Rowley on Beckles’ leadership: ‘She’s trying her best’

AKASH SAMA­ROO

Lead Ed­i­tor - Pol­i­tics

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is try­ing her best as po­lit­i­cal leader of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

Speak­ing ex­clu­sive­ly with Guardian Me­dia at his Good­wood Park home, Row­ley re­flect­ed on Beck­les’ first year as PNM po­lit­i­cal leader, say­ing while they may have dif­fer­ent ap­proach­es, every leader brings their own style to the par­ty.

“She’s try­ing her best. We’re not the same. We are dif­fer­ent peo­ple, dif­fer­ent ap­proach­es,” Row­ley said.

“The par­ty will have dif­fer­ent lead­ers. There was Williams, there was Cham­bers, there was Man­ning, there was Row­ley. We’re not the same. We all put our best foot for­ward and hope that we can take the par­ty one step clos­er to vic­to­ry.”

Beck­les marked one year as PNM po­lit­i­cal leader on June 29, 2026, af­ter suc­ceed­ing Row­ley, who led the par­ty for more than a decade.

But when asked to as­sess Beck­les’ per­for­mance af­ter her first year at the helm, Row­ley said he was not pre­pared to grade her lead­er­ship.

“I’m com­mit­ted to the PNM. The lead­er­ship that the PNM elects, who­ev­er is lead­ing the PNM is my leader and I have a du­ty to recog­nise that,” he said.

Row­ley said if mem­bers are dis­sat­is­fied with the di­rec­tion of the par­ty at any point, it is for the mem­ber­ship to ad­dress.

“That’s how it is,” Row­ley said. “But in the mean­time, it is not for me to beat any drum over per­for­mance and mark any grade. Peo­ple will try their best.”

The for­mer prime min­is­ter said his ap­proach has al­ways been that peo­ple should be giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to prove them­selves.

He com­pared it to the ad­vice he gave his own chil­dren.

“I said to my chil­dren, I don’t know what you’re go­ing to turn out to be. I hope you turn out to do well, but the one thing I’ll ask of you is al­ways give it your best,” he said.

Row­ley’s com­ments come amid pub­lic crit­i­cism of the cur­rent PNM ex­ec­u­tive, with for­mer Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford de­scrib­ing it as “au­thor­i­tar­i­an.”

How­ev­er, Row­ley said dis­agree­ment with­in the PNM is noth­ing new and does not mean mem­bers are any less com­mit­ted to the par­ty.

“There’s noth­ing to pre­vent a par­ty mem­ber from ex­press­ing him or her­self, and if some­one is tar­get­ed in that ex­pres­sion, too bad for them,” Row­ley said.

He said par­ty mem­bers have al­ways had the free­dom to voice con­cerns.

“There’s noth­ing writ­ten or un­writ­ten which says a par­ty mem­ber has to keep his fin­ger on the lips even if you have some­thing to say,” he said.

Row­ley said the strength of the PNM has al­ways been the com­mit­ment of its mem­bers to the or­gan­i­sa­tion, even when there are dif­fer­ences of opin­ion.

“So I could speak about the PNM and not be ef­fu­sive in my praise of a par­tic­u­lar ac­tion. That doesn’t mean I’m any less com­mit­ted to the PNM,” he said.

The for­mer PNM leader said he ex­pe­ri­enced sim­i­lar crit­i­cism dur­ing his own tenure, in­clud­ing from peo­ple who ques­tioned whether he could re­turn the par­ty to gov­ern­ment.

“When I was leader of the PNM, there were peo­ple in the PNM who had a lot to say about me, to the point where they were say­ing that I would nev­er lead the PNM to vic­to­ry,” Row­ley said.

“I didn’t let that dis­tract me.”

He said some crit­ics lat­er changed their views, while oth­ers did not, adding that de­bate and dis­agree­ment have al­ways ex­ist­ed through­out the par­ty’s his­to­ry.

“The PNM is a very live or­gan­i­sa­tion with deep roots in this coun­try,” Row­ley said.

“The PNM is a very, very colour­ful or­gan­i­sa­tion.”