For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says PNM Chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les spoke “in­el­e­gant­ly” and may have mis­rep­re­sent­ed the dis­cus­sions that took place in Cab­i­net re­gard­ing the com­po­si­tion of state boards.

Gon­za­les shocked and an­gered many in the pub­lic do­main when he voiced his con­cerns about what he de­scribed as an im­bal­anced eth­nic and racial com­po­si­tion among the new­ly ap­point­ed State boards un­der the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment.

“When I look at it, I won­der if we’re liv­ing in Bangladesh or Del­hi,” Gon­za­les blunt­ly de­clared last week.

Gon­za­les re­called that cab­i­net mem­bers would not dare take a note for board mem­bers made up most­ly of peo­ple of African de­scent be­cause the then prime min­is­ter Row­ley would have asked if the board was from Ghana.

Speak­ing to the me­dia at his Good­wood Park home yes­ter­day, Row­ley said he does not be­lieve he ever made such a state­ment. Fur­ther­more, he did not agree with the way Gon­za­les made his point about racial im­bal­ance.

“I think, as a per­son who I nur­tured in a cab­i­net and in a par­ty, I think I know what he want­ed to say. It was in­el­e­gant­ly said, and even more so, he made com­ments about what I might have said, which I don’t think I ever said.”

The for­mer prime min­is­ter, how­ev­er, asked that peo­ple go easy on Gon­za­les.

“We are all al­lowed at least one mis­take in the po­lit­i­cal are­na. So don’t beat him up too much. I’m sure he would have learned how to treat an is­sue like that go­ing for­ward. And if we learn from any mis­take, then we’re bet­ter off for it.”

Gon­za­les’ com­ments were con­demned by po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts as well as Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters who ac­cused him of play­ing the race card. —Akash Sama­roo