PNM founding member: No challenger can win against Rowley

PEOPLE’S National Movement (PNM) founding member Ferdie Ferreira says Trinidad and Tobago does not have a history of voluntary political resignations.

As such, he said, the Prime Minister’s decision to seek to retain the leadership of the PNM in the party’s internal election in September is not surprising.

“We have to first recognise what power is about and history has proven that very few incumbents if any, particularly when they are serving at the highest level of the political arena, presidents and prime ministers, except where there is a constitutional restriction, very few give up that prestigious and powerful institution,” Ferreira told Sunday Newsday.

“So, what the prime minister has done is nothing new. We do not have a history in this country of voluntary resignations. The incumbents seldom think of it when they are in Opposition far less when they are in power. So, the prime minister’s decision to continue and make himself available as leader of the party is not unusual, nothing strange.”

In a newspaper interview last Sunday, Dr Rowley said he had a responsibility to fulfil his mandate after being elected in the general election for the term 2020 to 2025.

“I have a responsibility to complete the mandate that the electorate gave me but I can only do so by being the PNM leader,” Rowley was quoted in the article as saying.

“My term of office as PNM leader ends this year so there will be an internal election and to serve out my mandate as prime minister I am obligated to seek an extension of my term as political leader of the PNM.”

In 2018, Rowley received an overwhelming mandate to continue as the party’s leader for a third consecutive term. But after the PNM’s 22-19 victory over the United National Congress in the 2020 general election, he had hinted that the current four-year term might be his last in politics.

In his victory speech at Balisier House, he had told supporters, “I’m not one of those politicians who believe that when you come into office you go out feet first.”

Rowley added he had “places to go and people to see,” but felt he had a commitment to ensure that the new term is a period of transition for the PNM.

“As the longest-serving member of Parliament...I have a duty and responsibility during this term to fashion the PNM’s future by ensuring our young people are developed in such a way that when I am no longer in a position to announce an election victory, that the country will not be deprived of the leadership that it deserves.”

Rowley, who turned 72 on October 24, 2021, has been a parliamentarian since 1987.

On the question of leadership, Ferreira said it is hardly likely that any possible challenger to Rowley will win.

“Politics, like cricket, is a game of glorious uncertainties and they will always have ambitious idiots.”

He recalled Rowley had unsuccessfully challenged Manning for leadership in 1996 despite the fact that the latter was the Opposition Leader at the time.

New Minister of Planning and Development Pennelope Beckles, – who was reassigned from housing and development in the this week's Cabinet reshuffle – Ferreira noted, had also challenged Rowley in 2014 and was “unceremoniously dealt with in a massive defeat.”

“If one currently holds the position of prime minister and you couldn’t beat them when they were in Opposition, you will beat them when they are prime minister?”

Nevertheless, he said, the PNM was a democratic party and people are free to offer themselves for leader.

“But the history had shown that that is almost an act of political suicide.”

Ferreira said Rowley’s most valuable asset now is the fact that he has time on his side.

“The next general election is due in three years, so whatever the distractions or negative areas are at the moment, the fact of the matter is that he has almost three years to correct whatever problems may exist in the party and the country. One day is a long time in politics far less three years.”

He said he does not believe Rowley will make the same mistakes late prime minister Patrick Manning made in calling general elections prematurely on two occasions – one of which was announced 14 months before it was due and another two and a half years.

“I don’t think he would make that mistake because both decisions ended up in tragedy.”

Ferreira believes Rowley will try to “put right what is currently wrong in the PNM.

“So, I don’t see anything to shout about in his decision to recontest the leadership.”

He said Rowley’s number one priority as political leader should be the restructuring of the PNM, particularly its election machinery.

“There is no doubt that during the past year the party has suffered.”

In this regard, he said, he is deeply concerned about the fact that the party’s general secretary Foster Cummings is also the Minister of Youth Development and National Service as well as the La Horquetta/Talparo MP.

“In my considered opinion, it has nothing to do with the incumbent but the general secretary of the party’s number one priority should be the managing and servicing of the party and ensuring that it is always on an election footing. Sooner or later, they will have to deal with that.”

Ferreira said the PNM has suffered some significant setbacks over the past year.

“When you take into consideration the overwhelming 14-1 defeat (to the Progressive Democratic Patriots) in the THA election in Tobago, the fact that in the last local government election the party did not perform, losing a seat in Arima, losing one in Sangre Grande and then the fact that it ran third in the by-election in Debe. I don’t think these are positives for the PNM.

“In spite of the fact that it was a by-election, the party only pulled 25 votes, one of the extremely few occasions where it lost its deposit. So, from a political perspective, they should try to rebound from that by doing a post-mortem of the Tobago.”

Commenting on the reshuffle, Ferreira said the Prime Minister has the “exclusive right” to shift around his Cabinet members as he sees fit.

“I don’t know why people are unduly concerned about reshuffles.”

But he said he was taken aback by the sudden resignation of former agriculture minister Clarence Rambharat.

“The only unfortunate part is the resignation of Clarence Rambharat who was considered as one of the more high-performing ministers in the government. I think that was unfortunate.”

Ferreira said the country does not have a history of voluntary resignations in government.