Senior Reporter
akash.samaroo@guardian.co.tt
The Prime Minister is warning members of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) that he is paying attention to the current controversy surrounding a leaked audio clip involving members of the Assembly and there will be consequences if they break the law.
“I stand on this platform as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago,” Dr Rowley said, stressing on the “and” as he addressed members of the business community and party members during Breakfast with Dr Keith Rowley at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, yesterday.
“If there are people in Tobago, 14 seats or 24 seats, and they want to go and plan to use taxpayers’ money to run their party of whatever the name is, that is their business, until it becomes a matter of breach of the law.”
A member of the audience had asked the Prime Minister to comment on a voice note purporting to belong to members of the THA discussing a plan to hire people on a full-time basis to spread political propaganda via social media using THA funds.
THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and his executive have so far remained mum on the issue, although it has caused a furore in Tobago after an audio recording of the discussion was leaked on social media, with persons in several quarters calling for confirmation of the individuals in the video, resignations and the calling of fresh elections due to the implications of possible corruption implied in the discussion.
Yesterday, Rowley offered some advice to his Tobago counterparts given what has transpired.
“I do not say anything in the company of anybody without assuming they have a tape recorder in their pocket, and they are taping what I am saying.”
He gave members of the audience an anecdote, where he was playing golf in a recent charity tournament in Tobago, and wanted to urinate.
“We were having a few drinks and I got to a far part of the course and there was a lot of bush and nobody around and I thought of using the bathroom and I said, no, you go by that bush there, I’ll have no idea whose camera is on me, I have to assume once I am out of my bed, somebody’s camera is on me and I don’t want the surprise picture, that is today’s world.”
However, the Prime Minister said he also does not want to give the impression that he has let Tobago drift away.
“That will not happen, and it is not happening, if there are consequences to be paid, then they will be paid,” he noted.
Rowley added that it does not matter how popular a politician is in Tobago, the law will bring them to heel.
In fact, he said THA members are experiencing that right now.
“So, if in Tobago there are officers who are prepared to break the law, they will face the law as is happening right now with the THA publicly announcing they will break the law with respect to the EMA Act, and I can advise you that the EMA under law has intervened in Tobago and stopped the project. And the EMA will take to the courts of Trinidad and Tobago, any and all persons who are preparing to break the law in Tobago with respect to the EMA act.”
Last Friday, Justice Frank Seepersad granted an ex-parte injunction to the Environmental Management Authority, which had complained in an emergency application that the requisite approvals have not been granted by them for the THA to conduct road works along the Shirvan/Store Bay Local Connector Road.