Saying the people of Trinidad and Tobago had nothing to gain by "insulting" the people who conducted American business in Trinidad and Tobago, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley suggested yesterday Sport Minister Anil Roberts's criticisms of a US Embassy official should not be encouraged.
"One has to bear in mind that where there are actions, there are consequences and those consequences may not be for the minister. They are for the people of Trinidad and Tobago, and we have nothing to gain by insulting the people who conduct American business in Trinidad and Tobago.
"If there are issues here, there is a proper way to treat with them as we have treated with them for decades," Rowley said. He added: "What we are seeing here is a kind of governance which is reckless. And the Prime Minister should talk to her minister and tell him that is not how it should be done".
Rowley said foreign affairs was a very sensitive matter, and a minister of Government in Trinidad and Tobago ought not to be taking that position in that way.
"If there are issues with the United States government and its embassy's actions here, those issues are required to be dealt with by the portfolio that has that responsibility—the Ministry for Foreign Affairs," he said, adding the ministry would know how to handle it so as not to create offence.
On the situation of the flooding situation, Rowley was asked to respond to the contention the flooding was partly the result of People's National Movement (PNM) neglect.
Rowley said: "We accept no responsibility for acts of God, and when politicians talk foolishness, after a while, people would understand that there is sense and nonsense."
"We had an unusually heavy downpour for a number of hours; the watercourses have a certain carrying capacity, and whenever every once in a while you get excessively heavy rain, not only in Trinidad and Tobago but anywhere else in the world, you get watercourse problems, whether there are small drains or large rivers, " he said.
"The Government is still campaigning. Somebody should tell the Government that the elections are over. They should get on with running the country, and talking foolishness about the last government when you have matters of this nature is just an excuse to make news and to have photo opportunities and to not assume responsibility for the country's challenges.
"We all know that a lot of our population live within or close to watercourses. Insofar as is engineeringly possible, you can, in some way, modify those watercourses and that would usually take care of most of the situation. But every so often, there is excessively heavy rainfall or you may have blockage of streams, and that would create some challenges.
"So for the Government to get up every time they are called upon to discharge their responsibility, to be referring to the previous government, then we should have left the country with the previous government," he said.
"The rainfall had nothing to do with the PNM," he added.
Rowley said he was surprised to hear a UNC (United National Congress minister (Jack Warner) talking about creating a drainage entity. "These are policies being made on the hoof," he said, adding the Government had a lot of say when the PNM came up with the idea of a Revenue Authority, another special-purpose entity created under statute to do a particular job.
He said such statements do not come out of any Cabinet position.
"There are ministers shooting their mouths all over the place," he said, adding the country was still awaiting coherent policy from the Government.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/100095454.htmlAug 6, 2010