As Gov­ern­ment seeks to re­cov­er fol­low­ing Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald’s cor­rup­tion charges, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Laven­tille East/Mor­vant MP Adri­an Leonce are at odds over the PNM’s abil­i­ty to gov­ern.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew on Tues­day, Mooni­lal de­scribed Mon­day as the most “murky and re­mark­able day in T&T’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry where one Cab­i­net min­is­ter fell and a sen­a­tor fled.”

He said that giv­en Mc­Don­ald’s charges and the res­ig­na­tion of Sen­a­tor Garvin Si­mon­ette fol­low­ing rev­e­la­tions that he was charged with dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol in Texas, US, it was clear that the gov­ern­ment had col­lapsed. Si­mon­ette was cho­sen to re­place Mc­Don­ald as the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion, but Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­scind­ed the of­fer fol­low­ing the rev­e­la­tion of his trans­gres­sion.

To Mooni­lal, it meant that the Sen­ate was har­bour­ing a mem­ber, whom for sev­er­al years, pos­sessed a crim­i­nal record. He be­lieves the blun­ders have led to a rigid test of Row­ley’s lead­er­ship. 

“We have a sen­a­tor be­ing ap­point­ed and then be­ing dis­ap­point­ed. Ap­par­ent­ly, for four years or so, Dr Row­ley and the PNM did no vet­ting of their sen­a­tors.

“This is not the first time it has hap­pened, but in a most re­mark­able about-turn, they can­celled a swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny of a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter; the per­son who was unsworn, so to speak, at the last min­utes.

“It speaks to poor judge­ment. It speaks al­most to a macabre de­vel­op­ment and I think the Prime Min­is­ter him­self, his judge­ment is re­al­ly up for ques­tion now and the gov­ern­ment this time can­not pull a rab­bit out the hat,” Mooni­lal said.

He was sym­pa­thet­ic to Mc­Don­ald as he de­scribed her predica­ment as a sad de­vel­op­ment and wished her good health. He said she faces se­ri­ous charges in the court, but will have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to face her ac­cusers. 

Mean­while, Row­ley faces an on­slaught of crit­i­cism for hav­ing ap­point­ed Mc­Don­ald thrice to his Cab­i­net de­spite al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion against her.

How­ev­er, Leonce says that her ap­point­ments were based on in­for­ma­tion the par­ty had as well as her work per­for­mance.

Leonce said that the gov­ern­ment has not col­lapsed as there are ca­pa­ble peo­ple to fill the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio.

“I think Mar­lene, be­cause of her ex­pe­ri­ence, knowl­edge and skills, she is an as­set. She per­forms her du­ties well and the Prime Min­is­ter would have made his de­ci­sion based on that.

“What hap­pened is un­for­tu­nate and the Prime Min­is­ter would have tak­en pre­cau­tions.

“He made his de­ci­sion based on the in­for­ma­tion that was giv­en to him and he would have al­lowed her back to serve be­cause she is an as­set.

“I don’t see it as any­thing wrong or bad, I sup­port her be­cause when you’re try­ing to per­form and give your coun­try the best and you have some­one who can do the work, who is com­mit­ted and who is se­ri­ous, you want them on your team,” Leonce said.

He de­scribed her as a men­tor, teacher and a friend.