‘I will not forget you’

Rowley gave the assurance at a public meeting at Majuba Junction, where the constituency’s candidate for the September 7 General Election was introduced to supporters.

Energy specialist Nicole Olivierre is the PNM’s candidate for La Brea — taking over from incumbent Fitzgerald Jeffery, who was also present at Saturday’s meeting.

Prior to the meeting, the PNM’s leader and the party’s candidate walked through the constituency, greeting supporters and listening to their concerns.

“The good and gentle people of La Brea have said to me all evening: ‘Our country has forgotten us and as we make you prime minister, please remember us, don’t forget us,’” he said.

The cries of the people of La Brea, he added, moved him as he was forced to admit that they were right in their assessment, he said.

“The people have every good reason to feel that Trinidad and Tobago have forgotten them,” Rowley said.

“And the people of La Brea have every good reason to believe that they should support the PNM again and expect that the PNM will not forget them. La Brea tonight, I give you the assurance that the next government of Trinidad and Tobago will make sure that those complaints are attended to.”

Rowley said poverty levels in La Brea were among the highest in the country, but the district had special problems that required special solutions. Rowley said the last PNM administration made a decision to invest in the south-western peninsula with specific plans to develop La Brea. He said those plans were scuttled in 2010 and the people of La Brea were left to suffer.

The former housing minister said it took the present People’s Partnership Government five years to hand over keys to ten families who were relocated from the Union Estate.

Rowley said during his tenure, in 2007, he started the Pier Road housing project.

He called it an insult to the La Brea community and outlined plans for the district, with particular focus on the Belle View Estate, which is located on Petrotrin lands and which, he said, held the key to the development and expansion of La Brea.

“I give you the assurance under my leadership there will be no policy to fool the people and lie to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Decency will return to the office of the prime minister and the name minister of government of Trinidad and Tobago — character matters,” Rowley said.