{"id":56336,"date":"2025-05-30T21:50:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T01:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56336"},"modified":"2025-05-30T21:50:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T01:50:27","slug":"vaulting-ambition-pnms-reincarnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=56336","title":{"rendered":"Vaulting ambition & PNM\u2019s reincarnation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
\nMay 24, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>The cracks in the PNM\u2019s hegemony became more prominent after its defeat in the last general election. Power and cowardice hid these fissures for a long time. All one sees within the PNM now is \u201cvaulting ambition, which o\u2019er-leaps itself\/ And falls on th\u2019 other\u201d. (Macbeth) This reckless ambition will lead the party into an abyss.<\/p>\n

After the PNM\u2019s political disaster, the former Leader of Our Grief and Sorrow accused Dr Amery Browne of ingratitude after Browne suggested they could \u201crig the game but can\u2019t fake authenticity\u201d. Robert Le Hunte says of the Leader\u2019s imposition of Stuart Young on the party: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just cynical. It was obscene. It was perverse.\u201d (Express, May 10.)
\n
\nThe \u201cPNM Changemakers\u201d demanded the \u201cimmediate removal\u201d of Foster Cummings, secretary of the party (Express, May 10.) They accused him of \u201ctrying to retain his grip on PNM\u2019s internal machinery\u201d. What cruel fate! It is claimed that Cummings ran Patrick Manning out of Balisier House when Manning lost the 2010 national election.<\/p>\n

Some of us saw signs of the party\u2019s decay before April 28.<\/p>\n

In 2019, I wrote that \u201cthe PNM does not need an expert to tell it where it has gone astray. It needs to listen to the whispers of ordinary people to understand the quandary into which it has found itself.\u201d (Express, August 31, 2019.)<\/p>\n

I argued that the former Leader should stop attacking Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the UNC…and concentrate on telling the people what it did during the period (2015-19) and hoped to achieve in 2020-25; every PNM member should be involved in getting the party ready for 2020; and the party\u2019s legislative arm should meet monthly to discuss national issues.<\/p>\n

I suggested the party recant its belief that money (financial resources) alone could take it forward. Ideas (human resources) were essential in the process of governing. I asked the Leader to seek competent people rather than inexperienced and incompetent friends to run the various agencies of government, and insisted that the party institute concrete programmes to improve the lives of black youths.<\/p>\n

Finally, I counselled the former Leader to stop ad-libbing when he addresses the nation on serious issues. I reminded him that leadership requires a combination of reflective intelligence and intuitive action and that he should use his political capital wisely.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, it seems that the PNM\u2019s leaders did not study Eric Williams\u2019 writings carefully. In \u201cPerspectives of the Party\u201d (1958), Williams spoke about the possibility of the party having two leaders: a political leader and a theoretical leader.<\/p>\n

He noted that \u201cat this present stage of development, he [the political leader] is the main source of its ideals and of its political and social attitudes\u201d. The theoretical leader \u201cis the source of inspiration, ideas and facts and research for journalists, orators and the innumerable other individuals and groups who transmit their ideas to the public\u201d. CLR James had taught him this approach to governance.<\/p>\n

A modification of this arrangement, if worked out carefully, may have justified PNM having a political leader and a Squatter PM serving simultaneously and working together. Vaulting ambition and egocentric posturing prevented such a collaboration.<\/p>\n

A lack of courage by party and legislative leaders also played its part in the PNM\u2019s failure. No one was brave enough to buck the iron hand of the Leader publicly, which raises the question: how prepared are they to lead now and why the precipitous rush to select new leaders so quickly? My mother used to say, \u201cHurry bird build bad nest.\u201d<\/p>\n

PNM\u2019s public relations officer Faris Al-Rawi stated that the General Council agreed to hold a special convention on June 29, 2025. Former general secretary Ashton Ford called this decision \u201cperplexing, especially given the expectation that the party is entering a critical rebuilding phase\u201d. (Guardian, May 21.)<\/p>\n

He reminded the party that \u201crebuilding a party begins with its foundation\u2014the party groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s critical of the party hosting a convention without the participation of the party groups, \u201cthe ground troops of the PNM\u201d. He characterised the political manoeuvring of the party executive who led a failed election campaign as a strategy \u201cto engineer a predetermined outcome…Many party members are now openly expressing their concern about this rushed convention\u201d.<\/p>\n

Any casual observer would want to know why this rush to an early convention is any different from the former Leader\u2019s rush to impose a Squatter PM on the nation. But as is true of the PNM these days, \u201cThe more things change, the more they stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inexperienced and uninformed PNM members may be delighted by this inexplicable change, but veteran party members realise that the exchange of one dictatorial group for another guarantees the PNM will remain in opposition for the next ten years.<\/p>\n

A reincarnated PNM should be reminded of Williams\u2019 advice to the PNM\u2019s Youth League circa 1960s: humility, patience, and integrity. Therein lies PNM salvation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe May 24, 2025 The cracks in the PNM\u2019s hegemony became more prominent after its defeat in the last general election. Power and cowardice hid these fissures for a long time. All one sees within the PNM now is \u201cvaulting ambition, which o\u2019er-leaps itself\/ And falls on th\u2019 other\u201d. (Macbeth) This … Continue reading Vaulting ambition & PNM\u2019s reincarnation<\/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":[1,30,7],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-56336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-pnm","category-politics","tag-raffique-shah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56336","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=56336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56337,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56336\/revisions\/56337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}