MANNING IN TROUBLE

Former Labour Minister Larry Achong’s declaration at Point Fortin on Monday that he would have to review his relationship with Government and the People’s National Movement (PNM) represents a clear indication either that he plans to leave the PNM or that he will have nothing more to do with a Patrick Manning-led Administration. Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s incredibly inept handling of Achong, after the former Minister voiced support for striking construction workers at Atlantic LNG’s Train IV and openly reminded Manning of his promise to introduce a Minimum Sectoral Wage, had led to Achong’s resignation from Cabinet. Manning had not only publicly disassociated himself from Achong’s stated position on the Minimum Sectoral Wage, saying it could not be introduced at the present time, but had pointedly excluded Achong from a Ministerial meeting on the current industrial situation.

Achong now joins two other disaffected PNM Members of Parliament on the back-bench in the House of Representatives — Fitzgerald Hinds, perhaps still chafing at being bypassed for the Ministry of National Security, and Eudine Job-Davis, who has declared herself as irrelevant to the Party. Manning, who is Political Leader of the ruling PNM should hope that the disaffected three do not flout the Party Whip at voting time, as former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday had feared with respect to the dissenting trio of Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj. Should they abstain from taking part in a crucial vote this would leave the Government in a 17-16 position. However, should two of them vote against the Government on an issue and one remain loyal this would result in an unworkable 18-18 tie. This would mean that the Manning Administration would simply have to coast along as it did in the period December, 2001 to October, 2002 when both the PNM and the UNC each had an equal number of seats (18-18) in Parliament. Once more, as in 2002, the Manning Administration would not be able to have any legislation passed and would just have to coast along.

Manning’s tacit alienating of Hinds and Job-Davis and now Achong, particularly with the loss of Office by the United National Congress Administration in 2001 still relatively fresh in people’s minds, suggests that Prime Minister Manning may be politically suicidal. For Achong, barring a political miracle, there is no turning back. His caustic comment, when he noted the deploying of additional Police Officers on Monday, when he was due to address striking workers, that it had been “the intention of the Government to brutalise the people, if you had misbehaved or had prevented people from going in,” had an air of finality.

Admittedly, no People’s National Movement MP has ever crossed the floor and be later re-elected with the exception of Ralph Maraj. This has been particularly true of Point Fortin, where two former MPs for the constituency — Roy Richardson and Vincent Lasse — crossed the floor and bit the political dust. But judging from the reaction of workers engaged in constructing Atlantic LNG’s Train Four who had walked off their jobs, Achong may yet be the first. But perhaps what Achong may have up his proverbial sleeve is joining with other persons disenchanted with Manning’s leadership to seek to remove him as Political Leader of the PNM.