PNM FACES TOUGH FIGHT

By Lara Pickford-Gordon Tuesday, May 4 2010

Even as he campaigns to again secure the Diego Martin West seat for the People’s National Movement (PNM), candidate Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said the 2010 election environment was different from previous elections and the PNM will have to “fight” for its win.

“The PNM is in a very strange situation where we are fighting to win an election two years after we won a handsome victory. I think this campaign is a very challenging and tight one and I am hoping we can pull through. It’s a very difficult election, I am not fooling myself,” Rowley told Newsday.

He made these observations after being asked to give his predictions on the outcome of the May 24 Election. Rowley smiled and said he has been involved in elections since 1981 but this year was the “most peculiar of them all”.

The PNM took office in November 2007 and held a majority–26 of 41 seats in the House of Representatives–but less than three years into a five-year term Prime Minister Patrick Manning on April 8 directed the President to dissolve the Parliament. On April 16, he announced the election date.

In an interview at his constituency office, La Horquette Road, Glencoe, Rowley said two things made the current election environment “unique”, the election gap and the heightened attention of the public in the election process. “People are paying attention and we have to be careful we don’t underestimate that sagacity of the public and ensure we earn the votes we are asking for.”

Asked if the Urban Development Corporation of TT (Udecott) and other issues coming to the fore were the causes of heightened public interest, Rowley said the election may have been a surprise but the “build-up” had been coming.

“And that build-up has not been all positive for us, the PNM, and to the extent that the effect of that build-up is to be seen on polling day. I don’t think anybody can say he or she has a good hand on how the build-up will express itself in numbers.”

Rowley said a large part of the PNM’s stewardship had to do with the intangible quality of “attitude”. He did not know how this will factor into the results since it could not be quantified.

Rowley has become a central figure in the election and said he wanted to see the process through.

He described the 2010 election as “most important” for him and that his involvement could make a difference.

“I am hoping the issues which I represented and the experiences which I was associated with will cause some rethinking, giving rise to thoughts in the political arena where people behave a little differently.”

Rowley said the path he found himself on was not by his own choice and he was “forced” to take issue with his own party from within the party and take issue with the Cabinet as a backbencher. He said this was not a bad thing if one is talking about the evolution of the Westminster system.

“In Trinidad and Tobago, I think these are baby steps to that. And individuals who hold office must have the strength to stand up and let the institutions prevail over the individuals and the population must demand that arrangement. Institutions must prevail over individual interests and then we can say the country is developing.”

While the United National Congress has joined with four other entities to contest the polls against the PNM, Rowley said every other party wanted to be an established organisation like the PNM whose history and tradition gave it strength in some areas. He said these traits could also be a weakness in other areas as “you are not as responsive to change or recognition of the need for change. And if you are not careful you could be caught up being out of step with the current situation while placing too much faith in your history.”

He likened it to a family with a strong tradition but whose children take the work which has gone before for granted and feel they do not have to work “and skylark and next thing the whole family loses its stability”.

Rowley was listed to speak at last Sunday’s PNM rally and presentation of candidates but this did not happen. There were reports that he was asked by the party executive to speak but refused. At the Pt Cumana Regional Complex, corner of La Horquette Branch Road and Glencoe Gardens, where he filed his nomination papers yesterday, the media asked why he did not speak on the platform, but Rowley refused to comment on this preferring to move on.

“That’s yesterday’s news we are speaking on Thursday night at Four Roads. All those who have an interest, and I hope people have an interest, in that the campaign is launched and I will be the main speaker.”

At the meeting Rowley will respond to statements made by Congress of the People political leader Winston Dookeran questioning his integrity.

During the interview with Newsday, Rowley commented on the expectation that during the PNM campaign he and political leader, Prime Minister Patrick Manning would provide a public display indicative of the rift between them being mended. In his typical fashion, Rowley did not mince words, “I don’t know what people expect. I work for an organisation, so does the Prime Minister as an office holder of an organisation. It is not about affectation, it’s about conducting serious public business.”

He said issues of public administration were not subject to a quick “patch up” and suggested that this may be a problem for the coalition party striving to be the next government.Rowley said he was not going to engage in public displays of affection just for show and persons hired to deal with multi-billion dollar public business should not be hired based on affection.

“Some people are very poor and suffering, that ought not to be subjected to patch up. It ought to be subjected to serious analysis, mutual respect and getting the job done to the acceptance of the people who hired you.”

Rowley was fired by Manning as Trade and Industry Minister in April 2008 and since then has not been given another portfolio. Rowley said his only expectation was to represent the people of Diego Martin West. “We have a legitimate fight and an election to win. And then what I expect is to represent the people of Diego Martin West in the Parliament.”

Rowley said in the current Constitution a candidate who won a seat did not have to be given a position in the Cabinet.

He noted that the existing Cabinet was “full of people who were not elected so there is no connection between election and the Cabinet.”

He said based on the present situation a strong Parliament is important. This was an area of the Constitution which he believed should be amended.

A crowd of merry supporters waving placards with his photo, a motorcade playing pro-PNM calypsos and the Power Boats Scorpions pan side playing “Manning going back” accompanied Rowley to the regional complex to file his nomination papers. He voiced confidence about the PNM’s chances and said his opponents should be commended for offering themselves for public service in the democratic process.

Also filing nomination papers was the COP’s Rocky Garcia who contested the seat in the last election. A confident Garcia said, “I’ve been here before and I’ve done a good job on trying to reach where we want to go. We have a couple numbers to play with and at the end of the day we will be successful.”

Asked if the chances were better with a united party, Garcia said, “This is what we are about in Trinidad, that is uniting the people. I strongly believe in the unity of people of TT.”

He declined to comment on Rowley’s criticism of the PNM Government and then being on its platform, “I leave that for Dr Rowley to discuss. He has his own internal problems and I don’t want to mix matters. I like a clean fight. I am here for the clean politics, a new era of politics. One gate-master has already left and on the 25th of this month the next gate-master and his entourage will be out of place.”