Fredie Ferreria told the Newsday newspaper opposition leader Keith Rowley has no control over the former Prime Minister.
“It is quite clear that Mr Manning is batting on his own turf...How long will the party continue to allow Mr Manning to deplete its already depleted political stocks?" Ferreria asked.
Manning had been silent in Parliament until last week when he spoke in the debate on the wiretapping bill. However, his focus was not on the business at hand but on a house that was being built in Phillipine in South Trinidad. He called it "Kamla's Palace" and charged that the property is valued at $150 million.
Manning demanded an explanation, which the Prime Minister has already provided through the media showing that Manning's charges and innuendos about possible wrongdoing are without foundation.
Rowley has defended Manning but has said at the same time the PNM would stand with the member for San Fernando East if his actions are defensible.
According to Newsday Rowley cannot exert control over his former boss and no one in the party knows for sure what Manning will do or say next.
Manning and Rowley have been fighting each other for more than a decade, even when Rowley sat at the cabinet table. When manning eventually found the courage to kick Rowley out of cabinet the split grew worse and in the May 24 general election Rowley openly campaigned against Manning while he was running as a PNM candidate.
Once the PNM had been beaten, Rowley's supporters forced Manning to quit as leader and Rowley was acclaimed PNM leader and took over the role of leading the party in Parliament as well. But Manning did not roll over and die.
And when the issue of the illegal wiretapping came up in Parliament with the Prime Minister announcing that the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) under Manning's administration had been spying on citizens, including the president and chief justice, Manning decided he would speak for himself.
While he defended the actions of the SIA and made potentially libellous statements in a news conference, Rowley was saying he was disgusted with the illegal actions.
At a media conference Rowley said, “what was painful was to have accepted that office holders could have been using that machinery of the State to violate the rights of law-abiding citizens.
He said the confirmation that Manning was getting wiretap information "now leaves me in a very saddened state.” Rowley rejected criticisms of the current Government for exposing the spying and declared that the Prime Minister "has done nothing wrong.”
But Manning slammed the government and said he saw no problems with spying on the President and a Chief Justice.
“It is not a matter of who you are but a matter of national security and in those circumstances, nobody is above the law...Nobody is above the scrutiny of the State when it comes to national security matters, whether you be Prime Minister, minister, judge, journalist or anybody else”, Manning told reporters
Rowley admitted to reporters that he had no prior knowledge of Manning's actions.
In the overall context of what has been happening Ferreira said, “Mr Manning has now become a source of embarrassment to both the leader and the PNM,” Ferreira said.
“Dr Rowley as leader has the responsibility at a time like this to ensure that Manning brings no further depletion of political stocks,” he added.
Newsday is also reporting a big split within the 12-member parliamentary caucus of the PNM with five MPs supporting Rowley and only three staying close to Manning.
According to the paper, the Rowley loyalists are Marlene McDonald, Donna Cox, Nileung Hypolite, Fitzgerald Jeffrey and Patricia McIntosh. Manning's supporters are Paula Gopee Scoon, Colm Imbert and Alicia Hospedales. The paper said Amery Brown and Joanne Thomas have remained neutral.
No comments:
Post a Comment