Young gets National Security post; Attorney will be Griffith’s line minister as silver spoon gang widens influence

Has Gary Griffith’s bug spray taken its first victim?

By the time the new Commissioner of Police is sworn in, his line minister will not be retired Major General Edmund Dillon; but political neophyte Stuart Young, who has been hoovering up portfolios like a fat child at a buffet.

Young—an attorney by trade who was at Camp Cumuto on the same day that Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s children were photographed with high power weapons—now has a curious triple portfolio as Minister of National Security, Minister of Communications and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, which might be the most Orwellian amalgam of job titles in the modern political era.

Photo: Ah could get the Heath Ministry too?
New National Security Minister Stuart Young (right) has a word with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
(Copyright Trinidad Newsday)

The shuffle will cock the eyebrows of conspiracy theorists who suggested that Griffith’s imminent appointment was meant to be an insurance policy for the “one percent” rather than a meaningful attempt to improve the Police Service.

Arguably, the “one percent”—or at least the well-heeled—is rather well represented in the PNM government anyway, with Al-Rawi as Attorney General, Colm Imbert as Finance Minister, Franklin Khan as Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Rohan Sinanan as Minister of Works and Transport, and now Young as Minister of National Security.

It might have been easier to get into Club Coconuts on a Friday night in the 1990s than to get a substantial portfolio in the PNM government without a silver spoon in your back pocket.

So what now for Dillon, who was embarrassingly named in a civil proceedings in the US for allegedly attempting to defraud an incapacitated pensioner of his high-rise Manhattan condominium?

Dillon, who settled with the aggrieved family in the aforementioned matter, is now Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Housing. At least you can’t accuse Dr Keith Rowley of putting square pegs in round holes.

Photo: Former Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon.
(Copyright Jamaica Observer)

(Dr Keith Rowley’s reassignments)

In accordance with the provisions of Sections 3(9), 76(3) and 79(1) and 82(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Dr the Honourable Keith Rowley yesterday (August 05, 2018) advised Her Excellency Paula-Mae Weekes, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to:

  1. Revoke the appointment of Mr Maxie Cuffie as Minister in the Ministry of Public Administration and appoint him as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Public Administration;
  2. Revoke the Prime Minister’s assignment as Minister of Housing and Urban Development;
  3. Revoke the appointment of Major General (Retired) Edmund Dillon as Minister of National Security and appoint Major General (Retired) Dillon as Minister of Housing and Urban Development; and
  4. Revoke the appointment of Mr Stuart Young as Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs and appoint Mr Young as Minister of National Security, in addition to his responsibilities as Minister of Communications and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister also advised the President that the Minister of Public Administration, Ms Marlene Mc Donald resumed her duties on Thursday August 02, 2018.

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One comment

  1. Testicular fortitude to call a spade a spade is non existent in local journalistic circles so I applaud your bravado Lassana. Party hacks feeding off crumbs and busy fighting for red and yellow while the silver spoon gang stuffing their coffers with money and influence. Great job as usual in seeing through the smoke. Dillon and Williams took too long to find the phone and that was the straw the broke the camel back.

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