By Clint Chan Tack Thursday, April 24 2008

SHOCKWAVES RIPPLED through the Government and the Parliament yesterday after Prime Minister Patrick Manning fired Dr Keith Rowley as Trade and Industry Minister and replaced him with senior Cabinet member Dr Lenny Saith.

Reports surfaced yesterday that Manning and Rowley had serious disagreements over a plan presented by Calder Hart, chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), to build a 60-room hotel at the Princes Building Grounds in Port-of-Spain.

Manning is reported to have described Rowley as “an obstructionist” who was causing delays in the timely execution and delivery of the Government’s construction programme. Sources added that Rowley had expressed to Manning serious concerns about Udecott which manages several multi-million dollar projects as the Port-of-Spain waterfront development complex and two performing arts academies. One of the academies is under construction at a site on the Princes Building Grounds.

Hart did not respond to Newsday’s calls about reports that Rowley had been fired because of his role in key government projects. A Udecott spokesperson said questions should be referred to the Office of the Prime Minister Sources yesterday said officials at the Trade and Industry Ministry were stunned by Rowley’s dismissal who had only been in the job for only five months.

The first sign yesterday that something was wrong in the Government was when Rowley entered the Parliament Chamber at 3 pm for yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives and chose to sit at seat 42 on the Opposition’s backbench. Trade Minister Rowley usually sat on the Government’s front bench, two seats down from Manning.

Parliament officials had said they saw nothing unusual with where Rowley sat yesterday because he did so briefly at last Friday’s sitting before returning to his usual seat.

However, Rowley went straight to the Opposition back bench and joined his Government colleagues, Toco/Sangre Grande MP Indra Sinanan Ojah-Maharaj and St Ann’s East MP Anthony Roberts. They usually sit there because of the lack of space on the Government benches which cannot accommodate all 26 MPs.

Newsday sent a note to Rowley during the sitting:

“Is there any specific reason why you are sitting on the lower half of the Opposition back bench and not in your usual seat. Did you have some disagreement with the Prime Minister or any other government MP on the other side?”

Rowley sent back a note saying, “Yes” but gave no explanation. Newsday also sent a note to Manning asking him the same question that was posed to Rowley.

The Prime Minister received the note from a Parliament staffer at about 3.50 pm while he was talking with Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira.

He spent about five minutes reading Newsday’s note before neatly placing it in the inner left pocket of his jacket. Manning waved off reporters as he left the Parliament Chamber when the House adjourned for tea at 4.30 pm. Rowley left Parliament at about 5.10 pm and was questioned again by Newsday. “That’s my seat now. I was fired by the Prime Minister,” Rowley replied bluntly. He refused to answer any more questions as he climbed into his SUV and drove away.

News of Rowley’s dismissal spread like wildfire as the House adjourned at 5.30 pm. The reactions of PNM MPs’ ranged from stone-faced silence to shock. Shielded by his heavy police security detail, Manning got into his car and chauffered away without speaking to reporters.

Swarmed by reporters as he walked out the Red House, Leader of Government Business Colm Imbert refused to say anything about Rowley’s sacking. He remained tight-lipped as reporters followed him to his SUV, reminding him of his long-standing friendship with Rowley and their seniority within the party and Government. Imbert stopped, looked quizzically at reporters and said: “I would like to go now. Thank you very much.” He continued walking to his vehicle but the reporters persisted, asking him a barrage of questions.

“ I’d like to go now thank you very much. Do have a good afternoon,” Imbert said, when asked if he had prior knowledge of Rowley’s dismissal. Reporters continued to press him for a comment.

“Could I go? May I leave. No comment. I would like to go now. Would you allow me to go home I have had a long day,” he replied. “How many of you all work a ten-hour day? Then I think you should speak to your employers. Could I go?”

Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said: “I am just hearing something but honestly I have no idea. I am just as in shock as you are.”

Told that Rowley was fired because he disagreed with the Prime Minister, she said: “ It has to be more than just mere disagreement. It has to be more than that. We all disagree in Cabinet and so on. That’s why we are there to present different points of view and so on.”