Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday made it abundantly clear that when he made his “shut your mouth” statement in relation to his proposed plan to house Dominicans affected by Hurricane Maria on Tuesday, he was not directing this to the public. Rather, he was referring to his Parliamentary colleagues.
Rowley tried to clear the air on his comments at a press conference at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, hours after he appeared at a Government forum looking at the state of the economy at the same venue.
During a sod-turning ceremony for the Churchill Roosevelt Highway Extension to Manzanilla in Cumuto on Tuesday, Rowley said he had been disturbed by the negative comments his suggestion had brought.
Alluding to the fact that similar anti-Caricom sentiments had almost sparked a boycott of T&T goods by Jamaicans the year before, Rowley had said: “Those now who have a lot to say about what I said about Dominica had misconducted themselves and so annoyed our Caricom purchasers of our goods that we were in danger of losing our Caricom market and all I will say to them is just shut your mouth and let Trinidad and Tobago strive.”
Yesterday, however, some people on social media felt his remarks were un-priministerial, which the media brought to his attention during the press conference.
But in going back to the issue, Rowley said the sound bite of what he said “portrayed what I said in an incorrect way.”
Rowley said he spoke “specifically to the politicians who had put us in difficulty with Jamaica under the UNC. And that difficulty they put us in caused me to have to go to Jamaica eventually and prevent Jamaicans from boycotting our manufacturing goods.”
The PM said these same people who would have seen the outcome of their behaviour then “have learnt nothing, jumped out of the forefront again of this situation and have either encouraged or have themselves made statements which could damage Trinidad and Tobago’s interest in the very Caribbean, among the very market partners. And they are the ones I was saying we would just appreciate if you just shut up and let the country strive.”
“I was not talking about John Public across the board. I was talking to my Parliamentary colleagues who got us into trouble in 2010/2011 and who are again at it.”
BHOE SURPRISED ME
Rowley said he was particularly surprised at Opposition MP Bhoe Tewarie, who he thought was a Caribbean man and who would have been in a position to empathise with what is happening “if only from whence he had come.”
With his shut your mouth statement, Rowley said he has not “in any way put an impediment in the way of anybody’s free speech. I am exercising my free speech.”
Rowley also made it clear that it was never his “statement or intention to offload Dominicans into T&T.”
He said he chose his words very carefully when he urged citizens in T&T who could accommodate relatives and friends from ravaged Dominica if they had the wherewithal to get here, saying Government would facilitate their entry and extended stay as oppose to providing them with cash.
“I think the vast majority of people understand what I said and what I am thinking and I think the response of the vast majority of people in this country is what I expected it to be,” the PM said.
Rowley said following his proposal he was not surprised by a small minority who published “some of the nastiest responses to my comment, which has belittled and embarrassed our country. They are the ones I am speaking to…especially the ones in the political arena who believe that their political fortunes can only be advanced by the nastiness they would encourage amongst our population.”