Rowley: Too much at stake, don’t gamble with UNC

RAMPANT job losses, return of corrupt officials, bad energy deals and poor revenue policies are what the public will get if they “gamble” with the UNC, said former prime minister and current political leader of the PNM, Dr Keith Rowley, on April 11 at a PNM political rally at the Croisee in San Juan.

Calling the UNC executive “corrupt kleptocrats,” Rowley, knocked the newly-elected president of the PSA, who went on a UNC platform, saying her primary objective as PSA president was to remove the PNM.

“Let me say here tonight to public servants, wherever you may be: if your president succeeds in removing the PNM from office, many thousands of you will follow that by removing yourself from your jobs."

He said one of the hardest jobs of a government was to ensure that revenue of the country matched or exceeded expenditure.

“If WASA doesn't get a $200 million from the Minister of Finance, virtually every month, WASA workers cannot be paid consistently in the way that they have been.

“If, God forbid, there's a government in office that finds itself without revenues to meet the monthly expenditure to public servants, the one thing the government will not do is write cheques to you, and then the cheques bounce in the bank.

“You know what that means. When the government finds itself in a position not being able to pay the payroll, it is tens of thousands of public servants that will come off the payroll.

He said the UNC was more concerned with increasing expenditure through false promises than responsible fiscal policy.

“They tell you things like they will increase public servants' pay by seven per cent. But ladies and gentlemen, from this platform tonight, I could tell you, once a government comes in and gets on that highway of making that kind of increase to public servants, the highway has to be labelled two ways: one, you are going to end up at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) station, and you're going to get there by the road called devaluation.”

“When you ask them how are you talking about increasing expenditure by two billion here and six billion there, they say they will cut revenue – we will cut corporation tax by seven per cent.

“It might sound good on a UNC platform to misguided UNC supporters but if you go and cut seven per cent on corporate tax that comes like a tax benefit – a tax relief – to those who own the corporate world.

“Then you deprive billions of dollars to those who need the government revenue to pay their salary at the end of the month.”

He also knocked the UNC’s foreign policies, highlighting that members had accused people in the Venezuelan government, with whom Trinidad and Tobago is collaborating on the Dragon deal and other cross-border gas arrangements, criminals.

“You would hear the opposition leader making disparaging terms about Nicholas Maduro, calling him a narco trafficker and worse, going to the parliament in our country and committing our country to following the policy of the government in Washington.

“Let us say for a minute you all put God out of your thoughts on April 28 and you vote the UNC into government, can you see the government of Venezuela, the so-called narco traffickers, can you see them entertaining Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Wade Mark, Phillip Alexander and all of them? Can you see them saying to Venezuela we want to continue the idea of accessing your gas field?”

He also rubbished their campaign promises to cut out corruption.

“The UNC is going to cut out corruption? That is like meeting Satan somewhere on the way to the monastery and where you ask him what he is going to do when he gets there and he says he is going to correct sin.”

Rowley’s last day as Prime Minister was on March 16.

In a 100-minute special aired on local television on March 13, Rowley said he planned to leave in 2020 but felt he could not honour that decision at the time, with the country facing a global pandemic, covid19.

He noted he was the first Prime Minister in TT to step down on his own.

While he is no longer Prime Minister, he remains political leader of the PNM, explaining to reporters on March 13 that there were “two separate streams of activity” taking place. He said he planned to ensure that when he left the PNM as its political leader, it would be in a stronger position.

Rowley described the selection of his replacement, Stuart Young, as “brilliant,” adding that Young emerged as a leader early in his tenure as a minister.

Rowley said Young’s skills, dedication and qualities made him the obvious pick for both himself and others.