Backlash for T&T leader's Tomas aid comments

Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Keith Rowley said the comments had brought shame on Trinidad and Tobago. (File photo)

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Wednesday November 3, 2010 – Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Keith Rowley is among a wave of people who’ve criticised Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for her statement that the twin-island nation would have to get something in return for helping Caribbean neighbours affected by Hurricane Tomas.

The Prime Minister on Monday indicated that her government had already mobilized two containers of foodstuff and would make a decision where to send it – although St Vincent and the Grenadines has already been identified as a recipient – but said there must some way in which Trinidad and Tobago would also benefit, including through the use of local builders and companies in the countries’ restructuring efforts. She had said she would discuss the aid issue with her Cabinet colleagues and the Opposition.

Immediately after her comments were reported, there was a wave of criticism, with many bloggers from Trinidad and Tobago as well as Barbados, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, which were affected by Tomas, describing her comments as “heartless” and “selfish”. 

There were also some who supported her, though, insisting that Trinidad and Tobago had to look out for itself and that aid from the United States and contending that other larger countries to the region also came with conditionalities attached.

But the country’s Opposition Leader was not one of those. Rowley said the comments had brought shame on Trinidad and Tobago.

The People’s National Movement (PNM) leader said he totally rejected “this backward, colonial policy” and would have nothing to do with any discussions or concept where humanitarian relief from the people of Trinidad and Tobago to members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) “is tied to any conditionality of self-interest”.

“We believe that in situations like these, we are unconditionally our brothers’ keeper, to the best of our ability,” he said. “This action as advocated by the Prime Minister can only serve to bring us shame and cost us our valuable leadership role in CARICOM, which is so vital to our own economic existence.”

Rowley also cast citizens’ memories back to the CARICOM Heads of Government conference in Jamaica in July, when Persad-Bissessar had cautioned the rest of the region that her country would not operate like an ATM machine for them.

That comment has been resurrected in the debate that has surrounded the Prime Minister’s aid statement.

Then an apology from Rowley

Meantime, the Opposition Leader has apologised for criticizing Persad-Bissessar’s decision to shut down the country last Friday, because of “a cloud”, in preparation for the approach of Tomas.

"My use of the term 'cloud' was unfortunate and since it did give the unintended impression that I was trivialising a serious situation, for this I must apologise to the public. I have been roundly criticised for this comment,” he said in a Letter to the Editor which was published in yesterday’s Trinidad Express newspaper.

Although adding that the total shutdown was an overreaction, Rowley said he was not opposed to the People’s Partnership Government taking precautionary action in the face of a storm threat.

“It was simply a difference of opinion as to how we should respond. I have had responsibility for a number of emergencies of similar or more severe nature throughout the Eastern Caribbean over the years and will never be so reckless as to make unwarranted criticism of Government for taking appropriate pre-emptive action," Rowley said.

Tomas did cause damage in Tobago when it passed by on Saturday. Some parts of Trinidad’s sister isle were flooded and there were also landslides, damages to houses and destruction on farms.

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