Angry Rowley targets Amery over ‘rig the game’ post...

Angry Rowley targets Amery over ‘rig the game’ post

Former People’s National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley’s comment on a post made by former minister Dr Amery Browne went viral yesterday.Browne’s Facebook post late on Tuesday, which featured a picture of Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles and himself with the caption: “They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake authentici­ty”, drew a lot of commen­ta­ry­—negative and some positive.Some commenters said they felt the comment was in poor taste and unwarran­ted, others felt Browne was expressing his views on the legitimacy of the process that saw Stuart Young being appointed as prime minister.

Rowley was not happy about what could have been interpreted as an attempt “to rig” the process that saw Young being selected for his replacement as prime minister on the basis of a straw poll.Said Rowley, “Et tu Brutus! Thank you Amery for the accusation; that I and those who followed my idea, attempted to rig an election.“You, more than anyone else should know the depth of my authenticity, commitment and caring. Rest assured that whatever strategy I advanced and pursued had nothing to do with rigging (unless you can show me where I broke or suppressed any clause in any Constitution, party or national).

“My date is now not with fair weather colleagues but with history, already written. By now you would know that I was never overwhelmed by office nor did I ever fall in love with it. I can find comfort in the inspiring, immortal words of Martin Luther King, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty I’m free at last’.”Browne later yesterday removed the post from Facebook.

The fix that failed

In October last year, almost immediately after a strong intimation in Parliament from then-People’s National Movement (PNM) prime minister Keith Rowley that he was having his swansong and would be leaving the Parliament, the PNM tersely announced that “its 51st Annual Convention, as well as the internal election, originally scheduled for Sunday, November 17, 2024, has been cancelled”.The cancellation at once raised questions whether the PNM leadership wished to avoid succession to the offices of prime minister and political leader of the PNM being determined by the membership of the PNM and to facilitate Rowley hand-picking his successor as prime minister. Rowley had long declared his belief that Stuart Young MP was the pick of his Cabinet ministers and plainly desired to have Young succeed him as prime minister.

The PNM leadership intimated that Young was the unanimous choice to succeed Rowley but there was no such unanimity at the retreat. There was reportedly “a straw poll” and the PNM Members of the House of Representatives (the House) were reportedly split 11 for Young and nine for ­Pennelope Beckles, MP for Arima.On January 7, 2025, I commented on “the huge political vulnerability of Young” if he did not have the unanimous support of all the PNM members of the House unequivocally expressed in writing for the guidance of the President of the Republic, who would be asked to appoint Young as prime minister. Apparently there was subsequently a scramble to obtain such a document and this requirement was fulfilled by the time Rowley resigned.

What a severe price the PNM has paid and how pointlessly Rowley has made them pay it. Despite the PNM losses last Monday, Beckles successfully retained her Arima seat and will now be entering Parliament as newly appointed Opposition Leader.Had Beckles or any other person properly elected by the PNM membership in internal elections faced the polls last Monday, would the PNM earth have been so badly scorched?Meanwhile, welcome Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on your return. Thank you for your emphasis on empathy in governance. The Rowley PNM administration sorely lacked it.

Martin Daly SC

In reply to sgtdjones

Martin Daly is usually blunt and right .