DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) MPs have ex­pressed un­wa­ver­ing sup­port for Stu­art Young to suc­ceed Dr Kei­th Row­ley as prime min­is­ter once he steps down.

Their de­c­la­ra­tions came yes­ter­day, just two days af­ter the par­ty an­nounced that Young had se­cured the en­dorse­ment of all 21 MPs fol­low­ing Sat­ur­day’s gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing, a de­ci­sion the PNM in­sists had been set­tled since Jan­u­ary 9.

Asked to ad­dress spec­u­la­tion from the Op­po­si­tion re­gard­ing his body lan­guage on Sat­ur­day — which some sug­gest­ed hint­ed that his sup­port for Young, al­so the PNM chair­man, was a po­lit­i­cal gim­mick —, PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings said, “What?”

Pressed fur­ther, he quipped, “You see this smile?”

When asked if he was con­tent with the de­ci­sion be­fore walk­ing in­to the Red House, he added, “Ex­treme­ly sat­is­fied.”

The sen­ti­ment was echoed by oth­er PNM MPs.

St Joseph MP Ter­rence Deyals­ingh said, “The is­sue of my per­son­al sup­port for Min­is­ter Young was nev­er in doubt. We just want­ed a par­tic­u­lar process to be fol­lowed. The process was fol­lowed, the par­ty is hap­py, my con­stituen­cy is hap­py, and we are mov­ing for­ward.”

To­co/San­gre Grande MP Roger Munroe said, “I am 100 per cent be­hind my col­league, the Ho­n­ourable Stu­art Young. I back him as the next Prime Min­is­ter to be and he has my full sup­port; he has the oth­er mem­bers of the House’s full sup­port. We are go­ing to def­i­nite­ly go in­to the gen­er­al elec­tion with Stu­art Young as our prime min­is­ter and we would def­i­nite­ly be the next gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Laven­tille East/Mor­vant MP Adri­an Leonce said, “Even though there may have been some, let’s say, slight bumps... I’m proud that we can al­ways pre­vail and show the coun­try that there is sta­bil­i­ty, uni­ty, and trust among us.”

St Ann’s East MP Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said, “Well, I am very hap­py that the PNM has been able to make this tran­si­tion. When faced with ex­tra­or­di­nary chal­lenges, we rise to the oc­ca­sion.”

Laven­tille West MP Fitzger­ald Hinds was less forth­right, say­ing, “I urge you to be pa­tient. All will be well...”

De­spite the op­ti­mism with­in the PNM, the op­po­si­tion re­mains un­con­vinced.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) deputy leader David Lee crit­i­cised the de­ci­sion, point­ing to the MPs’ body lan­guage dur­ing in­ter­views.

“The body lan­guage says it all, right in that in­ter­view. So, I ask you to look at that body lan­guage when the two were be­ing in­ter­viewed on Sat­ur­day evening,” Lee said.

“It tells me that noth­ing has been solved. No, Stu­art Young tak­ing over is just a younger ver­sion of Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley, in my hum­ble view. One must re­mem­ber that Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley called him his Gar­ry Sobers. So, what do you ex­pect go­ing fur­ther? He’s just a younger ver­sion, in my view, and might be of a dif­fer­ent race. I wouldn’t say it’s an ad­van­tage or dis­ad­van­tage. Stu­art Young is no dif­fer­ent from Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley. Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley has to give Stu­art Young a sweat.”

This view was echoed by Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray.

“They could put any­body there. I mean, it’s just shuf­fling around the same deck. Min­is­ter Young be­ing the prime min­is­ter in an­oth­er cou­ple months’ time, he can­not ab­solve him­self from the fail­ure of his en­tire Cab­i­net.”

Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, brand­ed one of the five UNC, ‘dis­si­dents’, gave his bless­ing.

“I would want to wish him well, that at the end of the day he serves well, he leads well. And I think his ini­tial mes­sage is one that res­onates with me - one of uni­ty, let us unite to build this coun­try. That be­ing said, I have not lost fo­cus in that he will now be held to the high­est stan­dards of ac­count­abil­i­ty. So, as an op­po­si­tion MP, what­ev­er I have di­rect­ed at Dr Kei­th Christo­pher Row­ley, is go­ing to be dou­ble fold against my good part­ner and friend and col­league in the le­gal pro­fes­sion, Min­is­ter Young.”

An­oth­er “dis­si­dent” MP, Rush­ton Paray said: “Oh, I mean he’s a de­cent hard-work­ing gen­tle­man. I wish him all the best.”

Sup­port for Browne

in Diego West

Mean­while, fol­low­ing re­ports that Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne is in­ter­est­ed in rep­re­sent­ing Diego Mar­tin West, there has been strong sup­port across the po­lit­i­cal di­vide.

PNM MP Mon­roe said he would sup­port Dr Browne if he’s cho­sen.

“Oh, ex­cel­lent de­ci­sion by an­oth­er one of my es­teemed col­leagues. I must say that I would al­so pledge my full sup­port once he’s se­lect­ed for the Diego Mar­tin West seat. I know it may be a big shoe to fill but I am sure he is very ca­pa­ble to do such.”

Dr Gads­by-Dol­ly added that Browne was “an old hat” and ex­pressed sup­port for all in­ter­est­ed par­ties.

“I think there will be a lot of con­test for that seat and I am wish­ing all who have put their hats in the ring the best.”

St Joseph MP Deyals­ingh said Browne’s in­ter­est demon­strates democ­ra­cy at work in the PNM, while MP Leonce said it is in line with the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion.