TPP chair slams Rowley's 'crab-in-barrel' comment

TOBAGO People’s Party (TPP) chair Ann Natasha-Second has slammed the former prime minister for saying Tobagonians were "behaving like 60,000 crabs in a barrel.”

She also accused the PNM of “deliberately and consistently placing Tobago into that barrel,” by its actions over the years.

Second was speaking at the party’s special convention on March 23 at Rovanel’s Resort, Store Bay Local Road, Bon Accord.

As he wound up his address at the practical completion of the new terminal at the ANR Robinson International Airport, Tobago, on March 15, Dr Rowley said he was tired of the THA’s attempts to thwart progress on the island.

He said, “For God’s sake, can’t we all just get along. Ah fed up of the ‘rah rah.’ Ah fed up of the ‘yah yah.’ Sixty-thousand people and you behaving like 60,000 crabs in a barrel.”

Rowley said if people do not have anything useful to say or contribute, “silence is golden.

“When you have something useful to contribute, come forward and come forward with conviction. But at every step of the way, respect and service.”

In her address, Natasha-Second described Rowley’s statement as “a flagrant display of disrespect” to Tobagonians.

She claimed the philosophies and structures of the central government have been set up to “turn the majority of your children in Tobago and in Trinidad into hopeless, desperate crabs in a barrel for the foreseeable future.”

Natasha-Second said the government’s four per cent wage offer to public servants is a case in point.

“The former prime minister spent years warning public servants that they could not be given more than four per cent otherwise it go bankrupt the country if he had to give them more; some of them would be fired, they will lose their work, they would have to go home. Many trade unions sell out and take the four per cent and many public servants are still stuck with zero per cent on their 2013 wages.

“Then suddenly, Dr Rowley announced that he was accepting the recommendation of the Salaries Review Commission that guaranteed him a 47 per cent increase in wages and similar increases for persons of the management class. Within a month of receiving his fat, juicy pay, he also paid himself his fat, juicy backpay. What does this mean for us who do not belong to this management class?”

She also accused the government of “controlling the narrative nationally,” first with the announcement of the state of emergency on December 30, 2024, Rowley’s stepping down as prime minister, Stuart Young’s appointment to the position, the proroguing of the Parliament and the announcement of the general election date.

Natasha-Second told supporters they must experience “mental liberation,” in order for Tobago to govern itself effectively to attain its vision of becoming the greatest little island on the planet.

She said, “Now we must understand that an entire cultural revolution must take place. It is necessary for us if we are to lead Trinidad and Tobago into freedom from the orchestrated and systematic creation of social inequality that they have imposed on us.”

But Natasha-Second warned, “We must have order and we must have discipline and must co-ordinate our efforts in this short election period to take back the voices of the Tobago West and Tobago East positions for Tobago.

“Today, in my capacity as chairman of the TPP, I call you as one family to order, to understand that for this short election season, the tenets of discipline and respect will be critical as we lead all 60,000 crabs to freedom.”

She urged young people to “take up your position on any side of the people and keep them in line with your hard work and volunteerism.

“Ultimately, we took the embarrassment and battery from the PNM repeatedly so that we could secure a future for you.

"We are here fighting to ensure that you inherit a secure island where your civic contribution is rewarded and celebrated instead of used and discarded, and where you have the right to achieve anything you want and not to be assigned to a place at the bottom of any crab barrel.”