Maharaj to PM after checking Hansard: Sorry! You're right

FORMER attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has said he regrets his recent comments on issues surrounding the six-six Tobago House of Assembly (THA) deadlock, as it gave the impression he was blaming the PNM.

Last week, Maharaj was quoted in the Guardian as saying the deadlock between the PNM and the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) in the THA election could have been dealt with easily, had the PNM not opposed to granting autonomy to Tobago in 1996.

He was referring to a parliamentary debate on the THA Act.

He had said, “It was a different piece of legislation, but the PNM, at that time, said they were not supporting full internal self-government but within the Republic of TT.”

The next day, at a press conference last week, an audibly upset Prime Minister said he needed to address those comments “before people take it as fact.”

He said, “I want to make it abundantly clear, standing here as Prime Minister today, and as political leader of the PNM, that after 25 years, I will ascribe to Mr Maharaj some fogginess of memory. I myself can be subject to that…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.”

He said the PNM supported greater autonomy for Tobago, but not an amendment to the Constitution to increase the Senate's size from 31 to 37, with the opposition still only having six senators.

When Newsday contacted Maharaj last week, he had said he would “check his records,” and until he did, was not in a position to agree or disagree with Dr Rowley’s comments.

At a virtual press conference on Friday, Maharaj revised his comments.

He said, “There was no intention on my part to give the impression that the then Opposition in the Parliament was in any way responsible in its contributions on the THA Bill or the legislation (for omitting) that deadlock that has now occurred in Tobago.”

He said if this was the impression he gave, he was wrong, as the PNM had given it full support.

Rowley has since announced amendments to the act will be drafted soon, including the suggestion of increasing the number of seats in the THA seats to an odd number.