Naparima MP: TT becoming Haiti daily

THIS country, under Dr Rowley, is becoming more and more like Haiti daily, with no economic growth, spiralling crime, rising unemployment, poor health facilities, and increased nepotism and corruption, said Naparima MP Rodney Charles.

TT projects an embarrassing global image and a government with no plan to take the country forward, he claimed, speaking at the UNC’s pavement report meeting at ASJA Girls’ College in Barrackpore on Wednesday, Charles said the E-mailgate saga unmasked a tried and tested PNM formula of making baseless accusations against UNC members, hoping some will stick, thereby disadvantaging the party in election campaigns.

He asked, “Who maliciously concocted those e-mails? Why did it take so long to be resolved? What is the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) office in all this? Is the PNM blameless in all that has transpired? Are they proud of this E-mailgate saga? Has it enhanced our democracy?

The PNM, he said accuses people of some egregious act today and tomorrow and thereafter the subject would be tied up defending their integrity in court at tremendous expense and personal trauma. The UNC leader, he said, had to fight an election with a cloud hanging over her head.

“That is the cold, hard PNM strategy,y which has many dimensions, as it could be a Baptist letter, or it could be a plant-like substance in your yard, to myriad corruption allegations. It’s limited only by the imagination and creativity of the PNM,” he said.

Charles questioned the “genealogy” of this version of the PNM. saying its front bench in Parliament is not reflective of the PNM’s rank and file. “It is recorded in Hansard dated October 19, 2018, Stuart Young told Senator Obika, and I quote, ‘Little boy, sit down nah,” he said, asking why Young would feel he could look at an educated fellow citizen and utter such disdainful rubbish.

“The party of Eric Williams would not have wickedly made GATE virtually inaccessible to tertiary students. The party of Williams, unlike this Keith Rowley version, would never have closed Petrotrin, putting thousands of families in jeopardy,” he said.

Charles listed a number of projects he said could have been completed with $167 million reportedly paid in rent to the family of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

“It could have provided 28,000 families with food cards for years. Twenty-three million could have employed 2,700 university grads for an entire year at $5,000 per month. It could have finished the Reform Hindu School and Early Childhood Centres at Reform and Ben Lomond in the Naparima constituency,” he said.

He called on Al-Rawi to resign and for the PNM to call the general election now, as it had proven itself not fit to run the country.