Gail Alexan­der

PNM leader Kei­th Row­ley has been "vic­timised" for his lead­er­ship in the same way Works Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er is now be­ing "vic­timised," says Daryan Warn­er, son of the Works Min­is­ter. "But I re­spect both men who have stuck to their prin­ci­ples," Warn­er added yes­ter­day, as he at­tend­ed PNM Fam­i­ly Day at Man­zanil­la, along with hun­dreds of PN­Mites. PNM chair­man Franklin Khan said the par­ty had de­cid­ed on a dif­fer­ent venue for the Fam­i­ly Day-from its tra­di­tion­al lo­ca­tion of Ed­die Hart grounds-as part of its new di­rec­tion. "It's a uni­fy­ing move, the par­ty can gell bet­ter in a fun-filled en­vi­ron­ment where every­one can re­lax, so­cialise a lit­tle and for new­com­ers to get to know the PNM fam­i­ly bet­ter...it's not all pol­i­tics, the PNM is a fam­i­ly," Khan said.

Row­ley, wear­ing a cap­tain's hat, en­tered the fa­cil­i­ty to tas­sa. He told the crowd: "The PNM is up and com­ing!" Maxi taxis full of PN­Mites con­verged on the beach fa­cil­i­ty from10 am to en­joy games, all fours, oth­er com­pe­ti­tions, mu­sic and food cooked by PNM con­stituen­cies. Port-of-Spain South pro­duced two no­table items on the menu, a drink called "The Kam­la" and a dish called "Jack in the Pot." PNM MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald said: "The drink is a de­li­cious fruit punch-heav­i­ly laced with vod­ka. The 'Jack in the Pot' is a scrump­tious oil down." Warn­er's son Daryan, who has been ac­tive with PNM's Port-of-Spain North unit since last year, said: "What mat­ters to me is who can do the best job for the least amount of mon­ey...It doesn't mat­ter which car­pen­ter is build­ing my roof-it's once the roof is done.

"If UNC has a pro­gramme that makes sense, let's sup­port them and vice ver­sa for the PNM," he said.

"My fa­ther has been un­der the gun for many rea­sons, in­clud­ing be­cause he's a men­tor...I'm proud of him for stick­ing to his plans and vi­sions. "In the same way, Dr Row­ley is a men­tor and has stood up for what he be­lieves in at all costs. "So I re­spect Dr Row­ley as a man and I'm try­ing to learn about him as a politi­cian. "When peo­ple say he's not a leader, I feel he's be­ing vic­timised the same way Jack is be­ing vic­timised...Give Row­ley a chance to lead, it's his first chance. "This wasn't my first PNM func­tion and it won't be my last...If sup­port­ing the PNM now means they will be a cred­i­ble Op­po­si­tion that will help Gov­ern­ment per­form bet­ter, then I''m hap­py with that, and if I get blows for that, I take my blows-it's the Warn­er way."

PNM deputy chair­man Orville Lon­don, com­ment­ing on the PP's at­tacks on him in re­cent days, said the Gov­ern­ment was clear­ly cam­paign­ing. "They nev­er stopped cam­paign­ing, a lot of things they've done in To­ba­go which is against the ba­sic tenets of good gov­er­nance in re­la­tion to the THA and Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment is be­cause the Gov­ern­ment is about elec­tion­eer­ing and pol­i­tics," he said. "Their pos­tures are re­al­ly to sig­nal that the PP Gov­ern­ment cares more about To­ba­go than the PNM-con­trolled THA and this runs the risk of set­ting some very dan­ger­ous prece­dents. "Peo­ple must un­der­stand where you have a THA in a re­la­tion with a gov­ern­ment, it is re­spect for the law that will de­ter­mine things." For­mer PNM leader Patrick Man­ning and MP Paula Gopee-Scoon, as well as some sen­a­tors, missed yes­ter­day's Man­zanil­la event. Man­ning was at a Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege re­union yes­ter­day. The ma­jor­i­ty of PNM MPs at­tend­ed. PNM chair­man Khan, deny­ing any rifts, said the par­ty lead­er­ship would be talk­ing with Man­ning. He said PNM's uni­ty could have been seen in the Fam­i­ly Day at­ten­dance.