing gas prices twice in a row and sug­gest­ing he might raise prices again be­cause “they (the peo­ple) haven’t ri­ot­ed yet.”

Such com­ments through­out his tenure, and his very re­cent im­broglio with the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al over a ma­jor er­ror that em­anat­ed from his min­istry, may not have caused him to lose favour with his Prime Min­is­ter, but have cer­tain­ly left a bit­ter taste in the mouths of Trinida­di­ans whose sup­port or non-sup­port will ul­ti­mate­ly gauge where he falls with­in the ranks of those pre­ferred to take the par­ty and the coun­try for­ward.

Amid all the de­bate on whether Young is his cho­sen one, Dr Row­ley was of­fered a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty this week to once again el­e­vate Im­bert to the role of act­ing prime min­is­ter, a po­si­tion he en­joyed un­til a few months ago.

But even with Young still reel­ing with em­bar­rass­ment over the broad­cast of deroga­to­ry “off-mic” re­marks in the Par­lia­ment that were not in­tend­ed for pub­lic con­sump­tion, Im­bert was still over­looked, leav­ing us to sur­mise that his reign is over and that not on­ly is he not Dr Row­ley’s pick for par­ty leader once he re­tires, but al­so that Im­bert’s days in pol­i­tics could al­so be num­bered.

The de­ci­sion by Dr Row­ley to phase out Im­bert’s act­ing ap­point­ments as prime min­is­ter sug­gests that he too may have run his course. But has he re­al­ly? Or will Im­bert pull an 11th-hour po­lit­i­cal sur­prise?

Time will cer­tain­ly tell! Time will cer­tain­ly tell!