Trinidad & Tobago
PP govt shuffles pack
By Sandra Chouthi
Special to Indo Caribbean World
Port-of-Spain - The People's Partnership's government underwent a major Cabinet reshuffle over the weekend of June 25 with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar delivering one surprise with the change in portfolios.
Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan was removed as Minister of Energy and given the role of Minister of Public Administration. Replacing her was Kevin Ramnarine, former parliamentary secretary in the energy ministry.
Seepersad-Bachan was unhappy with the move. She was described by political analyst Dr Indira Rampersad, a lecturer in political science at the University of the West Indies, as doing a good job.
The unhappiness over the reshuffle spread to into the ranks the Congress of the People, which is a six-seat partner in the PP five-party coalition that forms the government. Seepersad-Bachan is a founding member, a deputy leader, and a hard worker who contributed significantly to COP gaining its seats in the 2010 general election.
On the night of June 26, the disgruntled party delivered a letter to Persad-Bissessar outlining its discontent with the Cabinet reshuffle. The letter pointed to the changing of portfolios for San Fernando West MP Seepersad-Bachan and requested an "urgent" meeting to discuss the issue.
The party had hoped to have had the issue resolved before the swearing-in ceremony on June 27. COP chairman, Joseph Toney, told the media the party was waiting on a response from the Prime Minister before deciding its next step.
"It is improper to give the Prime Minister a deadline to respond, so we will wait for her schedule," Toney said.
The reshuffle and perceived slight of the COP's role in the coalition came at a time when the party was well underway in its elections for a new leader.
Other changes in the reshuffle saw Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis getting the axe. She had developed a reputation for bad relations with doctors and the Medical Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Her replacement is Dr Fuad Khan.
Also a partial surprise in the reshuffle was the adjustment of the portfolio held by Jack Warner. Part of his portfolio included works and transport. The changeover saw him holding on to works, with the transport component going to Devant Maharaj, the previous chairman of the Public Transport Service Corporation.
Warner dismissed the change to his workload by vowing to work even harder.
The changes to the 13 portfolios in the Cabinet received mixed reactions. In its editorial following the government move, the Trinidad Express indicated that the changes by PM Persad-Bissessar were meant more to consolidate her power within the party and bolster the coalition's position in office. The reshuffle was not really a move to ensure better governance through assigning better fits to portfolios, it said. The newspaper also wondered at the enigmatic changes to Warner's portfolio, saying it was not "unreasonable to assume" that Persad-Bissessar wanted to send a signal as to who has the real power in government.
The editorial added: "At the same time, Mrs Persad-Bissessar may have calculated that she needs to maintain a good working relationship with Mr Warner because of his popularity with citizens, to say nothing of his proven political cunning. But, had she put country before party, the Prime Minister would have sent a much stronger message by removing Mr Warner from the Cabinet until investigations into the bribery allegations against him are completed. The fact that he is a 'hard working Minister who gets things done', as his defenders put it, does not absolve Mr Warner from being held to proper standards of public conduct." At that time, Warner was embroiled in an international scandal involving allegations of impropriety with the world football body, FIFA.
Reaction also focused on the appropriateness in the removal of Seepersad-Bachan from the energy ministry. According to the Trinidad Express, there is a national sentiment that Ms Seepersad-Bachan was doing a good job in her portfolio. However, Persad-Bissessar has justified her decision that by saying Public Administration requires the same effective management. The Express noted that "just because an individual performs well in one area does not mean that they will do so in another, and Ms Seepersad-Bachan's expertise is in energy."
The Trinidad Guardian was similarly skeptical of the reshuffle, stating that such a move is "always a risky tactic, since it sends a signal that the government has failed in certain ways." The newspaper added: "The choices made by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar do not give assurance that she has addressed such failures."
It added: "No doubt Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been an observant manager of her Cabinet colleagues in their first year of service to her government and to be sure, it was the first year in the role for quite a few of those newly-elected Ministers. Given the daunting list of promises that were offered on the campaign trail, it must be personally galling for the Prime Minister to realise that so many of the ambitious plans of the new government for its first 100 days remain undelivered to a public that's now unafraid to be sceptical of political benevolence. In that context, it's not out of line to hope that the changes in personnel as well as assignment will result in stronger alignment among talent, responsibilities and anticipated results."