TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar may have given a positive signal to her, at times, controversial Minister of Works, Jack Warner, once a very popular name in regional and international football, in having him act as Prime Minister earlier this week.
For Warner, it must be comforting to know that after all the stifling tension that erupted within the administration he serves in Port-of-Spain –following sizzling allegations about FIFA-related corruption–he was back in the power-saddle, though just for two days as acting Prime Minister.
The first time he acted, and the first to do so as a cabinet minister of the then People’s Partnership Government (PPG), was in July last year when Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar departed for her debut appearance at the CARICOM Summit in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Since then, with the emergence of allegations against Warner over alleged bribery money for Caribbean football representatives, ahead of FIFA’s presidential election, there have been speculations about the minister’s future with the government.
Well Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar seems to have answered such concerns by appointing Warner to act in her absence for two days, ending on Monday, while she was in New York to participate in the United Nations High-Level Conference on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
In contrast, his former high-profile FIFA colleague, Mohammed Bin Hammam, has not fared well and remains quite bitter, having just last week lost his appeal against expulsion from the world football body.          
The old maxim that “you can’t keep a good man down” may not completely fit the seasoned political pro that Jack Warner has proven to be in the parliamentary politics of Trinidad and Tobago.
It is, nevertheless,  a good indicator of his capacity for survival,  his strong will  to overcome setbacks and to stay focused on the challenges as chairman of the  United National Congress (UNC) – dominant partner of the coalition government in Port-of-Spain– as well as a senior cabinet member, to have been  re-appointed to act as Prime Minister in the absence of  Persad-Bissessar, the party leader and Head of Government he has never failed to defend.
DISARMING THE MEDIA
Not even, that is, when he was either noticeably ignored or side-lined at public events. Or, worse, had his original ministerial portfolio split to lose the segment as Minister of Transport. He never grumbled. He always had sober explanations to offer, clearly intended to disarm enquiring journalists.
Take, for instance, just two examples early last month when the protesting villagers  in East Trinidad who were calling him to come to their assistance since they were not getting the necessary attention at the time of the constituency’s representative, Collin Pertab, Minister in the Ministry of National Security.
Warner’s get-it-right response, as  reported in the ‘Express’, was: “I heard they were calling for me and the Prime Minister as well…It will be, of course, wrong for any parliamentarian, for any minister to go to an MP constituency without his permission or approval…”
That problem, which was not as significant as an earlier one, was quickly overcome with Warner and Partab acting in tandem to ensure relief for the aggrieved villagers.
The earlier challenge came when Warner was requested by the media for his response to Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar’s move to implement a cabinet decision for the creation of an inter-ministerial committee to help provide “proper oversight and accountability” for the $7.2B Point Fortin Highway Project. That falls under the responsibility of the Minister of Works.
What, at first blush seemed to signal perhaps a  lack of confidence in the Minister of Works, was quickly elevated by the astute Warner as quite an appropriate initiative in the interest of transparency and accountability.
“We are spending $7.2 Billion (on this highway). It’s the (single) largest expenditure on a project of this kind in this part of the world…Believe me, I am happy for this (inter-ministerial) committee because the burden of having to explain, almost on a daily basis, to persons who would want answers for questions that  sometimes I can’t give, since they could comprise constituencies, inclusive of the Prime Minister’s….”
His conclusion was, as he said: “I don’t care if they appoint  one committee or 10, my only concern is that highway project…to get it done”.
That’s the Jack Warner who had kept political company with the UNC-founder-leader Basdeo Panday, until he found it impossible to any longer maintain that relationship. Instead, he turned out to be a most decisive backer of  Persad-Bissessar to succeed the crafty ‘Bas’ as party leader, and to also emerge as party chairman with the biggest bloc of popular votes.
I suspect that, having given herself some expedient political space in  her public relations with the UNC’s  chairman and go-get-it-done cabinet minister, it could now be a matter of time before Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar resumes her normal embrace of  the hitherto ebullient Jack Warner, Minister of Transport.