Last Sunday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar "realigned" her Government with one of the more substantial reshuffles seen in the political history of Trinidad and Tobago. Not since the famous reshuffles by Dr Eric Williams in 1975 (one year before a general election), George Chambers in 1985 (one year before a general election) and the 1988 reshuffle undertaken by ANR Robinson (upon the fracture of the NAR) has this country seen such a substantial reshuffle. Perhaps the difference with this one was the fact that Ministers were told up front about the changes and there was direct discussion between Ministers and the Prime Minister on the subject of performance management. The manner in which Eric Williams undertook reshuffles was such that some Ministers read of their transfers in the newspapers. ANR Robinson had an open division between himself and Basdeo Panday which forced Robinson to exercise the constitutional powers available to a Prime Minister to make changes.
What happened last Sunday was that the Prime Minister adopted the view that she was the CEO of the People's Partnership Government and the buck stopped with her. The effect of that approach was that she consulted the leaders in the People's Partnership before making up her own mind as to what changes she would make. Operating a consociational partnership under the provisions of a Westminster-Whitehall constitution was always going to be a challenge of governance once the People's Partnership captured power. Having agreed to unanimously put forward Kamla Persad-Bissessar as their prime ministerial nominee, the members of the People's Partnership must have known the kind of power that Persad-Bissessar would be able to wield once she took office.
The bare facts are that three Ministers who were listed as UNC Senators on the Parliament Web site (Panday, Baptiste-Cornelis and Ramgoolam) were removed from the Government, one UNC Parliamentary Secretary (Seemungal) was removed from the Government, and one COP Senator (Watson) was removed.
New ministerial appointments were given to Fuad Khan (UNC), Verna St Rose-Greaves (UNC), Devant Maharaj (UNC), Kevin Ramnarine (UNC), Ramona Ramdial (UNC), Embau Moheni (NJAC), and Nicole Dyer-Griffith (COP). One senatorial position was given to the TOP (Terrence Baynes) and Emmanuel George (UNC) was made Leader of Government Business in the Senate replacing Subhas Panday (UNC). Jairam Seemungal (UNC) was elected Deputy Speaker to replace Fuad Khan (UNC). In pure quantitative terms, the UNC had a net gain of one new ministry, NJAC gained one new ministry, the COP had a net gain of one new ministry by virtue of the senatorial switch between Watson (who was not a Minister) and Dyer-Griffith (who was made a junior Minister). The TOP gained a senatorial position with the appointment of Terrence Baynes, the Public Relations Officer of the party. Both the UNC and the COP had one Minister each (Warner and Roberts) whose portfolios were sub-divided for transfer to other Ministers, while the Prime Minister transferred her information portfolio to Surujrattan Rambachan (UNC).
In respect of transfers, the COP had one (Seepersad-Bachan), the TOP had one (Baker), the UNC had three (Partap, Indarsingh and Nela Khan). Other portfolio reassignments will have to be gleaned from the Gazette in order to get the complete picture outside of the address to the nation by the Prime Minister.
There was some turbulence that accompanied the reshuffle which was to be expected in the context of a partnership. However, the COP seemed to be the most disturbed by what had occurred, however, they advised their colleague Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan to accept the transfer from the Ministry of Energy to the Ministry of Public Administration. She demonstrated a high level of commitment to the Partnership by eventually accepting what was a very painful decision for her based on her public comments. In respect of the handling of Government Business in the Senate, the Prime Minister has decided that she would entrust this to Emmanuel George (the Minister of Public Utilities) in replacing Subhas Panday.
It must be noted that Panday was not in the Cabinet, yet he was assigned the task of handling Government Business in the Senate. This resembled what was done during the NAR administration when Alloy Lequay served as Leader of Government Business and he was not a Minister. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has now decided that it is necessary for a Cabinet Minister to handle government business in the Upper House. All of this has taken place in the midst of the COP election campaign for a new political leader. It will be interesting to see how the new COP Political Leader, who will be elected today, will handle the future relations of the party inside the Partnership. With Winston Dookeran having been criticised by some of his own party members during this election campaign, his loss of leadership after today will place the COP in a new zone. Will the next COP leader embrace the People's Partnership in the way that Dookeran did or will that person want to renegotiate the terms of engagement for the COP with the People's Partnership? The COP electorate will speak today.