Rosemarie Sant
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley dedicated a chapter in his book, From Mason Hall to Whitehall, to his dismissal from the Cabinet of the late prime minister Patrick Manning.
In a chapter titled NAPA and My Dismissal from the Cabinet, he recounts a standing joke which he shared with one of Mr Manning's closest friends, Dr Lenny Saith, who often acted as Prime Minister in Manning's absence.
Rowley said he would often ask: "Saith, what have you done today boy to bring the Government down?"
Saith would laughingly reply: "Boy you could blame everything on me. I could take it. I am not so sure you could deal with it."
Those words would ring true when the issue of the hotel at Napa was put on the table and Rowley opposed it. It is now history that he was dismissed. Rowley admitted to being "shocked and let down" by his colleagues.
Dr Rowley recalled: "I would sit by myself in the Parliament tea room. The one person who would come and talk to me was Kelvin Ramnath. Donna Cox would come by sometimes and Junia Regrello was a bit more forthright but Kelvin Ramnath was my closest friend at work as it were.
He wrote: "Patrick Manning did some very good work, he was a hard worker, had high standards and the scandalous things that occurred under the People's Partnership Government would never have happened under him."
Rowley said it appeared that Manning's admiration for Calder Hart "made some ministers secondary in the thrust to get things done." He felt Hart's use of a small contractor to build the Brian Lara Promenade propelled him "into Patrick's vision and he became his go-to man and the man in charge of getting his projects done."
Reflecting on the issue which got him fired, Rowley said at some point a hotel was inserted into construction plans for Napa and a minister brought a note to Cabinet on April 7, 2008. He believed the minister who brought the note to the Finance and General Purpose Committee (F&GP) "knew nothing about what was contained in that note." He described her as a messenger.
Rowley said he objected to the hotel because "the PNM could not face another allegation of corruption or mishandling of public affairs." The note was withdrawn and when Manning, who was out of the country at the time, returned he learnt that the note had not been passed.
"A Rubicon had been crossed. Something had to give," he wrote.
Two days after the note was rejected, Manning told Rowley he had reports "of me misconducting myself at F&GP." He said he told him in no uncertain terms that "whoever told him that was not being truthful" and challenged Manning to bring the people who made the allegations against him into the room.
"I would have told them to their faces that they were lying," he said.
An hour later, having canvassed the opinions of four ministers, Manning told Rowley his behaviour was described by one as "wajang." Rowley defended himself, saying it was "a grotesque lie," but Manning told him the President would be asked to revoke his ministerial appointment with immediate effect.
Rowley's response was: "Well you know what to do. You have the authority to determine who sits in your Cabinet."
He said he extended his hand to Manning and thanked him for the opportunity to serve but admitted he felt let down by his colleagues.
On April 23, Manning announced Rowley's dismissal and told the country he had been "fired for conduct unbecoming of a minister."
Rowley said he took umbrage.
"I was proud of my work as a minister and asked myself what was conduct unbecoming of a minister? How will my children wear this?"
He was also concerned about his constituents in Diego Martin West.
Rowley said he went on the defensive, telling the media his dismissal had to do with "Udecott and lack of Cabinet oversight."
Rowley writes that he never had an ambition to be political leader of the PNM but felt the party was going down the wrong road and the membership was powerless to intervene. In his view, "the membership must assert itself in the party."
Rowley said he was not "office crazy" and is happy with his life, his accomplishments, "what I look like and who I am."
He views the leadership of the PNM as an "assignment, a responsibility."
While he is willing to forgive, he admits: "When forgiveness is finally exhausted I conceive of a pen filled with indelible ink and draw a line through the name of the person whom I think is no longer salvageable, is destructive and dangerous. I write you off!
"I give people every opportunity to redeem themselves; I don't bear malice."