{"id":56234,"date":"2025-02-02T04:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T08:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56234"},"modified":"2025-02-02T04:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T08:11:10","slug":"uncs-victory-the-necessary-antidote-to-pnms-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56234","title":{"rendered":"UNC\u2019s victory: the necessary antidote to PNM\u2019s revival"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nJanuary 25, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>A United National Congress victory in the forthcoming election is the necessary antidote to heal the fissures that have erupted in the PNM\u2019s political structure. Only a UNC victory can counteract the fiendish act of PNM\u2019s hierarchy of selling the party to the highest financial bidders. This will necessitate that PNM takes a more careful look at itself, especially in the absence of the Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow.
\n
\nThe PNM has achieved many notable achievements in the past. It has even performed reasonably well economically during the present. However, the time has come for it to ask where it has gone wrong. The party must recognise that the Leader\u2019s hegemony over the party has diminished its internal strength and external appeal, even preventing it from electing the political leader its members want.<\/p>\n

Stuart Young is presumed to be the prime minister-in-waiting. In 2016 the Express stated that \u201cStuart Young appears to have taken over as the Government\u2019s spokesperson at the weekly post-Cabinet news conference.\u201d (June 1, 2016).<\/p>\n

In June 2016 at the Mt D\u2019Or Community Centre the Leader declared that every team needs a Gary Sobers and that Young was his Gary Sobers. In 2017 Young replaced Maxie Cuffie as the Minister of Communications. In 2019 the Leader elaborated on Young\u2019s versatility: \u201cSo when yuh hear they refer to Minster Young, hoping for it to be a derogatory term, as \u2018Minister of Everything,\u2019 he must wear that title as a badge of honour.\u201d (Express, June 29, 2019).<\/p>\n

Sobers was a great West Indian all-rounder. However, his greatness didn\u2019t just happen. He learned his cricketing skills from the three Ws (Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, and Clyde Walcott), whom he observed carefully.<\/p>\n

Sobers said: \u201cI learnt from watching [them] because I used to look at how they played. I didn\u2019t watch the sixes or fours they hit. I wasn\u2019t interested in that. I used to watch their movements and watch the pitch of the ball and length to see what they do to that kind of ball, how they move. When I went to play, I used to practise with the boys and practise what I saw, because we didn\u2019t have any coaches in those days. That is how I learnt.\u201d (Vaneisa Baksh, Son of Grace).<\/p>\n

Young learned his politricks from the Leader\u2014who revels in the cussing style of Prospero, the coloniser\u2014and Camille Robinson-Regis, \u201cthe mother of the movement,\u201d as Young called her. He knew little about the grit of Florence Guy (Ma Guy), Isabel Teshea, Norma Lewis, or Muriel McDonawa-Davidson, the grand dames of the movement.<\/p>\n

Sobers didn\u2019t become great because the three Ws proclaimed him to be so. He became great because of what he accomplished. Young was vaulted into prominence because the Leader, who speaks ex-cathedra on all matters of doctrine and faith in the PNM, hand-picked him for the position.<\/p>\n

Young produced nothing of substance before he arrived in government in 2015. Thereafter, his accomplishments were slim even though he has served his leader well. He was the minister of National Security without having any success; the Minister of Energy with nothing to show for it; and a junior minister in the AG\u2019s Office responsible for anti-corruption efforts that produced no meaningful results.<\/p>\n

Young has sat side-by-side with the Leader initiating energy deals, etc. All these activities accorded with his accounting and legal background. Although he became Senior Counsel, no one has documented his accomplishments in the legal field. He has not worked in the legal profession since he joined the Government.<\/p>\n

The Leader outfoxed his colleagues politically. He made them focus on the shadows rather than the substance; on what they called \u201cprocess\u201d rather than Young\u2019s suitability (substance) to run the country\u2019s affairs. Avory Sinanan, a well-respected senior counsel, suggested that Young is not \u201cthe political knight in shining armour who will rescue the country from its calamitous journey as it careens inexorably to \u2018failed nation\u2019 status.\u201d (Express, January 20). This was brave of him. He will never receive another state brief from this Government again.<\/p>\n

William Shakespeare warned in Julius Caesar: \u201cThere is a tide in the affairs of men \/ Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; \/ Omitted, all the voyage of their life \/ Is bound in shallows and in miseries.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the PNM\u2019s parliamentary members acted honourably in the PNM fiasco although they all possess the title \u201chonourable.\u201d I don\u2019t know how they will recoup their losses, but their inability to act decisively leaves them in the \u201cshallows and in misery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only a UNC victory can save the PNM from its political misery and impotence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe January 25, 2025 A United National Congress victory in the forthcoming election is the necessary antidote to heal the fissures that have erupted in the PNM\u2019s political structure. Only a UNC victory can counteract the fiendish act of PNM\u2019s hierarchy of selling the party to the highest financial bidders. This … Continue reading UNC\u2019s victory: the necessary antidote to PNM\u2019s revival<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,30,142],"tags":[171,49],"class_list":["post-56234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-pnm","category-unc","tag-selwyn-r-cudjoe","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56235,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56234\/revisions\/56235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}