Gail Alexan­der and Ali­cia Llanos

Se­nior front-line mem­bers of the Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion yes­ter­day launched a con­cert­ed at­tack on their for­mer Cab­i­net col­league PNM MP, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, de­fend­ing Gov­ern­ment's prop­er­ty tax against Row­ley's crit­i­cisms. The prop­er­ty tax leg­is­la­tion was passed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives at 9 pm last night de­spite Op­po­si­tion ob­jec­tion. This con­clu­sion, against the back­drop of a bar­rage of crit­i­cisms against Row­ley by four of his for­mer col­leagues–PNM Min­is­ters Pe­ter Tay­lor, Colm Im­bert, Neil Parsan­lal and At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie. Row­ley was stiffly crit­i­cal of the tax in last Fri­day's de­bate. Two of the PN­Mites claimed Row­ley gave as­sur­ances when PNM's par­lia­men­tary cau­cus met on the bill, but he did some­thing else when de­bate took place. When de­bate re­sumed in the House yes­ter­day, Row­ley was ab­sent.

How­ev­er, the salvoes against him be­gan im­me­di­ate­ly, start­ing with PNM's Tay­lor who said he was un­hap­py with Row­ley's con­tri­bu­tion. Tay­lor said: "The Mem­ber for Diego Mar­tin West sought to do a very great dis­ser­vice to the facts." The pace in­creased con­sid­er­ably when PNM's Im­bert ac­cused Row­ley of be­ing "an Op­po­si­tion MP and of "los­ing his rea­son" due to his (Row­ley's) ob­ses­sion with Ude­cott and Ude­cott chair­man Calder Hart. Im­bert said Row­ley had at­tend­ed PNM's re­cent cau­cus, say­ing he want­ed to speak in the bill. But, Im­bert said, Row­ley gave no in­di­ca­tion he want­ed to crit­i­cise the bill. He said: "More and more we are see­ing a spec­ta­cle of a mem­ber of Gov­ern­ment com­ing in here (Par­lia­ment) and speak­ing as though he is a mem­ber of the Op­po­si­tion and mak­ing state­ments that are not based on fact, bereft of log­ic and have no rea­son in them." Im­bert said Row­ley's state­ments were of those from a bit­ter man, who was seek­ing re­venge.

He said: "It is a bit­ter pill to swal­low when a mem­ber of the PNM gives food to the Op­po­si­tion." Im­bert added: "I ap­peal to my col­league this hurt that he feels against Ude­cott – let it go!" Im­bert ad­vised Row­ley if he let Ude­cott and Hart "be the cen­tre of his uni­verse he will con­tin­ue to lose all rea­son." He said he could not un­der­stand Row­ley's state­ments on the prop­er­ty tax, as Row­ley served as one of the tax's "ar­chi­tects" and un­der­stood it. He said he be­lieved Row­ley's state­ments were "all in the quest of pop­ulism and re­venge." Im­bert, ac­cus­ing Row­ley of in­cit­ing mob hys­te­ria," asked: "Why will a re­spon­si­ble MP make these state­ments?" At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie ex­pressed "hor­ror" at what he said took place. Je­re­mie said he was ap­palled that Row­ley, de­spite as­sur­ances he gave the PNM's cau­cus, came to the House and did every­thing else but sup­port the leg­is­la­tion.

PNM In­for­ma­tion Min­is­ter Neil Parsan­lal said: "I want to say to the mem­ber of Diego Mar­tin West that my con­stituents are equal­ly as an­gry as those in Diego Mar­tin." He said that fear was on­ly fur­ther ex­as­per­at­ed by Row­ley's op­po­si­tion to­wards his own par­ty. He said: "When­ev­er they hear the mem­ber for Diego Mar­tin West speak, they hear him bat­tle with the Prime Min­is­ter about Ude­cott." Parsanal said he knew what to ex­pect from var­i­ous Op­po­si­tion MPs. "They come to this House and in more ways than one their on­ly role is to op­pose... but what we saw more bla­tant­ly the last time we met was the cheap pol­i­tics of MPs of the op­po­site side," he said. Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Tesheira, who wound up de­bate on the bill last night, said she had heard UNC MPs' ob­jec­tions to the bill and al­so "un­for­tu­nate­ly from one of our MPs al­so." Ear­li­er yes­ter­day Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, at a news con­fer­ence, when quizzed about Row­ley's crit­i­cism of prop­er­ty tax, said: "I pick on peo­ple my size. It is not a per­son­al thing. I take noth­ing per­son­al." (with re­port­ing by Michelle Loubon)