Former Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has accused the UNC Government of being \u201cdrunk with power\u201d, claiming its treatment of Independent Senators represents an attempt to weaken constitutional safeguards and silence opposition to government policy.<\/p>\n
In a strongly worded statement titled \u201cWhen Power Corrupts\u201d, Rowley condemned what he described as an \u201cunwarranted, sustained, vulgar attack\u201d on Independent Senators.<\/p>\n
The former prime minister argued that Independent Senators have an important role in scrutinising legislation and guarding against governmental excesses. He claimed recent criticism directed at them suggested the Government was unwilling to accept constitutional constraints or objections to its policies.<\/p>\n
Rowley further accused the administration of attempting to \u201cneuter, frighten, and render ineffective\u201d the participation of Independent Senators in Parliament, characterising the alleged conduct as a form of power grabbing.<\/p>\n
He said efforts to address crime should not be used to justify what he described as abuse of power, constitutional sidestepping or governmental overreach.<\/p>\n
Rowley also criticised Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar\u2019s approach to crime and national security, alleging that the Government was encouraging racial, ethnic and geographical divisions within Trinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n
He warned against attempts to separate communities or portray particular areas and groups as responsible for the country\u2019s wider security challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is foolish to think that on these little islands we can barricade and demonize one group or area so as to bring safety and Nirvana to another,\u201d Rowley said.<\/p>\n
He argued that Trinidad and Tobago must confront crime collectively rather than allow the issue to deepen divisions within the population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe either fight crime together and win, or the criminals will win by our actions of tearing ourselves apart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rowley concluded his statement with the warning: \u201cWe have been warned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The accusations represent Rowley\u2019s characterisation of the Government\u2019s actions and political approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rowley Accuses UNC Government Of Being \u2018Drunk With Power\u2019 Over Treatment Of Independent Senators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}