Letter: PNM member wants answers from Rowley

From Ms Gloria NANAN
Plum Rd Manzanilla

I am one of those citizens who felt devastated when the sun REFUSED to go down when May 24th 2010 ended. My side lost the government, dashing all my hopes to the ground. 

Before we had time to catch our breath properly, the new Prime Minister called the Local Elections. Personally, I still went and campaigned during the Local Elections, thinking we would make a comeback. We didn't. We lost again.We got more licks than we could imagine, worse than in the General Election. I remember someone from Balisier House telling us if Local Elections were the General, the Partnership would have won 32 seats. 

Despite those major disappointments, I stuck with my party, helping organize as best as I could. Now, having heard what one of our top officials has publicly said, I'm wondering and very concerned whether the PNM has expelled me without me knowing.

My name is Gloria Nanan. I am of Indian descent. I am a PNM. When Hilton Sandy stands on a PNM political platform and warns about shiploads of people from Calcutta descending on Tobago, I sit up and listen twice as attentively as a non-Indian PNM member or supporter does.

When the Partnership came into office, I figured it would treat us the same way we treated persons who didn't belong to the PNM when we were in office. 

Some of my friends who had jobs in URP and CEPEP were dismissed to make room for Partnership people. Personally, I had no problem with that. The dismissed persons were political appointees. Other than having a PNM card, most really didn't have any qualifications at all. I saw a few of the dismissal letters. They were offered generous severance benefits which they should have accepted. 

Plus, in developed countries like the USA, political appointees always resign to make way for others when a new president is elected. But the Partnership moved differently. It fired the persons who were sending home the PNM people and reinstated every PNM person they had dismissed. When I heard of that, I wondered if the Partnership really knew a General Election is the civilised way to take over a country.

Since then, I watched and listened as the Partnership went about it's business. I kept praying it would make a slip up so the PNM could return to government long ahead of schedule. Some issues arose but the Partnership seems to be made from teflon, none of its mistakes is sticking long enough to bring it to its knees.

All of this has been mentioned because, suddenly, members of my own party are looking at me and accusing me of supporting the Partnership because I am of Indian descent just like the Prime Minister. They have forgotten how much I campaigned for the PNM overs the years and how much insults I had to endure because I chose to join the PNM not the UNC or COP. Their accusations began right after Hilton Sandy publicly shared his fears about Calcutta.

Tobago is a lovely place. It is also part of our republic. In Parliament, my Political Leader, Dr Rowley, jumps up at the slightest offensive remark a Partnership MP makes. 

I want Dr Rowley to give me and all PNM supporters of Indian descent a satisfactory explanation why he didn't interrupt Mr Sandy for saying the hurtful things he said about Indians on the PNM platform, because in saying what he said, he not only shamed the PNM, he also was sending a message that I, Gloria Nanan, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago and supporter of the PNM, would not be welcome in Tobago if the party I support wins, due to my Indian ancestry.

I am PNM. But I'm wondering.