Sascha Wil­son

The Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment will be dis­man­tled and re­placed with a Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Min­istry es­tab­lished if the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) forms the next gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced this at a cot­tage meet­ing at the Basse Terre Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Moru­ga, on Tues­day night where the par­ty cel­e­brat­ed its 56th an­niver­sary. Co­in­ci­den­tal­ly, at that same time, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was cel­e­brat­ing her sec­ond year as po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress UNC) with a mass ral­ly at the Rien­zi Com­plex, Cou­va. Row­ley, who told PNM sup­port­ers prepa­ra­tions for lo­cal and gen­er­al elec­tion are on­go­ing, ex­pressed con­fi­dence that PNM will form the next gov­ern­ment.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said lo­gis­ti­cal­ly rur­al com­mu­ni­ties are al­ways left be­hind. "In or­der to en­sure that rur­al com­mu­ni­ties are not left be­hind as we progress as a na­tion there will be in the Cab­i­net of Trinidad and To­ba­go a Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment whose re­spon­si­bil­i­ty will be to co-or­di­nate what the na­tion has to of­fer to en­sure that rur­al com­mu­ni­ties get their fair share and they get it in a time­ly man­ner," he told the gath­er­ing. Row­ley said the way so­cial ser­vices are as­sessed would be a ma­jor de­vel­op­ment in a PNM gov­ern­ment. "We will have no Min­istry of the Peo­ple," he de­clared, not­ing that all min­istries are min­istries of the peo­ple. He said the coun­try lacks a prop­er Min­istry of So­cial Ser­vices through which pub­lic of­fi­cers and so­cial work­ers could go to every nook and cran­ny in the coun­try and pro­vide ser­vices.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, par­ty sup­port­ers ex­pressed con­cern that em­ploy­ees of the Com­mu­ni­ty En­hance­ment and En­vi­ron­ment Pro­tec­tion Pro­gramme (CEPEP) and Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) were threat­ened with loss of pay or jobs if they did not at­tend Per­sad-Bisses­sar's an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions. Row­ley point­ed out that Rien­zi was for cow­ards, sym­bol­ised by the colour yel­low and said on elec­tion day peo­ple would be free to cast their vote next to the bal­isi­er sym­bol. Dur­ing the meet­ing Row­ley wel­comed se­nior coun­sel Ernest Koy­lass, who gave a maid­en speech to the PNM fam­i­ly. He said the par­ty's doors are open to any­one in­ter­est­ed in join­ing.

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Even as for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning is ward­ed at hos­pi­tal af­ter suf­fer­ing a stroke on Mon­day night, Op­po­si­tion leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the work of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will con­tin­ue. Re­spond­ing to crit­i­cism that the event should have been post­poned as a mark of re­spect to Man­ning, Row­ley said, "Mr Man­ning is hos­pi­talised so let us not be­have as though the worst has hap­pened. We ac­knowl­edge that he is ill, grave­ly ill. We are hop­ing that he makes a very good re­cov­ery, but in the mean­time we will con­tin­ue our work in the ex­pec­ta­tion that he will re­cov­er. Lets not be­have as though the worst has hap­pened, okay," said Row­ley.