Strategies and blunders

And so, we will have had a new prime minister for all of six weeks, since on April 28 elections will take place to decide if to return our newly minted PM to the political leadership of this country.

At 50, Stuart Young inherited the mantle from his mentor Dr Keith Rowley who made history by being the first serving TT prime minister to step down and make way for a younger leadership. Young then made his own history by being the first Indo-Chinese person to be PM of our republic, which counts for a lot. He was also the first to be named by his predecessor, which ruffled some feathers. But the history books will record him as the shortest-serving PM in TT history, perhaps in parliamentary history.

The new PM was sworn in on March 17 and on March 18 he called for Parliament to be dissolved at midnight. PNM supporters believe calling a snap election was a master stroke, a fine lesson in wrong-footing and further disadvantaging the already struggling opponent parties ahead of the now imminent election. They were impressed by the strategy. If they are right then all citizens must feel awed by the superb acting skills of Mr Young and his colleagues. His new cabinet was also sworn in last Monday by the President. Some of them went to their offices, seemingly eager to start or continue work on Tuesday and to be ignorant of the news that would break later that day.

It was a steady transition. The inevitable reshuffle was not too radical except that Dr Rowley’s trusted Minister of Finance was relieved of the post he seemed to own. Colm Imbert had to make way for a faithful public servant in that key position – Vishnu Dhanpaul, former, long-serving permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and recently returned from a spell as our High Commissioner in London. Dhanpaul must be considered a safe pair of hands and was appointed a senator to undertake the task, but some confusion arose over the legitimacy of his appointment.

It was a development which made some onlookers wonder if the snap election was not, after all, such a clever ruse. Why not take a few days to sort everything out properly? Mrs Persad-Bissessar asserted that the PNM had been diverted by her intention to take legal action against almost everything the PNM has done related to Dr Rowley’s retirement. Some commentators suggested that something more sudden and sinister occurred within PNM ranks, forcing plans to change. This is unlikely since the election date of April 28 had been leaked prior to Tuesday’s announcement.

We might never know the full story but certainly, the PNM has kept the media spotlight and the glow of benevolence and statesmanship emanating from Dr Rowley to maintain their PR advantage and increase the party’s chances of winning at the polls as a result of everything that has happened. Assuming the PNM will win, we now have to wonder what the cabinet will look like in six weeks' time. It depends on which incumbents win their seats and if serving senators are reappointed.

What is certain is that PM Young thought it better to get the elections over with so that he could deal with the myriad of challenging issues we face, not least, the critical energy agreement with Venezuela that hangs in the balance. The PM was fortunate to be handed a less serious but very vexatious matter that he could be more forthright and vocal about.

In what seemed like a high-handed move, Britain suddenly introduced visa restrictions for all TT citizens entering the UK, with almost immediate effect. Only a bureaucratic cock-up or a grave security issue can explain such precipitated action. Apart from being very expensive to procure and with all the added bureaucracy, the unseemly haste with which the ruling came occasioned a diplomatic incident. Our government was not consulted and no concessions were made to frequent TT travellers who have never attempted to be asylum seekers. It will increase costs for business people and adversely affect the strong cultural relations we have with the UK, including tourism. If passenger numbers decrease, British Airways, which enjoys a monopoly, might well reduce the number of weekly flights, and that is just one more possible outcome.

Dr Rowley considered the action imperious and called for us to leave the Privy Council, something we should have done a long time ago as an independent country and a republic, to boot. Not assuming responsibility for being final legal arbiters of our affairs reveals that we have no confidence in ourselves and that trust is lacking between members of our Caribbean family. I hope the next government manages to save TT from this particular embarrassment which past governments have continued to expose this country to.