Gail Alexan­der

If the stand­off in the PNM in­volv­ing Diego Mar­tin West MP Kei­th Row­ley is not re­solved con­stituents might have to ask the PNM lead­er­ship for a new can­di­date next elec­tion, PNM Diego Mar­tin West ac­tivist James Thomas has said. And some peo­ple like Thomas, in the con­stituen­cy, are al­ready eye­ing Port-of-Spain South MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald or for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Brigid An­nisette-George to re­place Row­ley. Thomas was among PNM Diego Mar­tin West sup­port­ers at yes­ter­day's PNM con­ven­tion at Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre. Diego Mar­tin West had at least two bus­es of sup­port­ers from the main part of the con­stituen­cy and oth­ers from Care­nage. Row­ley was not present. Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Row­ley de­clined to com­ment on the con­ven­tion.

How­ev­er, Thomas, from the Care­nage area said, "We have noth­ing against our MP, we love him and care for him but we want him to re­join the par­ty. I worked hard for Dr Row­ley, I've known him since 1987 when Mr Man­ning made him a deputy leader and the lead­er­ship gave him one of the safest seats in T&T to fight–Diego Mar­tin West. He was very good, he had the whole area be­hind him. "But the vast ma­jor­i­ty of con­stituents are solid­ly be­hind the po­lit­i­cal leader Mr Man­ning. The so-called mo­tion of no con­fi­dence in Mr Man­ning that some said Diego Mar­tin West was think­ing about, is not the con­sen­sus of the con­stituen­cy. It is the con­sen­sus of one man and one man on­ly–Dr Row­ley."

Grass­roots not con­sult­ed on Man­ning's mo­tion

Thomas added: "No one got in touch with the grass­roots lev­el of the par­ty sup­port in the seat on this mo­tion, so most of us were shocked and sur­prised at what we heard on this is­sue and we dis­agree with it to­tal­ly. "We have been ask­ing and beg­ging Dr Row­ley to deal with the sit­u­a­tion as this is one par­ty. We feel Dr Row­ley should not be sit­ting where he is sit­ting in the Par­lia­ment as we vot­ed for him to be in the Gov­ern­ment. Every time he speaks the Op­po­si­tion ap­plauds. We didn't vote for that.

"We spoke to Dr Row­ley at a con­stituen­cy meet­ing two Thurs­days ago and we told him that the par­ty is greater than him and he should use his good of­fice and come back to where he be­longs. "And if he did not, we may have no al­ter­na­tive but to tell the par­ty lead­er­ship to get us a new can­di­date when elec­tions are held." Thomas said Row­ley did not re­spond to the view. "We would ap­plaud Dr Row­ley if he gets up and sup­ports the Prime Min­is­ter and the Gov­ern­ment when (UNC leader) Kam­la (Per­sad-Bisses­sar) rais­es her mo­tion of no con­fi­dence in the leader. "Well said!" in­ter­ject­ed a group of PNM women who were stand­ing be­hind lis­ten­ing to Thomas.

Row­ley's is­sue weak­ens con­stituen­cy

The con­stituent said the on­ly time Diego Mar­tin West went against the PNM was in 1986. He said the par­ty was stronger in the area, but the is­sue con­cern­ing Row­ley had caused di­vi­sions. "The on­ly thing to bring it back is if he comes back and be­haves. And if he does not, we have been look­ing at two women for the seat if that be­comes nec­es­sary." Thomas said he wrote An­nisette-George last Oc­to­ber ask­ing about the pos­si­bil­i­ty. He said she lives in the con­stituen­cy and be­longs to a par­ty group. Thomas said she re­spond­ed. "Time will tell." On Row­ley stand­ing up for na­tion­al is­sues, he said, "We have no prob­lem with his han­dling na­tion­al is­sues, but he must re­mem­ber that it is not the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty that put him in Par­lia­ment."

Chair­man re­sponds:

His view is not that of en­tire area

The con­stituen­cy's ex­ec­u­tive chair­man, Su­san Wong said James was free to ex­press his views but they were not those of the en­tire area. She said she knew James from the Care­nage area. Wong said, "We are PNM at the end of the day and we want the best for the par­ty."