SUPPORTERS of embattled political leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM) Dr. Keith Rowley are seeing his triumph in last Saturday’s party General Council vote on the balisier tie as a defeat of a plan to have him ousted as leader.
In a move which PNM insiders say was ultimately aimed at getting rid of Rowley, or at the very least to show disaffection with his leadership, the General Council met in session at Balisier House last Saturday to debate the controversial tie issue, which was the sole motion on the agenda.
The issue of the balisier tie came to the forefront last year, after Rowley took a personal decision to stop wearing the balisier flower, the party’s emblem, on his tie in Parliament. The move was roundly criticised by some within the party and among Rowley’s own MPs, who publicly stated that they would not follow his lead on this issue.
Among them were Diego Martin Central MP Dr. Amery Browne and Diego Martin North East’s Colm Imbert. In fact Rowley is the only male PNM MP to no longer wear the tie in Parliament.
According to reports, so assured were the backers of the motion to discipline Rowley and to make it mandatory for all party officials to wear the balisier tie at official functions, that a celebratory party was already planned to take place at the Hyatt Regency following the General Council meeting on Saturday.
FETEING LEADERS: President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Prof. George MAXWELL RICHARDS and his wife Dr. JEAN RAMJOH- RICHARDS share a light moment with Leader of the Opposition, and political leader of the Peoples National Movement, Dr. KEITH ROWLEY and his wife, attorney-at-law SHARON ROWLEY at the One fete, which was held at the Oval, Port of Spain last Sunday. Photo by Peter Jennings
This motion to test Rowley’s leadership was moved by Elections Officer Linus Rogers but had the backing of a few former and present PNM MPs, including Browne, Alicia Hospedales, Nileung Hypolite and Christine Kangaloo.
It called for MPs and other officials to be instructed to wear the tie at official events and to seek to take immediate steps to hold members to an established level of discipline and deportment in so far as it related to the conduct of their duties as PNMites.
The motion also called on the General Council to establish a team to investigate the PNM brand and how best to protect it for future generations. The motion had its first hearing in December last year, when Rogers brought it before the General Council, but after a heated discussion it was postponed to January for a full debate.
Over the last month, however, there had been a concerted campaign, including letters to the editor and blog posts, seeking to win support for the two sides in the issue.
When the debate took place last Saturday Mirror learnt that the party general secretary Ashton Forde began by giving a historical perspective of the balisier tie, while deputy political leader Orville London spoke about the Tobago experience and the fact that it was not a contentious issue in Tobago.
Twice during the debate, Mirror learnt, efforts were made by Rogers and his supporters to amend the motion and to have it removed from the agenda.
When it came to the floor, nine persons voted for the motion, three of whom did not have any rights to vote since they were MPs, including Amery Browne and Alicia Hospedales.
Insiders say that Rowley refrained from voting and also from speaking on the motion, but many of the speakers from the floor, who were given the nod to speak by Chairman Franklyn Khan, raised their concern that the motion seemed to be mischievous and pointless, since the political leader had made no move to have the balisier emblem desecrated, removed or changed in any way and that the emblem was never in question.
Port of Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing, a supporter of the motion who attended the meeting wearing his balisier tie, was denied the opportunity to speak by the Chairman as speaker after speaker vented against the motion. Lee Sing, after questioning the Khan’s handling of the meeting, walked out of the session. Attempts to contact Lee Sing on the matter proved futile.
