Rowley: PNM must win general election

OUTGOING Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley told the PNM general council and delegates on March 16, the party's most important aim was to win the upcoming general election.

He was addressing the 169 members of the PNM's general council, the 41 candidates and party-group delegates at City Hall, Port of Spain.

“One thing matters in the coming weeks and months, one, and that one thing is the winning of the next general election. Regardless of how you may think about other matters, they are secondary to the principal objective. We do what we have to do, within reason, to ensure the population chooses the PNM.”

He said the party had been in power for the last ten years and many of those present may only have known the party in government.

“Opposition is not easy. As Patrick Manning would have said, the road from government to opposition is a short journey, but from opposition to government is a hell of a hike.

"So if you have the opportunity to go into government, don’t give it up. Right now, nothing else matters, except that you have selected the best people to represent the organisation and those people and their support base will run the best campaign.”

He added, “Election is due any time, all the way down to November, we might even have it for Christmas. But remember, if we do not win the next election, all that our portion will be is an opposition leader and six opposition senators. Everything would have gone to the next government.

“So whether you’re in URP, CEPEP, PEP-C, just understand that. And this thing about people telling you who don’t like who, leave all the liking for your wife and your husband. Bring common sense, reason, fact, energy and vision to the battle for political power.”

“We have always had a Constitution we’ve amended from time to time. We’ve had leadership throughout as we engage those who have offered themselves for office. Look at the quality of our candidates and envision a Cabinet being extracted from that.”

Reflecting on his time in public office, Dr Rowley said he believed his presence was for the good.

“There is no better feeling I could ever have than to know that as I move on, I am being replaced by a body of young people who will ensure that our future is well served.

"Our executives in the 41 constituencies have outdone yourselves in bringing forward good-quality, well-qualified people, man, woman, old and young.

"A mixture of experience and the vibrancy of youth allows us to go to the population to say, 'Look at us, choose us to manage your affairs, and we believe we are in fact the best the country has to offer for continued development.'”

Dr Rowley admitted to some uncertainty as he returns to private life.

“I have no idea what I’m doing right now. I’m playing it by ear. You, too, would know there was never a situation where our political leader, in the office of PM, has stepped away from centre stage. You will also know that if that happens, it would be accompanied by a certain amount of disappointment, a certain amount of sadness, a certain amount of confusion in the minds of some. I want to make it very clear that I may be moving away from office in the PNM, but I am not moving away from my commitment to TT.”

He said it was this commitment to TT that led him make some decisions he regretted over the years, including leaving his wife to bury her father because he needed to represent the country at an international conference and having to miss his first daughter’s university graduation because of the 1995 state of emergency.

“That has bothered me all my life. I hope to make it up to them now.”

Rowley took aim at the Opposition Leader’s recent comments on Stuart Young's appointment as Prime Minister.

“When you see that mad hatter, tell her before she goes to court, pay us the money you owe us.”

He said the UNC took the PNM to court over the 2015 election results and lost in the High Court and Court of Appeal but is yet to pay the PNM its costs.

“Instead of worrying about her rag-tag bunch of ne’er-do-wells, she is worrying about Stuart Young. And, of course, trying to stir up racial hatred in our country, about who is of which race and who is of the other race, but we are of the PNM. Dr Williams wrote it down for us. We are not a party in the ordinary sense of the word. We represent all colours, races and classes in the common cause of TT.

“They have failed to create discord in the PNM. Where they see trouble, we see victory and we see pride. The Opposition Leader has never seen it fit to file a motion of no confidence in the Government or me as PM. Now that we are on the verge of a general election, she is out there talking foolishness about red is blood, in a country where our national flag is red, where our national teams wear red. When you have nothing to say, you talk foolishness.”

He also questioned what would the UNC do with the deals and accords signed by the Government with Venezuela.

“Everything we have done with Venezuela would be up in the air. But, of course, they are telling you it’s up in the air because of what’s happening in Washington. If you don’t understand it, you cannot manage it, you cannot fix it. The most you can do is damage it and Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her cabal of whoever they are, pose a clear and present danger to the people of TT. I hope they will understand it’s not all about power, it’s about politics.”

He also called out those in the PNM who leaked their dissatisfaction with internal party goings-on to the media.

“In politics, you cannot guarantee that people will not do things like that. But historically, we have so conducted ourselves that the media have understood that this is not PNM-style, that is UNC-style. And if there is anybody in our group who would have done that, I hope he or she knows to feel sufficiently ashamed.”

Rowley also gave advice to the PNM's general council and delegates.

“The length of the political leader’s term was five years. I encourage you to shorten it to four years. The power they talk about of the screening committee, where the political leader had a veto of candidates, I encourage you to remove that, and let the screening committee members have a right to vote in their own right, and that the political leader’s veto not be part of the screening process.

“However, if constituencies don’t cooperate, we can’t go with a blank sheet to the election. The political leader and the executive, acting together, have the right to find someone to represent the PNM.”