PNM must re-engineer itself if it ever wants to return to government

Opposition Senator Pennelope Beckles says the People’s National Movement (PNM) needs to re-engineer itself if it wants to return to Government some day.

"If it is that the PNM is to see the corridors of power again, we need to look at that whole issue of restructuring of the party...the whole issue of putting better checks and balances if we are to attract people and motivate people to come into the party," she said.

The former Arima MP was speaking at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies forum (SALISES) at a seminar aimed at doing an analysis of the 2010 general election.

Beckles linked the PNM’s defeat to the removal of sitting MPs, noting that ex-political leader Patrick Manning did it both in the 2007 and 2010 elections.

She herself was one of those who felt Manning's wrath and was denied the opportunity to run again in Arima despite widespread support for her. The PNM lost the Arima seat which had always been a bastion of support for the party.

Manning also turned down Beckles for the La Horquetta/ Talparo seat, which the party also lost to the People's Partnership.

She said anyone following the multiplicity of calypsoes written against the government or the former prime minister "wouldn’t be too surprised about the results of the election".

UWI lecturer in International Relations Dr Indira Rampersad suggested that the PNM could have retained some of its seats if it had allowed sitting MPs to contest the election. These include Arima, Tobago West and Toco/Sangre Grande.

Political scientist Dr Selwyn Ryan said there is a need to re-establish the viability of the Opposition.

"That we have to re-engineer the (PNM). We have to make sure that what happened to people like Valley and Hinds and Beckles and others does not happen again. At least not so easily," he said.

Ryan suggested at that the PNM special leadership convention on June 27 should re-examine the assumptions of what is a proper party.