SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI and

JOSHUA SEEMU­N­GAL

With Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar away on a six-day of­fi­cial vis­it to New York for the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly—the first since the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion—Jear­lean John has been ap­point­ed Act­ing Prime Min­is­ter. Known for her ex­ten­sive ca­reer in pol­i­tics and pub­lic ser­vice, John now as­sumes re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for man­ag­ing the coun­try’s af­fairs in the PM’s ab­sence, a move that has drawn at­ten­tion from politi­cians and an­a­lysts alike.

Two po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts and five for­mer Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship min­is­ters, who act­ed as prime min­is­ter from 2010 to 2015, gave her their seal of ap­proval to man­age the coun­try’s af­fairs in Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ab­sence.

Some de­scribed her as a woman of com­pe­tence, hu­mil­i­ty, and vi­sion, while oth­ers praised her no-non­sense ap­proach, strength, ca­pa­bil­i­ty, and ed­u­ca­tion.

John’s re­ac­tion to Tues­day’s ap­point­ment was one of shock, stat­ing that she felt hum­bled. Fol­low­ing the UNC’s elec­tion win, John de­liv­ered a touch­ing vic­to­ry speech to her Cou­va North con­stituents, shared on her Face­book page, prais­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar for hav­ing one of the great­est minds in the world.

Ear­ly in her first term as PM, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had named Mooni­lal as her suc­ces­sor. “If any­thing should hap­pen to me, God for­bid, I see Dr Mooni­lal as be­ing my suc­ces­sor,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in 2010 at a func­tion or­gan­ised by “friends of Rudy” to cel­e­brate him be­ing called to the bar.

Mo­hammed: John shows com­pe­tence, hu­mil­i­ty, vi­sion

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Shane Mo­hammed said he does not be­lieve John’s ap­point­ment was a pow­er shift in the UNC. What it rep­re­sent­ed, he said, was con­fir­ma­tion by the PM that she recog­nised John’s worth, loy­al­ty, and hard work with­in the par­ty. The move, he added, was a pow­er­ful state­ment, turn­ing heads across the po­lit­i­cal land­scape.

“She’s a woman of class and dig­ni­ty. I don’t see it as a pow­er shift but rather a com­ple­men­tary force with­in the par­ty. It sig­nals that the fu­ture of the par­ty is very promis­ing. It says that the par­ty is re­it­er­at­ing its ethos that it is not In­di­an-based, and there is a place for every­one who shares the vi­sion of the par­ty and the in­ter­ests of the coun­try at heart.”

Mo­hammed said John’s qual­i­ties and per­for­mance were a cut above the rest, and he felt she should act as PM when­ev­er Per­sad-Bisses­sar has of­fi­cial du­ties abroad.

“In my book, no­body else in the Cab­i­net is de­serv­ing of the po­si­tion. John is ef­fi­cient, dis­ci­plined, and com­pe­tent.”

Asked if the act­ing ap­point­ment could set the tone for John to even­tu­al­ly lead the UNC, Mo­hammed said, “To be re­al­is­tic, there is no va­can­cy for po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship of the UNC. How­ev­er, there is no rea­son why John can­not rep­re­sent the fu­ture of the UNC when­ev­er that may be.”

He added that John has the hu­mil­i­ty, po­lit­i­cal acu­men, and ex­pe­ri­ence to be­come the par­ty’s fu­ture leader.

“She is way ahead of the pack. You will not hear Min­is­ter John gala­vant­i­ng like a nev­er-see, come-see. She’s about the peo­ple’s busi­ness.”

Mo­hammed ac­knowl­edged that John’s ap­point­ment might ruf­fle some feath­ers with­in the UNC. “Those who have been ruf­fled should ex­am­ine them­selves and ask if they could stand in her shoes.”

Re­flect­ing on the UNC’s decade in op­po­si­tion, he said it brought “a lot of in­tro­spec­tion and re­al­i­sa­tions”, not­ing, “Whilst I am not pro­fess­ing to know what is in the Prime Min­is­ter’s brain, pol­i­tics tells us that a leader ris­es.”

Mo­hammed re­called that UNC founder Bas­deo Pan­day be­lieved Mooni­lal, Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, and Car­los John had the po­ten­tial to be fu­ture par­ty lead­ers.

“His­to­ry has shown that it was Per­sad-Bisses­sar who rose. With­in the cur­rent line­up in the UNC, there are sev­er­al peo­ple who as­pire to be po­lit­i­cal leader and PM. Have they done the work to ac­quire the re­spect of the pop­u­la­tion? Have those per­sons treat­ed peo­ple with due re­gard and re­spect? Have they demon­strat­ed hu­mil­i­ty and com­pas­sion?”

He added that the next leader must em­brace all par­ty mem­bers and com­mand na­tion­al re­spect. “They must seek tal­ent and cap­ture that tal­ent be­yond just friends, part­ners and as­so­ciates they deem loy­al to them. The next leader must be fair, eth­i­cal, and just as hard-work­ing and com­mit­ted to gov­ern­ing the coun­try ef­fec­tive­ly.”

James: It’s sig­nif­i­cant

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Win­ford James said it was too ear­ly in the UNC’s term to tell if John was go­ing to take over the helm of the par­ty.

