Rowley: Maharaj foggy over '96 THA bill

THE Prime Minister said former attorney general Ramesh Maharaj was incorrect to say the PNM had once opposed the granting of autonomy to Tobago in the past parliamentary debate on 1996 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Act.

Dr Rowley addressed the post-Cabinet briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, days after Monday’s Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections which were tied six-six.

He was replying to Maharaj’s recent claim that as then AG he had wanted to give Tobago full internal self-government within the State of Trinidad and Tobago by way of the 1996 THA Act, but due to an alleged lack of support by the PNM, the bill had to be amended.

Rowley said, “I want to make it abundantly clear standing here today as Prime Minister and political leader of the PNM that after 25 years I will ascribe to Mr Maharaj some fogginess of memory.” He said he himself knew one’s memory can be foggy after 25 years ago.

“But this statement, with all the political implications of this statement, I must in the firmest of ways say that if what is here is what Mr Maharaj said and the Guardian got it correctly, this is completely incorrect,” Rowley declared.

To support his point, the PM showed a copy of a resolution approved at the 2011 PNM convention at Chaguaramas in support of efforts under the Orville London-led THA towards reforming the TT Constitution and the THA Act towards “full internal self-government.” He said the 2014 PNM convention had also passed such a resolution.

Rowley then urged reporters to compare the 1996 act and the bill which created it, saying the contents of both were the same.

“So the law that caused the assembly to function today, to not be able to elect a presiding officer, what was brought to Parliament in the bill is exactly what was approved. So it is not correct to say that what exists now for this difficulty is as a result of the bill not being supported.”

It was not correct to blame the PNM, Rowley said.

He said in the 1996 Constitution (Amendment) Bill, the PNM had opposed proposals to change the Senate composition, by raising the government senators from 16 to 19, the Independent senators from nine to 12, while keeping the opposition senators at six. Of the proposed three new Independents, two would have been from the THA majority group and one from the THA minority. The result would have increased the total number of senators from 31 to 37.

Rowley rejected any notion such changes in the Senate would have equated to giving Tobago full internal self-government.