Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts have ques­tioned the lead­er­ship of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les-Robin­son, amid the par­ty’s on­go­ing is­sues in the San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy be­tween MP Bri­an Man­ning and the Pa­tri­cia Alex­is-led ex­ec­u­tive.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath ar­gued that for­mer PNM lead­ers, in­clud­ing Dr Er­ic Williams, Patrick Man­ning and Dr Kei­th Row­ley, would have ad­dressed the mat­ter swift­ly.

He said a strong leader would have sum­moned both Man­ning and Alex­is, in­struct­ed them to re­solve their dif­fer­ences in­ter­nal­ly and im­posed dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures if nec­es­sary.

“I don’t know if she’s will­ing to do that be­cause she’s al­ways said she has to sit back and think and re­flect,” Ra­goonath said.

“Pen­ny has been in­de­ci­sive in many in­stances. She took a long time to deal with the Janelle John-Bates mat­ter. The is­sue in­volv­ing Ari­ma May­or Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj is still out­stand­ing.

“Re­gard­ing San Fer­nan­do East, from what we hear, Man­ning has been speak­ing about this is­sue for months and there has been very lit­tle ac­tion. The ques­tion is whether Ms Beck­les’ lead­er­ship style is one that will be able to hold the PNM to­geth­er and, more im­por­tant­ly, main­tain the dis­ci­pline that the par­ty has tra­di­tion­al­ly ex­pect­ed.”

Ra­goonath said in­ter­nal dis­putes, once rarely as­so­ci­at­ed with the PNM, were now be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly vis­i­ble.

“You al­ways hear about koo­choor in the UNC but nev­er about it in the PNM. Now it is be­com­ing bla­tant. How many times has Ash­ton Ford open­ly crit­i­cised Pen­ny? It tells you that her lead­er­ship style leaves a lot to be de­sired.

“That’s why Row­ley can still come and make pub­lic state­ments. Peo­ple seem to think Row­ley is lead­ing the PNM rather than Pene­lope. That tells us some­thing about her, whether it is her style or sim­ply a mat­ter of weak­ness.”

Com­ment­ing on the San Fer­nan­do East ex­ec­u­tive’s state­ment crit­i­cis­ing Man­ning short­ly af­ter PNM chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les warned mem­bers against pub­lic in­fight­ing, Ra­goonath de­scribed it as an in­dict­ment of the par­ty’s lead­er­ship.

“The par­ty’s lead­er­ship isn’t strong enough to con­trol the mem­ber­ship and the San Fer­nan­do East ex­ec­u­tive,” he said.

Ra­goonath al­so doubt­ed the par­ty would seek Man­ning’s res­ig­na­tion.

“Be­cause they know their chances are slim in a San Fer­nan­do by-elec­tion. That’s why the lead­er­ship has to find some mech­a­nism to ei­ther tem­per the pow­er of the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive and Ms Alex­is or find a way to en­sure some de­gree of peace, per­haps through an in­de­pen­dent team to over­see the man­age­ment of the con­stituen­cy.”

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed al­so crit­i­cised the par­ty’s han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion.

“The is­sue once again shows that the PNM’s lead­er­ship has re­neged on its re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ef­fec­tive­ly deal with chal­lenges fac­ing the par­ty be­fore and af­ter the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion,” Mo­hammed said.

“The chair­man is now try­ing to clean up the kitchen af­ter the pot has al­ready boiled over on­to a messy, rust­ing stove.”

He added: “Bot­tom line, the PNM’s lead­er­ship has dropped the ball. The leader needs to take con­trol. She is los­ing key sup­port with­in the par­ty every time she falls short on de­ci­sion-mak­ing. She’s al­so mak­ing track for gouti to run.”

Mo­hammed al­so ques­tioned the treat­ment of Man­ning with­in the par­ty.

“Why is Man­ning be­ing treat­ed this way? Is it be­cause he se­cured a nar­row vic­to­ry and ap­pears docile in de­meanour? Is some­one eye­ing the seat for 2030? Was there con­cern be­cause of talk that he want­ed the lead­er­ship?” he asked.

“If Man­ning want­ed the lead­er­ship, op­po­si­tion would be the best route, but I don’t be­lieve lead­er­ship is his goal. My un­der­stand­ing is that his po­si­tion is about re­align­ing the par­ty with its prin­ci­ples and pre­sent­ing a stronger foot­ing through ef­fec­tive or­gan­i­sa­tion and cred­i­bil­i­ty.”

He added that Man­ning had pub­licly out­lined his con­cerns, while Alex­is had re­spond­ed by chal­leng­ing his cred­i­bil­i­ty, rather than ad­dress­ing the sub­stance of the is­sues raised.

“One can­not seek to bat­tle with an elect­ed MP for no rea­son. Man­ning has been quite clear in his con­cerns. Alex­is, how­ev­er, has gone on the de­fen­sive, not with facts to clear her name but rather to dis­cred­it the MP.”

Re­spond­ing to al­le­ga­tions that Man­ning was act­ing as a “UNC agent,” Mo­hammed ar­gued that sim­i­lar ac­cu­sa­tions could be di­rect­ed else­where.

“The same could be said about Kezel Jack­son as a PNM agent or in­sid­er. She is the APP leader, there­fore, she should fo­cus on the APP. As the say­ing goes, ‘Cock­roach has no place in fowl busi­ness.’”

De­vel­op­ment diplo­mat and strate­gic ad­vis­er Pearce Robin­son al­so ad­dressed the sit­u­a­tion, not­ing the di­vid­ed views be­tween Man­ning and the ex­ec­u­tive could re­sult in the PNM los­ing the con­stituen­cy if the par­ty lead­er­ship failed to lis­ten to its mem­bers.

“If Beck­les-Robin­son fails to bring this mat­ter to or­der, I’ll have no choice but to ask her to step down with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. It is my hope that she takes full com­mand,” Robin­son said.