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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

PNM changes must be more than cosmetic

by

20131205

Dr Kei­th Row­ley's at­tempt, through his re­call and new ap­point­ments of sen­a­tors, to trans­form and bur­nish the mono­chrome im­age of the PNM, so as at least to give the im­pres­sion of a par­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the ma­jor po­lit­i­cal el­e­ments of the coun­try, is in it­self com­mend­able.

But the changes ef­fect­ed by Dr Row­ley al­so raise ques­tions. By re­mov­ing long-stand­ing PNM MP and for­mer min­is­ter Ms Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son from the Sen­ate, Dr Row­ley au­to­mat­i­cal­ly faces the charge that it was a trans­par­ent means of tak­ing away a plat­form from a prospec­tive chal­lenger for lead­er­ship of the PNM in 2014.His protes­ta­tions to the con­trary notwith­stand­ing, the pub­lic per­cep­tion will linger.

More­over, Dr Row­ley will be seen to have side­lined Ms Beck­les-Robin­son in a heavy-hand­ed and un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic man­ner no dif­fer­ent from what was done by his pre­de­ces­sor Patrick Man­ning, whom he charged with dic­ta­to­r­i­al ten­den­cies. And the present PNM leader would be seen as hav­ing got there even with­out be­com­ing prime min­is­ter.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers


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