Kamla: Young’s Cabinet ‘a joke’

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Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has described newly inaugurated Prime Minister Stuart Young's Cabinet as "a joke."

Most of Young's appointments remain unchanged from Dr Keith Rowley's.

The changes came with Camille Robinson-Regis being appointed Attorney General to replace Reginald Armour who is now a judge on the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal. As a result, Adrian Leonce was elevated to the substantive post of Minister of Housing and Urban Development. Fitzgerald Hinds was made Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister while Marvin Gonzales became Minister of National Security. Colm Imbert replaced Gonzales as Minister of Public Utilities. He was replaced by public servant Vishnu Dhanpaul, the former high commissioner to the UK and permanent secretary in the finance and energy ministries.

Young retained control of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries which he headed since 2021 following the death of minister Franklin Khan.

The Cabinet was sworn in on March 17 at 3.30 pm at President's House, St Ann's. Shortly after the ceremony, Persad-Bissessar told Newsday this was the "same old failed cabinet with a minor reshuffle,' one which "cannot solve the problems they created."

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"Marvin can’t find water on a tropical island. He’s been one of the most incompetent ministers ever. Between Marvin and Camille safety and security is done. This new cabinet is the same old cabinet. It’s a joke."

She said Young retained control of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries because he is "tied to" Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. It was a reference to the controversial Dragon gas deal between both countries.

Persad-Bissessar said she had no faith in Dhanpaul as she blamed him for having a hand in the country's economic challenges.

"He was the PS for Imbert for years as minister of finance. It's Dhanpaul's advice to Imbert that has the country in economic ruin, he can’t salvage the mess because he made it...They have actually managed to replace Imbert with someone worse."

However, National Transformation Alliance political leader Gary Griffith believes Dhanpaul could be a good minister of finance.

"That certainly is not a political one because that individual is definitely not a PNM, party-card die-hard supporter, or a member of the PNM, and is a public servant. So this is a very unique development of someone being selected on his capability and his skill rather than his political affiliation."

Reflecting on his time as commissioner of police, Griffith said Dhanpaul was second to none as a PS.

"In the absence of a competent minister of finance, he was forced to do a lot of work and damage control to things that were affecting me as the commissioner of police, trying to shift funds from one to another allocation of funds that were being given based on bad management. He was able to do a lot to rectify the situation."

Despite the praise, Griffith said he did not believe Dhanpaul was "a magician" who could overhaul the Ministry of Finance to make up for the shortcomings of his predecessor.

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For the others, Griffith believes Young constituted a cabinet for the campaign trail geared towards winning the general election.

"This has been a political campaign-selected cabinet rather than a selection of persons to provide delivery of service."

"Their focus is on an election campaign and trying to remain in government so the focus would not have been horses for courses and putting the new prime minister would have seen as the best person available to be Attorney General, etc. He would have been making the decision based on what is best for the political campaign, so this has been a cabinet appointed specifically to put persons in specific positions that can be of benefit to the PNM during the election campaign."

Newsday was unable to get a comment from Patriotic Front political leader Mickela Panday.

In a separate statement from Persad-Bissesar, the UNC condemned Young's ascension to the prime ministership.

"The appointment of Stuart Young as prime minister, without the mandate of the people through a general election, is an unlawful act of desperation. It is a clear attempt to manufacture the illusion of change in the hope that citizens will forget the last ten years of pain, suffering, abuse, and nothingness under this failed administration. But the people of TT are not fooled. The PNM is merely reshuffling the same deck of failures, hoping to convince the electorate to 'give them a chance' — a chance to continue their mismanagement and destruction of our nation."

Persad-Bissessar previously threatened to take legal action if Young was sworn in but did not respond to questions from Newsday on if this was still on the table.

Young was appointed to take the reins from Rowley who resigned on March 16 but remains political leader of the PNM. Both men made history in TT with Rowley being the first prime minister to resign while Young became the first person of Chinese lineage to hold the office.