PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, – The chairman of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), Stuart Young, Sunday called for supporters to ensure the party’s victory at the next general election, as outgoing Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, expressed total satisfaction with the transition of power and his nine and a half years in office.
“In the next few hours change will take place, Trinidad and Tobago and I stand here today, and I give the commitment, not only to my party, who I will fight for, I will die for, I will be in the front line for, and I give the commitment to all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago that I will represent all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,” Young, the Energy and Energy Industries Minister, who on Monday, will become the eighth prime minister of this oil-rich twin island Republic.
He told a special convention of the PNM at Woodford Square in the heart of the capital, where the 41 candidates to contest the next general elections were presented, that he is prepared for the fight ahead and was urging everyone to get on board.
“PNM family, I have come here this afternoon, not only to pledge to continue fighting for our country…but it is important that you understand who is joining this battle now,” said the 50-year-old Senior Counsel, who traced the events leading to his membership of the party.
Young, will become the second youngest prime minister in this country as well as the leader of the PNM, following its founder, the late Dr. Eric Williams, who formed the PNM when he was 51 years old.
“I am doing work on your behalf. I am fighting for Trinidad and Tobago on your behalf,” he told the supporters recalling that in 2010, PNM voters stayed home and allowed the United National Congress (UNC) led People’s Partnership government led by Kamla Persad Bissessar to be victorious.
“You know what was the first thing they did, they fired me from every single state brief I had. I worked for myself. So I know first-hand what the UNC does to the PNM members and anybody else associated with it.
“So I am warning you here this afternoon, do not allow them anywhere near office as we go forward,” Young said, recalling that he had become a full PNM member in 2014.
“I have been fighting for the People’s National Movement and Trinidad and Tobago ever since and I thank each and every one of you for giving me that honour, that opportunity to represent Trinidad and Tobago…”
Young, who is expected to name a new cabinet after he is sworn into office on Monday by President Christine Kangaloo, said “ I want us, Trinidad and Tobago to be unified.
“I want us to come together, I want us to fulfil our National Anthem where every creed and every race can find an equal place,” he said, adding that he intends paying greater attention to the young people of the country.
Young, who has until November to call a fresh general election here, even as political observers say, it may come as early as April, said in the coming weeks he would be outlining some of his new policies going forward.
“I want to thank everyone who will be joining this battle as we go forward to see a strong united PNM is unbeatable. So here today in Woodford Square, I am calling on our party, to get together, stand with strength, let us be unified, let us go forth, we will deliver victory, because we need to continue looking after all the people of Trinidad and Tobago”.
The PNM presented its candidates for the elections, and it is the first time that Prime Minister Rowley, who has represented the Diego Martin west seat since 1991, has not been included.
Rowley told the convention that while he was bowing out of active politics after 45 years of public service, he would continue to be a cheerleader for the party.
“Thank you PNM, thank you Trinidad and Tobago…public service is honourable, public service is useful, public service is important and I have had the opportunity to serve the people of Trinidad and Tobago for a very long time and for that, I say thank you,” Rowley said.
He said despite all the criticism levied at his administration, never once did the opposition file a motion of no confidence against him or his administration.
“You heard for the last nine and a half years, during the tenure of the Keith Rowley-led PNM administration, I leave tonight at midnight having never faced a vote of no confidence by any opposition in Trinidad and Tobago.
“And all you have to ask yourself if things were so bad as they were saying then why weren’t you doing your job and filing at least one vote of no confidence. I could tell you when I was opposition leader…the record in Parliament will show the number of times I have come to the Parliament and explained to the population how detrimental the government was to the public interest by way of a vote of no confidence, not once, but many times,” he added.
Rowley, 75, not only was there no vote of confidence against his administration, “there was never a single incident during our term where anybody was shown to have had a job with false papers.
“There was never a sex scandal in my government,” he said, adding that none of his ministers have been the subject of a police investigation.
Rowley said he was also pleased that his government’s policies had prevented Trinidad and Tobago going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for economic relief and assistance and that during the coronavirus (COVID-9) pandemic, not a single public servant had been dismissed.
But he said he was disappointed that race had become a significant issue in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago, adding “tonight as I leave this job, I am tremendously proud of the cabinet that I brought forward, that I managed and for the screening committee of the PNM, I am proud of the candidates you have selected to represent all the people of Trinidad and Tobago”.
Rowley said that the opposition had also engaged in castigating people, making reference to the decision of Attorney General, Reginal Armour, who is leaving the government to take up an appointment with the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court as a judge.
“ You would have seen in the papers today that the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago has been selected by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Justice …to be one of their appeal judges. You would think that all of our citizens would be proud to know that one of our citizens…has got that distinction, that selection…but you know what the opposition position is, that it is a disgrace and they start to denigrate the man,” Rowley said, thanking Armour for his three years service.
“Thank God the judges and the population of the Eastern Caribbean are not like the UNC, their leader and their leadership,” Rowley added.
Rowley also brushed aside the position of the opposition party that it would challenge in the courts the appointment of Stuart on Monday as the new prime minister.
“She said they carrying us to court on Monday. I want you to give her (Persad Bissessar) one message for me when you see her. Before you go to the courthouse on Monday with anymore of your adventures, make arrangements to pay the PNM for the millions (One TT dollar=US$01.6 cents) you owe us for the last time you carried us in the court in the 2015 election.
“Since 2016, they carry us to court for the election victory when we beat them and they did not want to accept the results. So I have no problem if she goes there again, but they don’t pay. They do not pay when they lose,” Rowley told supporters.
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