Gail Alexan­der

T&T diplo­mats, come home when I call.That's the or­der from Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley who gave his po­si­tion on Tues­day fol­low­ing con­tentions over Gov­ern­ment's re­moval of am­bas­sador Eden Charles from a Unit­ed Na­tions' post.

"When I put my sig­na­ture that you come home, then you come home be­cause I am the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T," Row­ley stressed at Tues­day's PNM Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in San Juan. He said he had tak­en a dim view of a re­cent ed­i­to­r­i­al con­cern­ing the diplo­mat who had been asked to re­turn.

A news­pa­per ed­i­to­r­i­al re­cent­ly called Row­ley out on what was de­scribed as the "un­time­ly re­moval" of deputy per­ma­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN, am­bas­sador Eden Charles, from the chair­man­ship of the Group of Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean (GRU­LAC) coun­tries in the UN.

The ed­i­to­r­i­al not­ed the prompt­ed ap­peals from with­in the UN for Gov­ern­ment to hold off on the re­moval.

GRU­LAC had writ­ten Gov­ern­ment re­quest­ing that Charles be al­lowed to con­tin­ue as chair­man of ne­go­ti­a­tions for the new Law of the Sea Treaty. Pro­fes­sor Andy Knight (for­mer di­rec­tor of the In­sti­tute of In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions) al­so knocked Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to re­voke Charles' ap­point­ment.

How­ev­er, Row­ley said a num­ber of peo­ple had been tak­en out of posts and some sent to posts in nor­mal for­eign af­fairs as­sign­ments. He said he had not­ed the ed­i­to­r­i­al at­tack­ing the Gov­ern­ment for "in­ter­fer­ing with a par­tic­u­lar for­eign ser­vice of­fi­cer."

He said: "Let me say some­thing to all of you here at home and every­where else in the coun­try. "I take a dim view of any cit­i­zen who is sent abroad to rep­re­sent us abroad and who has 'dropped an­chor' for ten years and when we are be­gin­ning to re­or­gan­ise our busi­ness, we ask you to come back home and you de­cide to go and in­vite oth­er for­eign coun­tries to as­sail the For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter, the Prime Min­is­ter and the coun­try and to bad mouth the Prime Min­is­ter and the coun­try, hop­ing to stay out there.

"But let me tell you some­thing: When I put my sig­na­ture that you come home, then you come home be­cause I am the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T."

Row­ley said he was not im­pressed with those who want­ed to "sup­port that ridicu­lous con­duct where for­eign ser­vice of­fi­cers could go and be re­cruit­ing for­eign­ers to lob­by to re­main in the lap of lux­u­ry. "What you should be do­ing is cry­ing shame on such a per­son," he added.

Ask­ing if T&T was a ba­nana re­pub­lic, Row­ley queried why "our of­fi­cers" could do that.

"Can you imag­ine, an Eng­lish­man, Amer­i­can, In­di­an can do that? Your Gov­ern­ment call you home and in­stead of com­ing home and see­ing what else they have for you to do in your ca­reer, you go cam­paign­ing against the Gov­ern­ment.

"There are peo­ple in T&T who should know bet­ter than to en­cour­age that kind of fool­ish­ness," he added.

Row­ley ques­tioned why some may feel they could get away with such be­hav­iour since they would not try it with for­mer prime min­is­ters Er­ic Williams, George Cham­bers or ANR Robin­son.

"So why you feel that un­der my Gov­ern­ment, you could be called home and you could be do­ing that?" he asked.

Say­ing he was un­moved by the ed­i­to­r­i­al, Row­ley added: " This PNM Gov­ern­ment is a mighty force as we do what is right... those of us who hold au­thor­i­ty... some­times we have a lit­tle more in­for­ma­tion than you. So don't get on your high horse. Your sad­dle might be loose."

ROW­LEY'S FAM­I­LYLIVES AT PM'S HOUSE

Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley's daugh­ter, son-in-law and grand­son live at the Prime Min­is­ter's of­fi­cial res­i­dence in St Ann's along with he and his wife.Row­ley con­firmed that at Tues­day's PNM San Juan meet­ing. He said the Op­po­si­tion had been query­ing who lives at the res­i­dence and who was dri­ving in the PM's cars.

He said: "I have noth­ing to hide. The Op­po­si­tion wants to know who sleeps in the PM's house, so let me tell you: My wife, my daugh­ter, my son-in law, my grand­son and any­body else I in­vite as my guest... sleep­ing in that house.

"I didn't ask for any­thing when I went to that house. The se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies pro­vid­ed what they thought the fam­i­ly should have.

"If I am in a car and my wife is in an­oth­er car and if my daugh­ter comes and we take her some­where else... I'm sure the peo­ple know what I am en­ti­tled to and what not. I hope the Op­po­si­tion can an­swer what's asked of them."

Row­ley said he had seen bills for $1.67 mil­lion for one Di­vali func­tion at the PM's res­i­dence host­ed by for­mer prime min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.–Gail Alexan­der