By PETER GREEN
Poor Stuart Young!
Are you looking for sympathy?
You made a big fuss, first on your Facebook page and then in the Friday Guardian. That somebody called you to return your diplomatic passport.
Did you ask who called you? Why have you not returned your diplomatic passport?
You are not a Government official doing business for the State. Plus, you cannot compare yourself with Dr Keith Rowley who served as Prime Minister for almost ten years. You served as Prime Minister for 42 days – the shortest by any Prime Minister since Independence. Dr Rowley still has his diplomatic passport.
A Trinidad and Tobago diplomatic passport is issued exclusively to government officials, diplomats, and their immediate families for official state business. It is not available to the general public and must be surrendered when the individual leaves the qualifying government office or position.
Stuart boy, you must remember you had a diplomatic passport since 2015 when you were first appointed Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister. You kept that passport right through the tenure of Dr Rowley.
Like you forgot that you were always travelling with Dr Rowley to meet energy officials from Houston to London. I am sure the diplomatic passport worked. You had a diplomatic passport when you met in London with British lawyers as part of the probe into allegations against members of the UNC Government during their term 2010-2015. (Those visits to the British lawyers will be a subject of a future article detailing what were discussed in the boardroom in London).
Remember Stuart, you were the Gary Sobers of Rowley’s Cabinet. Not too many members of the Cabinet liked you because you wielded too much power as far as they were concerned.
So when Dr Rowley held that retreat at the Magdalena Resort in Tobago in January 2025 to discuss among other things, a successor to him, there was push back. Nine of the 20 MPs who voted were against you. It was only after Rowley’s stern speech, that there was a 20-0 consensus to recommend you to the President to be the next Prime Minister.
So days after you were sworn in as Prime Minister on March 17, 2025, you took basket and called a general election months before it was constitutionally due.
Well Stuart, you got the licks of the century. UNC won 26 seats in Trinidad and you lost the two Tobago seats. Who lost? – the PNM or you Stuart?
Well, some of those who won their seats in the PNM, have not forgiven you for the defeat. And because you were just a Prime Minister for 42 days, the UNC moved in Parliament a bill that would not allow you to get a Prime Minister Pension ($89,000 a month) for life. You have to serve at least one year to get a portion and a full five years to get the $89,000.
So after all is said and done, are you entitled to a diplomatic passport?
The person who is entitled may be Pennelope Beckles-Robinson as Opposition Leader.
So Stuart, if it is true that someone really called you to return the diplomatic passport, just return it. That is the established protocol. And when you have to meet Delcy in Caracas meet her as an ordinary citizen!
