Gail Alexan­der &
Kay-Marie Fletch­er

Laven­tille West MP Fitzger­ald Hinds says he is mov­ing on af­ter 30 years of rep­re­sen­ta­tive ser­vice and pol­i­tics. He con­firmed his ex­it as an MP yes­ter­day in the Sen­ate, one day af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­vealed that Hinds had with­drawn his con­sent to be nom­i­nat­ed to con­test the seat again for the PNM.

The Prime Min­is­ter had said he was “a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed.” On­ly on Wednes­day, Hinds told Guardian Me­dia that he was mov­ing away from the “bac­cha­nal” re­gard­ing the con­stituen­cy and look­ing for­ward to screen­ing on De­cem­ber 2.

He said then he re­ceived the sup­port of 37 par­ty groups and the con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive. With news of his ex­it in the air, the out­go­ing Laven­tille West MP re­ceived loud desk thump­ing from both the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion sen­ate bench­es yes­ter­day.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­ate leader Wade Mark said he would miss his par­lia­men­tary col­league and friend, Hinds. Hinds, who is al­so Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter, was in the Sen­ate to an­swer two ques­tions from Mark, an ur­gent ques­tion on phish­ing in­ci­dents and an­oth­er on mea­sures to de­ter at-risk youth from crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

As Hinds took his seat in the Gov­ern­ment’s front bench—wait­ing to an­swer ques­tions—he re­ceived fist bumps from his col­leagues, in­clud­ing Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les and oth­ers.

When Hinds rose to re­ply to Mark’s first ques­tion, he re­ceived long, loud desk-thump­ing from the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion bench­es. Hinds put his hand on his heart, then raised a fist slight­ly ac­knowl­edg­ing the “big up.” He then said (quot­ing the late Bob Mar­ley’s By the Rivers of Baby­lon), “As usu­al, ‘may the words of my mouth and the med­i­ta­tion of my heart be ac­cept­able.’”

His com­ment, how­ev­er, was over­pow­ered by the con­tin­ued desk-thump­ing. Mark, ris­ing to ask his ques­tion, pref­aced it with, “I have to ad­dress that ques­tion to my out­go­ing col­league ... may I ad­dress this to my col­league and friend, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, ques­tion num­ber five to the Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty. I will miss you.”

There was more desk thump­ing. Hinds, in re­sponse, said, “(Mr Sen­ate Pres­i­dent) it is rather in­ter­est­ing to note that I’m mov­ing on from 30 years of rep­re­sen­ta­tive ser­vice and pol­i­tics... a sphere, a field in which the Ho­n­ourable Sen­a­tor nev­er got start­ed,” he added to loud laugh­ter from the gov­ern­ment side. “Po­lit­i­cal­ly still­born!” Hinds con­clud­ed.

Af­ter Hinds an­swered Mark’s ques­tion, he said, “Nor­mal­ly I’d in­ter­ro­gate him. To­day, I put him to rest.” He didn’t ques­tion Hinds fur­ther. Hinds mum on rea­sons for ex­it But be­fore he sat in the Sen­ate, Guardian Me­dia caught up with the out­go­ing Laven­tille West MP as he made his way to the Red House to find out what prompt­ed his de­ci­sion. How­ev­er, Hinds is keep­ing his rea­sons for bow­ing out of the elec­toral po­lit­i­cal are­na close to his chest. He avoid­ed ques­tions sur­round­ing his last-minute with­draw­al, on­ly hint­ing it was “per­son­al”.

Hinds said, “The busi­ness of the peo­ple at the Par­lia­ment is far more im­por­tant now than any oth­er busi­ness, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it’s per­son­al. Our big con­cern is the pub­lic’s in­ter­est.”

Asked why he was no longer in­ter­est­ed in be­ing screened for the seat de­spite ex­press­ing he had the re­sound­ing sup­port from the con­stituen­cy’s ex­ec­u­tive, 37 par­ty leagues, and oth­er con­stituents, Hinds replied, “Read my lips.”

Hinds, an at­tor­ney, dur­ing his 30 years in pol­i­tics, first en­tered the Par­lia­ment in 1995, elect­ed as MP for Laven­tille East/Mor­vant. He served 12 years in that po­si­tion with the Patrick Man­ning PNM in op­po­si­tion and gov­ern­ment. Dur­ing 2002-2007, with the Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion, Hinds served as Min­is­ter of State in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the Min­istry of Trade.

Hinds was ap­point­ed an Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor from 2010-2015. In Sep­tem­ber 2015, Hinds was elect­ed MP for Laven­tille West with the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment. He was re-elect­ed in the Au­gust 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion. In this ad­min­is­tra­tion, Hinds was Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter, Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Min­is­ter, and then ap­point­ed Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter in 2021.

Dur­ing Hinds’ Par­lia­ment tenure, he al­so served as a mem­ber of sev­er­al com­mit­tees and chaired the Pub­lic Ac­counts (En­ter­pris­es) Com­mit­tee and the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.