Asha Javeed

Patrick Man­ning is a polem­i­cal po­lit­i­cal fig­ure. He in­spires emo­tions-be it the "good rid­dance" type of late or the re­spect earned af­ter a life­time of pub­lic ser­vice. Man­ning, mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for San Fer­nan­do East and for­mer po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) be­gan his ca­reer at 24 and is this coun­try's longest serv­ing Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment. Nur­tured un­der the tute­lage of Dr Er­ic Williams, Man­ning grew from MP to Fi­nance Min­is­ter to En­er­gy Min­is­ter and served two tenures as Op­po­si­tion Leader, as well as Prime Min­is­ter. He can tell the sto­ry of this coun­try's in­de­pen­dence and how it came to be al­most 50 years lat­er-as he did dur­ing his cam­paign­ing of the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion. Pro­fes­sor Ken­neth Julien agreed that pol­i­tics was his life.

Julien told the T&T Guardian that he'd once giv­en a speech to some stu­dents at a func­tion in which Man­ning (then PM) was present. Julien told the stu­dents his most re­ward­ing and most sat­is­fac­to­ry job has been that of a teacher as he had the abil­i­ty to shape young peo­ple's minds. "He (Man­ning) then spoke af­ter me and he dis­agreed," he said. "He told the stu­dents that the most re­ward­ing job was be­ing a politi­cian as you get to shape the growth of a na­tion....So you can say pol­i­tics is his life," said Julien. Julien ob­served that he shared a cor­dial re­la­tion­ship with Man­ning. "It was al­ways Prime Min­is­ter and Pro­fes­sor," he said. "De­spite what peo­ple may say, he lis­tens to what peo­ple have to say."

If Julien saw the vi­sion­ary in Man­ning, for­mer per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter San­dra Mar­chack saw the hours he de­vot­ed to his Prime Min­is­ter's job. Mar­chack, who worked with him for more than six years, viewed Man­ning with­out his po­lit­i­cal cloak. "We nev­er dis­cussed pol­i­tics...He was sim­ply my boss," she said. "I have a joke I make with some friends that one day I'll have to write a pa­per on the 'Patrick Man­ning I know.' He's so dif­fer­ent from what the news­pa­pers have made him out to be," she told the T&T Guardian. Mar­chack said Man­ning was a "worka­holic," "a great boss," and a "kind-heart­ed gen­tle­man."

Facts

He served 3 terms as PM

Patrick Au­gus­tus Mervyn Man­ning, born in San Fer­nan­do on Au­gust 17, 1946, was the fourth and sixth Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go, as well as the for­mer po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM). He re­ceived his sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion at Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, and got his Bach­e­lor's De­gree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Mona, Ja­maica, in 1969. Af­ter grad­u­a­tion he re­turned to Trinidad where he worked as a ge­ol­o­gist for Tex­a­co un­til he ran for Par­lia­ment in 1971 and won the San Fer­nan­do East seat. Be­tween 1971 and 1978 Man­ning served as par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in var­i­ous min­istries be­fore be­ing ap­point­ed ju­nior min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance.

In 1979 he was giv­en the ad­di­tion­al po­si­tion of ju­nior min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter. In 1981 he got a full Cab­i­net po­si­tion as Min­is­ter of In­for­ma­tion and Min­is­ter of In­dus­try and Com­merce. Be­tween 1981 and 1986 he served as Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and Nat­ur­al Re­sources. In the 1986 gen­er­al elec­tion the rul­ing PNM suf­fered an al­most to­tal de­feat. On­ly three can­di­dates won their seats. Then Prime Min­is­ter George Cham­bers was among the los­ing can­di­dates.

As one of the three suc­cess­ful PNM can­di­dates, he was ap­point­ed Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. In 1987 he was elect­ed po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM. A split in the rul­ing Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion in 1988 left the PNM as the mi­nor­i­ty Op­po­si­tion par­ty and in 1990 Bas­deo Pan­day re­quest­ed he be ap­point­ed Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. Man­ning served his first term as Prime Min­is­ter from De­cem­ber 17, 1991, to No­vem­ber 9, 1995. In 1995, he called a gen­er­al elec­tion one year be­fore it was con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due. The PNM and the UNC won 17 seats each and the NAR won two seats.

The UNC and the NAR unit­ed in a coali­tion and formed the gov­ern­ment and Bas­deo Pan­day re­placed Man­ning as Prime Min­is­ter. Man­ning served as Leader of the Op­po­si­tion once again, al­so los­ing the 2000 elec­tion. The 2001 elec­tion end­ed in a tie, with both the Op­po­si­tion PNM and the gov­ern­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress win­ning 18 seats. Pres­i­dent Arthur NR Robin­son ap­point­ed Man­ning as Prime Min­is­ter. Un­able to elect a Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Man­ning pro­ceed­ed to rule with­out Par­lia­ment un­til the need to pass a bud­get forced him to call an elec­tion in Oc­to­ber 2002.