Rocking Rowley - The Peter O'Connor column

Poor Keith Rowley. He really has demonstrated that the position of Leader of the Opposition is beyond him, and when he tried to do some “repair work”, he just fell deeper into his own mess.

Of course I am referring to his utterly silly “a cloud formed in the east” comment about Hurricane Tomas, which fortuitously did not make a direct hit on Trinidad and Tobago.

Now Keith has been “getting pound” for this for the whole week, and deservedly so, for he is yet to demonstrate that he can recognize his own foolishness. Even his purported “apology” was arrogant and self serving.

But there were comments raised by Rowley in that speech and following, which have not been dealt with by others. Maybe they were all so appalled at how stupid he sounded generally that they refused to acknowledge other startling comments, which he added as frills or excuses.

The PNM Political leader Rowley was addressing a group of the fabulously loyal (is that why they call them FABS?) PNM Women’s League. And he was doing this the day after Tropical Storm warnings had been issued, by agencies in Miami, the Eastern Caribbean and here at home.

He accused Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar of causing panic and costing the economy millions of dollars because of “a cloud in the East”. He felt he had to add that he was not attacking her because she was a woman (of course not!), but because she had “caused a panic”.

And what exactly had Kamla done?

She had instructed that schools should close early on Friday so that children could get home ahead of any possible flooding. Indeed, the PNM are the last people on earth who should dismiss “a cloud” as an insignificant event. 

He has probably forgotten Hurricane Ivan in 2004 where the PNM “shut down the country” for two days, and Ivan never came. PNM was doing their duty then as Kamla performed her duty regarding Tomas.

He went on to castigate Kamla for trying to look impressive by “closing down the country”, and criticized the ODPM for caving in to her in this. I give credit to the FABS for not taking Rowley on. Indeed they must have been embarrassed by his nonsense.

This is a group of “long time” Trini women who have known and endured the abuse of the typical Trini male who expects, and gets his food, drink and sex without ever doing anything in or around the family home in terms of sharing the responsibilities of raising a family.

My guess, although I have no degree in psychiatry, is that the FABS would have had a lot of respect and sympathy for Kamla, and would have been wishing that they had Penny as Leader rather than this ass.

When the first wave of protest over his nonsense swept in, Rowley then tried to blame the ODPM and accused them of “trying to look better than the previous ODPM” or words to that effect. 

In the meantime this “cloud” was battering Barbados, then St. Vincent and St. Lucia, where considerable damage was done and lives were lost. The tail end of the storm also did considerable damage in Tobago and NE. Trinidad.

But what had Kamla done?

In the face of warnings of potential flooding which were first forecast to begin on Friday afternoon, she ordered schools to be closed early for children to get to their homes. She LED the country by example, without adjourning in parliament on Friday afternoon, even as everyone was heading home.

Indeed, when parliament was eventually adjourned late in the afternoon, so that MP’s could also head for home, Rowley made no objection on the grounds “that it was just a cloud in the East”.

But of course he had plans for the evening, so he was happy to leave. He told his FABs that his constituency had organized a Boat Cruise for Friday night, and accused the government of cancelling it!

Well, I call upon Rowley to give us the name of the cruise boat owner and captain, so I can ask them if they would have taken innocent people out on a boat cruise in the face of warnings from the Met Office and the Miami Hurricane Centre about the approaching storm system.

And finally we had the more astonishing, and apparently still ongoing tirade from Rowley over Kamla’s offer of help, using T&T resources, to the islands affected by Tomas. Is he using Kamla’s offer to continue his predecessor’s declared war against local contractors?

His refusal to meet with government to discuss how to provide assistance to stricken neighbours must rank as one of the most childish political statements we have ever heard. He is now stripped of any credibility we once thought he possessed.