Rowley defends record on UWI Debe campus, Tobago autonomy

FORMER prime minister Dr Rowley says he finds himself being pulled out of political retirement to respond to claims being made by the new UNC government and other people since the April 28 general election.

The UNC won the election 26-13-2. Rowley resigned as prime minister on March 16 and as political leader of the PNM on April 30.

In a Facebook post on May 31, Rowley said TT and the rest of the world knew he was prime minister from September 9, 2015 to March 16, 2025.

During that period, he continued, he led the cabinet and had ultimate responsibility for the then PNM administration's decisions.

"I have been trying very hard to stay out and away from the decisions and narratives of today’s regime but the daily diet of misinformation and outright untruths force me to intervene in order to protect the record and to prevent any self-serving revision of the facts."

Rowley then commented on the University of the West Indies (UWI) South Campus in Debe, Tobago autonomy and the school building programme.

He said UWI is not a government department but a regional institution governed by charter and headquartered at Mona, Jamaica.

Rowley added it is in Mona where "all aspects of the regional university funding and operations are discussed beforehand and approved, up front by the Senate / University Grants Committee (UGC)."

He said, "The creation and expansion of faculties have been done on many occasions in our various territories and except for the Debe campus, none has ever descended into acrimony, bacchanal and lies about paternity."

The reason for this, Rowley continued, was because the Debe campus was a gift to UWI from the People's Partnership government in the form of infrastructure for a law faculty which has since morphed into a full campus including medical school "without the sustainable, substantial funding to cover intake and operations as trumpeted by the midwife of this adventure."

He said government’s struggle to fund UWI's St Augustine campus and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) was public information embodied in the budget.

"The same cannot be said of the new Debe facility which came into being without the proper procedures and more importantly, funding arrangements."

Rowley recalled 2015-2019 was the worst possible time for UWI to to look to government to prioritise funding for territorial expansion when national revenues fell from $50 billion to $38 billion.

"This became a financial struggle and burden upon the university which could only have looked to the government for help."

He said the covid19 pandemic, in the 2019-2022 period, made the situation worse.

Rowley reminded the public the Debe campus was used during covid19 as a parallel healthcare system.

This, he continued, saw government and UWI incorporate some of the campus for use as part of that system.

"Thus the history of this facility, can be shown, as described, to have nothing to do with racism, government deliberate neglect and abandonment or politics."

Rowley said, "It has everything to do with its unique concept at birth and the unfortunate confluence of the funding needs and its unique arrangements within a struggling UWI."

He claimed current Attorney General John Jeremie "outside of the current tomb of resurrection, was very vociferous in his opposition to the spawning of another law school within the territory of TT."

At a post-cabinet news conference at the Red House on May 22, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar warned UWI not to interfere with t government's plans to establish a law school at the South Canpus and government could take the campus back.

She subsequently said UWI did not have a lease for the land the campus occupied.

On Tobago autonomy, Rowley said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was wrong to claim at a post-cabinet media conference on May 29 that "bills have been brought to the Parliament and they lapsed."

He said that was not the case.

Rowley said two Tobago autonomy bills were brought to Parliament under the former PNM government without any revision or abridgement.

The bills were subjected to detailed lengthy professional attention by a parliamentary joint select committee (JSC).

"At its final stages both bills were put to a vote."

Rowley pointed out that the PNM passed one bill with measures for increased autonomy, administrative structures and improved finances.

The UNC, he continued, voted against the bill.

Rowley said the second bill was an amendment to the Constitution, which was needed to effect the measures in the first bill.

He added the UNC did not support the second bill which needed a special majority for passage and it was defeated.

Rowley added that the UNC had the "public support" of Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine in doing so.

"It was not a case of any bill being made to lapse, it was a recorded case of a vote being taken, the UNC withheld its votes and the Tobago Autonomy Bill was thus defeated."

Rowley said that under the UNC-led People's Partnership coalition government ( May 2010- September 2015) then THA chief secretary Orville London could not get a meeting with Persad-Bissessar while these bills were being debated and created in Tobago.

He said this only happened after the PNM assumed office in September 2015.

"Therefore, I will not sit and watch the country’s historical record being distorted as if we are all asleep."

On May 29, Persad-Bissessar hinted government would bring a new Tobago autonomy bill to Parliament and Augustine would have an input into any major issues related to Tobago before cabinet makes a decision on them.

Rowley also said the PNM did not shut down the school building programme.

"I leave the facts of that $2.4 billion challenge to be described and presented by the PNM when it chooses to be the opposition. The necessary facts are all there."

Rowley added, "We faced up to problems and fixed them, others create problems and lie about them."