Rowley defends PNM record in Tobago

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­fend­ed the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) record in To­ba­go, high­light­ing what he de­scribed as sus­tained de­vel­op­ment and leg­isla­tive gains dur­ing the par­ty’s time in of­fice.

In a so­cial me­dia post, Dr Row­ley point­ed to what he said were key par­lia­men­tary ac­tions, in­clud­ing a 6.4% bud­getary al­lo­ca­tion se­cured through a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee and the ex­ten­sion of To­ba­go’s ma­rine ju­ris­dic­tion from six miles to 11 miles.

He said the re­sponse to those pro­pos­als was a re­sound­ing “Re­ject the Bill”.

Dr Row­ley al­so list­ed sev­er­al de­vel­op­ment projects and ini­tia­tives he at­trib­uted to the PNM’s tenure in To­ba­go, in­clud­ing new fer­ries, new off­shore pa­trol ves­sels, new po­lice sta­tions in Rox­bor­ough and Shir­van, and ma­jor in­fra­struc­ture works such as the Rox­bor­ough Ad­min­is­tra­tive Com­plex, hos­pi­tal and fire sta­tion.

He fur­ther cit­ed the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port ter­mi­nal up­grade, ex­pan­sion of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly struc­ture, in­creased ad­min­is­tra­tive au­thor­i­ty, gas-based elec­tric­i­ty ex­pan­sion, and the de­silt­ing of the Hills­bor­ough Dam to im­prove wa­ter stor­age.

Oth­er projects ref­er­enced in­clud­ed tourism pro­pos­als such as San­dals—which he said was re­ject­ed twice; the Mar­riott de­vel­op­ment at Rocky Point; ma­ri­na plans at Cove; and sup­port for agri­cul­tur­al ini­tia­tives.

He al­so point­ed to what he de­scribed as the largest fi­nan­cial al­lo­ca­tion to the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly.

Dr Row­ley said that de­spite these de­vel­op­ments, the re­sponse had been po­lit­i­cal re­jec­tion and dis­re­spect.

He added that with what he de­scribed as “no re­main­ing PNM rep­re­sen­ta­tion in To­ba­go”, the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion had de­liv­ered what he called a 100% in­crease in the cost of trav­el be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go.

He end­ed his post with the re­mark:

“Then they all sing, ‘Gi dem per­for­mance in their rukungku­tungkung’.”