sto­ries by Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

For­mer prime min­is­ter and Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says he is cer­tain the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has made a se­cret deal with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) to hand over the To­ba­go East and West seats in Par­lia­ment if they win them in the April 28th Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Speak­ing dur­ing a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing at the Good­wood Sec­ondary School on Sat­ur­day night, Row­ley told To­bag­o­ni­ans, “There are those who be­lieve that if they con­trol those two seats they can make deals.”

He said while the UNC hasn’t field­ed any can­di­dates in To­ba­go, it is de­pend­ing on the TPP to win them and then de­liv­er the seats to them.

“The UNC sees the elec­tion and wouldn’t put up a par­rot and a stick in To­ba­go be­cause they have these jok­ers here who be­lieve that you are stu­pid and un­in­formed and you will go and vote so that they can get the two seats and they’ll be­come the gov­ern­ment.”

He added, “These are the same peo­ple that your To­ba­go-elect­ed of­fi­cials are try­ing to tell you to come out on April 28 to vote for—third-class and fourth-class can­di­dates—so they will win the two seats be­cause they have an ob­jec­tive. They have a deal un­der the ta­ble to give the two seats to the UNC.”

Row­ley said giv­ing the UNC con­trol of both To­ba­go seats will not bring any ben­e­fits to the peo­ple of To­ba­go.

“You, the peo­ple of To­ba­go, I want you to un­der­stand some­thing very clear­ly, you have ab­solute­ly noth­ing to gain by hand­ing the two To­ba­go seats to Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the UNC—noth­ing to gain.”

He warned that his­to­ry has shown the UNC is not se­ri­ous about giv­ing To­ba­go more au­ton­o­my.

“If Robin­son, as leader of the NAR lead­ing 33 seats, could not get the UNC crowd to give To­ba­go any more au­ton­o­my, it will not be had by these peo­ple.”

He al­so ac­cused Chief Sec­re­tary and TPP leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine of help­ing the UNC block the in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment bills in Par­lia­ment—when it came be­fore the house for a vote, last year—for po­lit­i­cal gain.

“Far­ley, by pri­or arrange­ment with Sad­dam Ho­sein, sends a What­sApp—not a let­ter, you know—sends a What­sApp to Sad­dam Ho­sein say­ing that the THA doesn’t sup­port the bills,” he told sup­port­ers, not­ing this gave the UNC an ex­cuse not to sup­port the bills.

“So, Sad­dam Ho­sein gets up to give the UNC po­si­tion—we can’t sup­port the bills be­cause To­ba­go is not sup­port­ing the bill. That is on record in the Par­lia­ment, giv­ing the im­pres­sion that if To­ba­go was sup­port­ing it, the UNC would have sup­port­ed it.”

Row­ley said the truth is the UNC nev­er planned to sup­port To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my.

“The UNC man­i­festo has been out. They are in your face every day in the news­pa­pers and on tele­vi­sion… What are they say­ing about in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment for To­ba­go? Ab­solute­ly noth­ing.”

He warned vot­ers that if they al­low the TPP to win both seats and sup­port the UNC, the re­sult will be cor­rup­tion and be­tray­al.

“Let’s as­sume for one mo­ment that you put God out your thoughts on April 28 and you vote the two seats and the PNM lost the elec­tion… Do you ex­pect to see the UNC say­ing, okay, To­ba­go, now that we are all friends… What do you want for in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment? Is that what you’re ex­pect­ing?”

He asked To­ba­go if promis­es to grant au­ton­o­my aren’t met by the UNC, what would To­bag­o­ni­ans do?

Row­ley said vot­ers must re­ject “deals un­der the ta­ble” and par­ties with no pol­i­cy or record.

“They have no cam­paign be­cause they have no pol­i­cy, they have no pro­gramme, they have no his­to­ry. So, there­fore, they have to come and fab­ri­cate fool­ish­ness to you about go­ing down to Trinidad for au­ton­o­my.”

Ef­forts to con­tact Au­gus­tine yes­ter­day for a re­sponse to Row­ley’s claims were un­suc­cess­ful, as he did not an­swer calls or mes­sages.