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| File: PNM leader Keith Rowley. Newsday photo |
Don’t trust or believe Keith Rowley when he condemns racism.
It has been always been a part of the PNM since the days of Eric Williams with his condemnation of people of Indian ancestry as a “recalcitrant minority” for helping to cause the PNM’s defeat in the 1958 federal election to the Hilton Sandy’s “Calcutta ship” and more recently the Fitzgerald Hinds pejorative statement that Indian politicians are all “alligators from the same murky lagoon”.
So while you will continue to hear Rowley’s Public Relations statements like the one he issued Monday you won’t hear him chastise anyone for marketing PNM’s racism. And that’s because Rowley is content with the PNM the way it is – no ideas, no vision, no dissenting voices - just blind loyalty to party and leader regardless of the circumstances.
That’s why Rowley has rejected the idea of expanding the PNM to be a more inclusive party and why he has rejected strong and loyal PNMites like Amery Browne, NiLeung Hypolite, Penny Beckles, Mariano Browne, Conrad Enil, Danny Montano. Louis Lee Sing to name a few.
When Rowley pledged five years ago to take the party back to its original moorings he was making it clear that the PNM would remain true to the ideals of Eric Williams, which included a reliance on race to win elections and on maximum leadership where dissent put in in the doghouse and made you millstones.
While the PDP and DLP also relied heavily on race, they were always more inclusive. And in 1976 when the ULF inherited the DLP base and propelled Basdeo Panday to national prominence Panday expanded the composition of the opposition and never turned back.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar took it to new heights with her constant message of equality and unity and her People’s Partnership administration has been the most diverse in our country’s history. Its work over the past five years has drawn condemnation from Rowley for expanding development to areas outside the traditional PNM boundaries.
“I strongly condemn all racist statements from whatever source and for whichever purpose,” Rowley told the Express Monday. “The PNM does not run its campaign on race. Our campaign will resolutely address the many issues facing all the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Interracial solidarity has been and remains a fundamental principle of our Movement.”
Has Rowley forgotten Tobago? He was sitting on the stage when Sandy warned Tobago that if the PNM didn’t win the election there would be an invasion of Indians. “There is a ship at Calcutta waiting to sail to Tobago. That ship is waiting to sail to Tobago; they are waiting to get the results of this election, if you bring the wrong results, Calcutta ship is coming down for you!'"
Rowley’s response was not condemnation; that came a few days later only when the national community went into an uproar about it. Here’s what Rowley said in reaction to Sandy’s comment: “He knows what it is to serve…let him bring his experience to guide the youngsters.” Yes, Rowley urged the youngsters to see Sandy as a role model the same way he embraces his geriatric youth officer, Fitzgerald Hinds, as another one for tomorrow’s generation to emulate.
The PNM, having seen how race worked in its favour in Tobago in 2013, is playing the game again.
There is clear in a clear contradiction between Rowley’s public statement and the reality.
Rowley is not truly condemning racism but merely issuing a hollow public relations message. If Rowley is genuine he must condemn every comment and act of racism or discrimination, especially when it comes from people who are members of his front line.
But he cannot do that because even in his daily baseless attacks on the PP administration he continues to betray his bias by opposing a University Campus in Debe, a children’s hospital in Couva and all development outside of Port of Spain.
While Rowley engages in divisiveness and discord Mrs. Persad-Bissessar has become a magnet for unity, as every national leader should.
-Jai Parasram | 06 July 2015
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