An unprecedented no-confidence motion brought by the Trinidad and Tobago People’s Partnership (PP) government against Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley flopped as members of the opposition staged a dramatic walk out from the House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 25.
The motion was presented by Leader of Government Business Housing Minister Dr. Roodal Moonilal in the House to show that Rowley was not capable of being the country’s next prime minister.
General elections are due in T&T later this month.
Dr. Moonilal kicked off the debate raising questions about his tenure in office as an MP of Parliament and a past minister of the People’s National Movement (PNM) administration between 2005-2009.
Responding to the motion, Opposition PNM MP Colm Imbert deemed it to be a monumental waste of time, turned the tables on the government by staging a dramatic walkout, refusing to participate.
The government was left alone with only itself to convince.
Imbert said: “Mr. Speaker, this motion is frivolous and vexatious, has no basis, no purpose! It is empty, vacuous, and tenuous! It is absurd.”
The debate turned into a character assassination of Dr. Rowley when Minister Vernella Alleyne-Toppin during her contribution said he was the product of a rape victim.
She said his mother was raped by his father’s good friend in the sister island, Tobago when she was 13 years old.
She said that is why Dr. Rowley grew to become aggressive, arrogant, bombastic, and spiteful.
Alleyne-Topping came under fire from several women’s group condemning her for saying that Dr. Rowley was born out of a rape incident.
She, has, however apologized for the comments she made of the opposition leader being a child of rape but insists that he must answer her questions about a teacher who fathered a child with a student in Tobago.
The minister in the Ministry of Social Development said while she was sorry, she will not allow Rowley to use the public outrage to hide from the questions that she raised in Parliament.
“At no time was I intending to cause pain or suffering, to cause people to reopen old wounds of trauma they may have at some time experienced,” she stated.
