I will clear my good name, says Trinidad MP

by Norman 'Gus' Thomas
Caribbean Net News Special Correspondent

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) delegates to the just concluded 10th Special Meeting of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government in Trinidad, flew out of Port of Spain bound for Tortola to attend the 40th OECS meeting which begins on Wednesday, having experienced the lighter side of the Trinidad meeting with a taste of a real Trinidadian-style constituency meeting with Member of Parliament Dr Keith Rowley.

Rowley on Monday took a defiant stand vowing to fight to the finish “with every muscle in my body” to defend his good character, assuring his constituents that he would be vindicated by the findings of a Commission of Inquiry.

Pointing out that everything else, including his position as a Cabinet Minister, is short term, but his good name is permanent, Rowley who represents the Diego Martin West Constituency in Parliament, spoke to his constituents on two controversies affecting him. They are the Mason Hall Development Project and the Parliament tearoom bacchanal. 

According to the MP, the allegations are all part of an orchestrated attempt to smear his name and by extension damage the ruling People's National Movement (PNM). 

Rowley, could well be facing an assault charge resulting from a complaint filed by Fyzabad Member of Parliament Chandresh Sharma. However, he said that if he ended up in court for the tearoom brawl, he would certainly “welcome it.” 

“I would love to see my lawyers ask all the relevant questions,” he said, while addressing a constituency meeting at the Point Cumana Community Centre. 

Rowley was adamant that he is innocent and claimed he had a verbal altercation with Sharma and was subsequently portrayed as “some ruffian” beating people in Parliament and causing the Opposition MP to be taken to the hospital from blows.

“I am from Mason Hall and when I beat Sharma, Sharma will know, and you will know, and there would be no question about it!” he roared to the cheering crowd. 

“Imagine me, a big ‘hard back’ man, want to beat Sharma, and I slap him and fling a teacup at him?” Rowley asked in an incredulous manner, while the crowd roared and clapped. On the Mason Hall/Landate issue, Rowley stressed that he had removed himself from the project, which was being handled entirely by his wife. 

He said that, unlike Basdeo Panday of the Opposition United National Congress (UNC), he said his wife was his, and therefore, he had a beneficial interest in anything she did.

“Until the law is changed where my wife can’t own land, can’t develop property, can’t hire a contractor, Ganga Singh and Panday and the whole seaband could go to hell,” the Diego Martin West MP asserted. “And I don’t have to wait for Rootsman to tell me where my wife get the money,” he said, quoting the words of the calypso “Is she nanny give she that.” He said his wife was an attorney with a leading law firm. Apart from that, he had been continuously employed for the last 30 years. 

Rowley brought the house down when he hollered: “I don’t go to whorehouses… I don’t go to casinos, so if I want a load of sand, I could pay for it,” he yelled, turning the meeting into roadside mini-carnival.

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