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My intended topic this week was a further examination of the rumblings over leadership succession within the People’s National Movement (PNM), the party currently in government, with the General Elections due no later than November next year.
I have been suspicious that the PNM hierarchy wishes to avoid succession to the office of political leader and the post of prime minister being determined by the membership of the PNM—if the Prime Minister retires and there is a vacancy.
Photo: PNM
It can subsequently, or so it may be thinking, send the choice made by the PNM Members of the House of Representatives, to the membership for ratification.
Will the Constitution and the members of the PNM currently serving in the House of Representatives be turned to serve such a purpose?
It is difficult, however, to elaborate on this topic or, even in the face of another disastrous Fire Service failure, to write anything today that is probing or critical given the pervading sadness over the tragic death of Lisa Morris-Julian, PNM member of the House of Representatives for O’Meara, D’Abadie.
Together with two of her children, she perished in a fire that engulfed their family home.
Alternatively, I felt the pull to begin commentary on the 2024-2025 Panorama season as several beloved steel orchestras have already performed with customary excellence in the single pan competition, which concluded two Saturdays ago.
Congratulations to the winner San Juan East Side Symphony and to renowned arranger, Duvonne Stewart.
Even to write something blandly palatable about the joy of pan music seemed out of timing at this moment. In the midst of the current wave of sadness I feel the same reserve about extolling the joy of the Christmas season or trotting out positive, if timid hopes, for the New Year, 2025.
Photo: Pan Trinbago
I respectfully offer my own condolences to the Morris and Julian families and express my appreciation for their devotion to public service as well as my good wishes for Mr Julian’s recovery from his serious burn injuries.
The Prime Minister reportedly said: “the PNM has lost one of its finest representatives”.
From the outside looking in, but someone who, as a school boy, felt inspired by the advent of Dr Eric Williams into pre-Independence Trinidad and Tobago, the deceased Morris-Julian seems to have conducted herself in public life in a manner that cared for citizens but did not regularly treat us with anger and condescension.
Photo: Annalicia Caruth/ Wired868
The seminal inspiration of Dr Williams was contained in his assertion to us school children assembled in the Queen’s Park Oval at a rally as part of the Independence celebrations. He told us that “the future of the nation is in your school bag”.
I practically ran home from the Oval to Woodford Street, Newtown, where we lived, to tell my single parent mother this piece of news.
The backbone of the PNM comprises women who care for their own families, but nevertheless find the time to engage in politics in its laudable form of service for the betterment of the country’s people.
All appreciations of Morris-Julian suggest that she carried out her engagement in politics in that tradition, even while our practice of party politics has been sliding away from it.
Nowadays, there are many representatives of the political parties in Parliament and elsewhere who, unlike Morris-Julian, do not have unqualified reputations for kindness, warmth and diligence in community service. Perhaps therefore, the Prime Minister might seek to re-fashion the PNM representatives seeking election in 2025 according to this model. I give the same advice to the Opposition.
Our party’s political leaders must tell political aspirants to leave hate and condescension at the door—something hard to do with credibility unless the leaders can manage their own anger.
(via Newsday)
Despite my self-imposed restraint described above, it is important to repeat to all our grieving politicians that there is no room to be callous or offhand about rampant murder with impunity.
Moreover, will this Government, reeling as it is from the death of one of its beloved colleagues, now recognise that it is part of its duty to keep citizens safe and secure—contrary to the negative assertion of Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister of National Security, who will not be seeking re-election as MP for Laventille West?
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Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.
