Rowley: Opposition won’t run this country

Speaking after a specially-convened Cabinet meeting at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Rowley referred to the State’s successful appeal of a ruling on the property tax issue as well as its successful appeal of a judge’s decision to halt the swearing in of two new judges, Rowley said the government acknowledges the authority of the Judiciary in taking decisions in the best interest of all citizens.

“But having said that, we also acknowledge persons who see themselves in the political arena and who look around for opportunities to advance their political possibilities.

“They are largely the Opposition and in strategising for their future prospects, they have identified the courts as a place to go and create as much mayhem and disturbance as possible in Trinidad and Tobago with a view that if they are successful or even partially successful, in creating this climate of disturbance, it will advance their political prospects.

“I say without apologies that I intend, as head of the Executive, to defend the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago from such political excursions,” Rowley said.

On the property tax issue, Rowley said it was clear that people now in the Opposition want to use the court system to advance the agenda they had when they were in government and prevent the law from being applied in the collection of revenue to the State via this tax. “I am saying today, the PNM will have none of it. The Opposition will not run this country. The rules that we operate under is the rule of the majority and that majority creates the executive and it is the authority of the executive to observe the law. And if there are challenges to this executive, we are prepared to defend those matters all the way to the Privy Council on every occasion,” Rowley said. “People who were in the last Cabinet for five years, to do all the things they want this government to do in five months, see the court as a place to go to stymie Government’s opportunity to collect $500 million on an annual basis. That is their assignment. That is their agenda and the Government intends to resist it.” Rowley expressed optimism that honest, right-thinking citizens will support the Government’s initiative to collect property tax. “The Opposition, which was the Government a few months ago, has gone out of its way to misrepresent the facts on this tax, telling people the Government would take away their property...all lies,” he said.

“The fact that there are a handful of people in the Opposition, largely people of the last Cabinet and I want to make that point very clear, they have good reason for not wanting this aspect of the State’s operations to come to pass. They put themselves out as defenders of the public interest but I daresay, they are not defenders of the public interest.

They are defenders of their own interest,” Rowley said.

(See Page 8A)