Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Aujourd'hui 06:32

Lee: Stuart young but no different to Rowley

OPPOSITION chief whip David Lee was sceptical about the impending appointment of Energy Minister Stuart Young to be prime minister, but his opposition colleague Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally wished Young well, although vowing to hold him to account. Lee opined that Young was simply a younger version of the Prime Minister, as he dismissed the expected handover of the leadership of the country, speaking to reporters as he entered the Red House for the House of Representatives sitting on January 13. "All the policies of this Government, Stuart Young was part and parcel of. He was a senior individual, grown over the years, with Prime Minister Rowley, so what do you expect going further? He is just a younger version, in my view. He might be of a different race." Lee said he watched the media conference after the PNM General Council on January 11 featuring Young (PNM chairman) and Minister of Youth Development Foster Cummings (general secretary). [caption id="attachment_1132600" align="alignnone" width="683"] Point-a-Pierre MP David Lee arrives to Parliament on Monday. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption] "The body language says it all. It tells me that nothing has been solved. That is my interpretation of the body language. "But as you know, the PNM has to appear to be healed and to be one. That is their mantra. "But one would never have expected the kind of bacchanal that would have taken place in the past two months with this whole issue of their leadership." Lee said the SoE was announced on December 30 at a news briefing by Young and Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds. "The Prime Minister was nowhere there to be seen. "Then the following week, right after New Year's, there is this whole issue about leadership and who will be prime minister and who will be political leader. That whole conversation has taken away from the crux of the matter we are coming to debate here today, which is the SoE." He likened Young's appointment before a general election to a substitute on a football team, just given a chance to play before the end of the game. "Prime Minister Rowley has to give Stuart Young a 'sweat'. In football you have to give the 12th man a sweat before the match ends. "I think that is what is happening here today, that he is giving Stuart Young a sweat to see if he can score a goal. We will wait and see." Reporters asked his thoughts of Foreign Affaris Minister Dr Amery Browne's reported interested in seeking to become Diego Martin West MP upon Rowley's bowing out. Lee said, "I really don't want to get into PNM confusion and bacchanal. When you look at how the UNC has run there business, we are very democratic, we are very calm as a united party. When there were talks about our internal (elections) last year, democracy played out. There we are. We are calm, cool. "Everybody talked about the PNM being an institution and look at the bacchanal that is happening in the PNM right now. I really don't want to talk about who takes over the PM's seat in Diego Martin West." [caption id="attachment_1132601" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley debates the SoE bill in Parliament on Monday. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption] Reporters asked if the UNC was apace with the PNM in candidate selection for the general election. Lee said, "We do everything very strategic. Last year when the PNM was putting out all their candidates, you ask the question: why are they putting out all their candidates? "Maybe it was negotiations for what is happening right now in the PNM bacchanal." With most PNM MPs being returned, he reckoned that reflected negotiations behind the scenes. Newsday asked if UNC MPs on the UP slate, which was led by Mayaro MP Rushton Paray in the UNC internal elections, would get a fair hearing at the screening. Lee replied, "You refer to them as dissidents. I am not referring to them as dissidents. I am referring to them as colleagues. "Out of the five, I think four or three said they had filed (nomination papers for the general election.) They will come to screening if they decide to come to screening, and they will have a fair hearing just as how we had our internal elections back in June last year where everybody had a chance. We had a very open and democratic election." Rambally, however, welcomed Young's pending move to become PM. He said, "I commend Minister Young. "You are seeing someone who is young in their profession, relatively young in politics, prepared to offer themselves at the highest level. "He is going to be scrutinised in a way more than ever before. It is commendable that people are prepared to do that. So I would wish him well, wish him the best. "I'd want to wish him well, that at the end of the day he serves well, he leads well." Rambally said Young's message of unity to build TT has resonated with him. "That being said, I have not lost focus in that he will now be held to the highest standards of accountability. "So as an opposition MP, whatever I have directed at Dr Keith Christopher Rowley is now going to be double-fold against my good partner and friend and my colleague in the legal profession, Minister Young."   The post Lee: Stuart young but no different to Rowley appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.