“That would be jump­ing the gun; it’s a bit pre­ma­ture.”

How­ev­er, he said John’s ap­point­ment showed the PM has full con­fi­dence in her.

“Don’t for­get she is a woman. It’s sig­nif­i­cant, per­haps, that she (PM) is mov­ing her­self to Jear­lean John in terms of the per­son who deputis­es for her.”

James said one would have to wait and see if John’s ap­point­ment might cause ten­sion with­in the par­ty.

“Ten­sion, you could nev­er know. Peo­ple have a way of hid­ing their true feel­ings.”

Al­leyne-Top­pin: She is ex­treme­ly ca­pa­ble and high­ly ed­u­cat­ed

John is the sec­ond Char­lot­teville woman un­der Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ad­min­is­tra­tion to act as PM. The first was Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin.

On Thurs­day, Al­leyne-Top­pin tipped her hat to Per­sad-Bisses­sar for se­lect­ing an­oth­er To­bag­on­ian woman to lead the coun­try in her ab­sence.

“Char­lot­teville peo­ple are very am­bi­tious, and Jear­lean has demon­strat­ed that with her hard work over the years,” said Al­leyne-Top­pin, who served as min­is­ter of To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment.

She said that act­ing as PM in 2010 was no easy task.

“It’s a tax­ing po­si­tion. You have to be built for a po­si­tion like that. Miss John is ex­treme­ly ca­pa­ble, high­ly ed­u­cat­ed, and well-suit­ed for the po­si­tion. I have full con­fi­dence that she will do well.”

Asked if John has the po­ten­tial to lead the UNC, Al­leyne-Top­pin shied from an­swer­ing.

Ra­mad­har: A very strong woman, a good choice

Hav­ing act­ed sev­en times as PM un­der Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion, Prakash Ra­mad­har de­scribed John as a gi­ant in the po­lit­i­cal are­na, stat­ing she has giv­en the na­tion ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice.

He said Per­sad-Bisses­sar sees John as com­pe­tent, ca­pa­ble and con­fi­dent to act.

“Jear­lean has been ex­treme­ly in­stru­men­tal in de­vel­op­ing and strength­en­ing the UNC, and there­fore, she is a very strong woman. I think she was a good choice by the Prime Min­is­ter,” the Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader said.

Ra­mad­har said John fits the de­scrip­tion of a per­son the coun­try will re­spect.

From 2010 to 2015, Ra­mad­har served as St Au­gus­tine MP and as le­gal af­fairs min­is­ter.

Over time, he said, oth­er mem­bers of the Cab­i­net would be grant­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty to act.

“So for those who are tense, re­lax a bit. They have to check them­selves.”

Mooni­lal: I sup­port her 100 per cent

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal ex­pressed con­fi­dence that John would car­ry out her du­ties with dis­tinc­tion.

“Miss John is my long-time per­son­al, po­lit­i­cal and pro­fes­sion­al col­league. I have worked with her for sev­er­al years. She is a ded­i­cat­ed deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the UNC and most de­serv­ing of this ap­point­ment. We wish her well and sup­port her 100 per cent,” Mooni­lal said.

Dook­er­an: It’s the most ap­pro­pri­ate de­ci­sion

For­mer Con­gress of the Peo­ple po­lit­i­cal leader and fi­nance min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an, who al­so act­ed as PM, de­scribed John’s ap­point­ment as “the most ap­pro­pri­ate de­ci­sion”.

Dook­er­an said, giv­en John’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry, he felt she was ready for the job.

“Jear­lean is a pro­duc­tive and hard-work­ing per­son. That’s how I al­ways know her.”

Warn­er: Best step in the na­tion’s in­ter­est

For­mer UNC chair­man Jack Warn­er de­scribed John as a worka­holic and most de­serv­ing of the po­si­tion, giv­en her role as the par­ty’s deputy po­lit­i­cal leader and min­is­ter.

“I think that was the best de­ci­sion the Prime Min­is­ter made in the na­tion­al in­ter­est. I am ful­ly sup­port­ive of it. Jear­lean is a woman who means busi­ness. She is a no-non­sense woman.”

Warn­er said John was not a per­son who tol­er­ates fool­ish­ness.

“She doesn’t suf­fer fools eas­i­ly.”

He said he ad­mired John’s work eth­ic, stat­ing it was “one of the best things to hap­pen to the UNC in terms of her pro­duc­tiv­i­ty”.

Warn­er added, “I tell you, she’s a hard work­er. She is in­dus­tri­ous and means well. To me, she’s a fe­male Jack Warn­er, you know. I love that. I am proud of her.”

Warn­er said John gets up at 2 am, revving and ready to work.

“She’s in the of­fice be­fore 5 am, putting in some­times 17 or 18 hours of work a day.”

In his roles as na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and works and trans­port min­is­ter, Warn­er act­ed five times as PM.

He said if John dis­tin­guish­es her­self in the role, “then so it shall be for her in the fu­ture”.

Warn­er said John was no John­ny-come-late­ly in pol­i­tics and is worth her salt in per­for­mance, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and pro­fi­cien­cy.

A What­sApp mes­sage was sent to John on Thurs­day, but she did not re­spond.