The South Caribbean Community nation of Trinidad and Tobago took clear steps at the weekend to begin a new political era. In the coming weeks, a Trinidadian of Chinese ancestry will succeed retiring Prime Minister Keith Rowley as head of government.
An emergency general council meeting of the governing People’s National Movement (PNM) at the weekend decided to unanimously support attorney and Minister of Energy Stuart Young, 48, to replace Rowley, 75, when he officially steps down sometime in March after the upcoming regional leaders meeting in Barbados in late February and after he mops up a few more chores.
Since last year, Tobago-born Rowley has been signaling that he has had enough of public life, having started out 45 years ago. He said the time had come to hand over to a new generation. He favored Young over Youth Minister and PNM Secretary General Foster Cummings, Penny Beckles of planning, Colm Imbert of finance, and Faris Al Rawi of local government.
Having told the population several times that he was quitting, Rowley then started the process of appointing Young to act for him whenever he was on business overseas or on vacation, signaling to the population that Young was the man to not only be the first Chinese prime minister but also likely to be the first of his ancestry to lead to the Afro-dominated (PNM).
At the weekend, the PNM’s second-highest body fully endorsed Young to succeed Rowley, with all 21 lawmakers deciding to give him the nod. Young narrowly beat party fundamentalist Beckles at a cabinet retreat and voted last week but won the full support of the second-highest party forum, paving the way for him to replace Rowley in the coming weeks.
As the political dust settles from a week of tension associated with who would have succeeded Rowley, Local Government Minister Faris Al Rawi might have best summed up the new political dispensation when he noted the commencement of a new era in PNM and local politics in general.
“Today, the PNM has broken the racial glass ceiling. We have broken a huge glass ceiling in this country that people said the PNM could never do. I’m warmed and thrilled about that. It is not how I feel you know, it’s about how Trinidad and Tobago is about to feel with team PNM. I have the support. Watch and see what team PNM is about to deliver,” Rawi told reporters.
His assessment of the situation is vital to the South Caribbean, as electoral voting in Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname is usually done along strict racial lines, with Blacks and Indians voting for political parties led by people who look like them. This time, the PNM will be shepherded by a leader of Chinese descent as it prepares to begin campaigning for a third consecutive term against the Indo-led main opposition, the United National Congress (UNC).
Speaking after his impending coronation, Young said he would be focusing on uniting the party and preparing it to keep the UNC in opposition.
“Importantly, my message is one of unity and unification. I have been in very good dialogue, particularly with my colleagues, Minister Foster Cummings (general secretary), and many of my other colleagues, and what you are seeing here this evening at Balisier House is what you would expect to see from the People’s National Movement. This evening, at Balisier House, the general secretary and myself, are pleased to tell Trinidad and Tobago what you are going to be seeing is the roll-out of Team PNM going to the population as a unified party.”
The twin islands have been wracked by runaway violent crime in the last two decades. Police last year recorded 625 murders compared to 577 in 2022. A series of mass murders, mainly in the city, led to the cabinet instituting a state of emergency in recent weeks. However, the killing spree blamed chiefly on armed gangsters, has continued unabated. The emergency measures, the third since an attempted coup in 1990, come this time without a day or night curfew as authorities fear it will severely hamper commercial activities for entities now recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
