Opposition MP Barry Padarath says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has questions to answer on his reappointment of Port-of-Spain South MP Marlene McDonald to his Cabinet.
“We don’t expect this ‘reshuffle’ to change anything for the Government. More importantly, does the PM believe the population will so easily forget that he hired Ms McDonald twice and has had to fire her twice also? Can he say why he’s rehired her again?
“Has the Prime Minister been told that there are no Integrity or police matters against her any more? Will he make any findings public?”
Padarath noted that the PM, in firing McDonald last year, had signalled it was because of her closeness to people allegedly engaged in criminal conduct and that if his Government was to be able to respond to crime, it had to cut such affiliations. Padarath asked if the PM had changed his position since then.
“Is he willing to accept those affiliations in the context that the Government is so unpopular now it needs to do so?”
Political analyst Winsford James agreed Rowley needs to explain why he is intent on bringing McDonald back. Asking whether there was no one else suitable enough or showing ministerial potential to hold on in the absence of ill MP Maxie Cuffie, James said, “So these are questions for which we need answers and if we don’t get answers we are going to start speculating in very dangerous ways.”
He said the PM owed it to the public to fully explain why he was persisting with McDonald, he having taken the very “strong action” of dismissing her months ago because of her association with the underworld.
Another analyst, Dr Maukesh Basdeo, expressed similar sentiment, adding PM also failed to tell the country whether there had been closure and resolution to the issues which caused him to revoke McDonald’s appointments on the last two occasions.
He said the appointment also raised questions about Cuffie’s recovery, noting there were now issues about whether McDonald is “a caretaker coming in? What is happening with Cuffie? If he comes back will he be back in the Cabinet?”
He said it was interesting McDonald had been given a junior portfolio.