Port of Spain – Reacting sharply to the recent announcement made by Prime Minister Keith Rowley to elevate his Minister For Energy, Stuart Young, as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, leader of the opposition Kamla Persad Bissessar has termed the development as a leadership crisis in the People’s National Movement (PNM).
She said that the internal chaos within the PNM was not a very healthy sign for the democracy of the nation.
She said that the political developments taking place within PNM suggested that all was not well within the ruling party and people or Trinidad and Tobago were now vulnerable to face the brunt of these political uncertainty.
She said that the nomination of Young as the next Prime Minister has led to a lot of chaos within the PNM and this was not a good sign for the democracy of Trinidad and Tobago.
Leader of the opposition said that the ruling party has been weakened by the internal struggles and strifs for securing power. She said that the leaders of the party were more interested in securing their own personal interest rather than looking after the interest of the nation.
She said that these leaders were squabbling among themselves to stay in power.
She said that rather than taking up the issues such as crime, financial burden being faced by the citizens, national security and development, the leaders of the ruling party were now engaged in an internal power struggle which has left the country in a precarious state.
Kamla said that the appointment of Young as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago had been done to meet the vested interest of the leaders or PNM.
She said the manner in which Young has been appointed as the Prime Minister undermined the democratic principles of accountability and transparency.
She said that through this political maneuver, Rowley wanted to retain his influence within the government, while projecting that the leadership has been replaced to quell the growing discontent within the leaders of PNM.
The opposition leader said that the PNM leaders had failed to address issues concerning the citizens of the country and instead they were busy trying to protect their own political careers.
Kamla stated that while those responsible for maintaining the law and order were busy in their own power struggles, the country was struggling against violent crime, financial challenges and deteriorating national security.
He said that the leaders were more bothered about self preservation rather than national welfare.
The leader of the UNC said that the move of appointing Young as the next Prime Minister is not going to solve the problems that are being faced by the citizens of the country. She said that the country needed a complete change of guards at the centre and not just cosmetic changes as was being done by the PNM leadership to secure their political careers.
