PNM political leader Dr Rowley believes the Tobago People’s Party (TPP) wants to win the two Tobago seats in the April 28 general election so that it can negotiate with the UNC to form the government and secure internal self-government for the island.
But he urged Tobagonians to reject the party’s candidates at the poll to prevent such a move.
“There are 41 seats in the Parliament, two of those in Tobago. Yes, there are those who believe that if they control those two seats they can make deals. But I can assure you, tonight, that even though they are being encouraged by those in the university and those in the media that the deals that they are making might make good sense, you, the people of Tobago, I want you to understand something very clearly, you have absolutely nothing to gain by handing the two Tobago seats to Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the UNC. Nothing to gain,” he said in his address at a political meeting at the Goodwood Secondary School on April 19.
Rowley said if late prime minister ANR Robinson, as leader of the National Alliance for Reconstruction, which had won 33 seats in the 1986 general election, could not get the “UNC crowd” then to give Tobago any more autonomy, it would not be had by the existing UNC.
“Not once but twice the Tobago seats were in that situation. So when you hear Tobago leaders who making a mess of the THA telling you that they want the two Tobago seats to go down to Trinidad to negotiate for autonomy, let me ask my question here now, ‘What is the nature of that negotiation and what are the objectives of that negotiation?’
“Because you give them (UNC) the seats, they have 19 now, you give them the two, they have 21, they get the government. That is what they want. But what is it you want?” he asked.
He said the history of this country has already been written on the issue of autonomy for Tobago.
“You the people of Tobago, young and old, you knew the consultations you had here in Tobago that generated those two bills, codified into law, in the bills, by expert lawyers. One could have been passed by the simple majority that the PNM has.
“The PNM is no ordinary party in this fight you know. We are the only party that went to a convention, received a motion on internal self-government for Tobago and had that motion unanimously adopted by the PNM. No other political party would tell you that.”
Rowley, who resigned officially as prime minister on March 16, after some 45 years in public life, observed that the UNC’s manifesto was silent on internal self-government for Tobago.
