The AYES have it; bailout bills pass, now on to the Senate

The Ayes have it!

With that announcement the House of Representatives pass amendments to finance bills to allow it to bail out financially strapped CL financial. Now the bills go to the upper chamber where the government will most likely get support from independent senators to take it the next stage before presidential assent.

It was a day of drama in the Parliament and the man of the moment was Keith Rowley, the man prime minister Patrick Manning fired for daring to question activities of UDeCOTT - the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago - and the activities of its executive chairman, Canadian-born Calder Hart.

Rowley left cabinet but not the governing party. And since his departure from the elite decision making body he remained loyal to the party in spite of his differences with the leadership. In the end it was that loyalty that guided his actions when he cast THE crucial vote to give the government the majority it needed to pass the bills.

Rowley had made it clear that his support was conditional on certain guarantees, the most important of which was that Calder Hart would not have access to the billions of dollars of taxpayers' money that would be cast into the financial rescue. He also demanded equal treatment for the collapsed Hindu Credit Union (HCU), which continues to hold out hope that somebody in the government would hear their cries for a lifeline, not a bailout.

The opposition had done its share, following the same lines of argument as Rowley and had hoped that the Diego Martin West MP and PNM pariah would stand up for the principles he so eloquently espoused in his contribution to the debate.

There were consultations, moments of despair on both sides and the wait. Then it was time. And Rowley stayed within his tribe.

He was not a member of the opposition and did not vote with them. The government got its 26 votes, the opposition had no choice but to accept defeat.

It will be the same in the Senate. The government has an automatic majority there as well but will need votes from Independents who have always maintained the status quo, so it's full steam ahead for the government.

So why did Rowley pontificate with such fury in the House and then capitulate?

"The Prime Minister spoke," he explained. "I spoke, several times, other members expressed their points of view, we had discourse and dialogue. We met behind closed doors and we confronted the issues.

"The Cabinet is fully apprised. And I got assurance that the Cabinet has taken responsibility for understanding, acknowledging and treating with my concerns. And to the extent that they could give an undertaking to act responsibly, I have taken their word.

"I am not a member of the Opposition. I am a member of the Government. I should take assurances when I have discussions with the Government in caucus seriously. I expect, therefore, that the Cabinet will act responsibly. And I didn't think that I needed to go further than that, at the risk of capsizing the financial sector."

That the same government, the same leadership that kicked him out, the same bunch of politicians he lambasted, the same group from which he distanced himself.

What about his concerns for the Hindu Credit Union and the tens of thousands who have been unfairly treated and his plea for the government to put ethnicity aside and treat all citizens equally and fairly? Dr Rowley didn't say.

In then end all he got was an "assurance" that cabinet would do the right thing, the cabinet that has been doing the wrong things all along.

Rowley didn't see a betrayal. "It is a sign of strength," he declared.

"At the end of the day, it was all about the public good. What was in the public interest - the saving of the financial sector or a public beheading of UDeCOTT boss Calder Hart?" he asked.

And his former cabinet colleague, Information Minister Neil Parsanlal, hailed the victory, not as a successful government initiative, but as a PNM triumph.

"What we saw today, in terms of the vote, was testimony to that. History would record that it was a PNM Government that saved and supported the 172,000 policyholders and the thousands of depositors and all those generations who built CLICO," Parsanlal said.

But that how things are in Trinidad and Tobago. Party first. Great is the PNM and it shall prevail. And once more it has.

Now let's see how this bailout fares.