PM MENDING FENCES?

IS IT by coincidence that Laventille East/Morvant MP, Fitzgerald Hinds’ Parliamentary apprenticeship was considered by Prime Minister Patrick Manning to have ended around the same time that Point Fortin MP Larry Achong resigned as Labour Minister? In turn, what made Hinds intimate that he would reportedly accept the portfolio of Minister in the Ministry of National Security, an offer he had earlier spurned? Is it that Minister of National Security Martin Joseph will have his appointment revoked, offered another position, and Hinds appointed to replace him? Additionally, why would Hinds accept a portfolio he had initially rejected at the start of the term of Office of the present Administration, and which led Manning to hint that he had not yet served out his apprenticeship? Is it that the Prime Minister has indeed offered him the position of Minister of National Security, for which he had been bypassed earlier?

Is there a correlation between Achong’s stepping down and the appointment of Tobago West MP Eudine Job-Davis, another backbencher, as Junior Minister in the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs? These are some of the questions that need to be asked and answered. However, should Joseph be part of a mini Cabinet reshuffle it might be as a result of his gaffe last week Tuesday, when in answering a media question about increased security at the Atlantic LNG Train Four construction project at Pt Fortin, he replied that it had been at the request of Atlantic. It would have been politically correct for Joseph merely to have said that the Protective Services had determined the need for additional security. But for him to have implied, however unintentionally, that it had been determined on the basis of a request by Atlantic LNG sent all the wrong signals.

Scores of additional police officers, along with soldiers had been deployed to the area when as Joseph stated, Atlantic LNG had requested Government to provide the assurance that persons wishing to work “could do so without inhibitions.” Ironically, Achong, who had tendered his resignation from Cabinet three days earlier, had been widely promoted as speaking to the workers that day. This somehow conveyed the impression that this was the reason for the deployment of additional security, including the presence of a Coast Guard vessel off Point Fortin.

Because Hinds and Job-Davis had reportedly been uncomfortable with Manning’s not appointing them to suitable portfolios at the start of the current Administration, the Prime Minister’s bringing in of Job-Davis as a Junior Minister and offering Hinds a portfolio may be read as a sign that he is seeking to eliminate any discomfort some MPs are reported to be having with him. But whether the Prime Minister is seeking to mend fences or not, what appears to have been a volte face triggered by Achong’s disenchantment with the Administration refusing to act on his Cabinet note on a Sectoral Minimum Wage may be read by many as a sign of weakness on the part of Manning.