Describing his Member of Parliament for Diego Martin West Dr Keith Rowley as ’a raging bull’ when he is opposed, Prime Minister Patrick Manning told the Parliament yesterday that he suffered 12 years of Rowley’s ’bullying’ in silence.

Manning’s powerful counter-attack was the culmination of unusually strong interventions by successive People’s National Movement ministers, directed primarily at its own-Diego Martin West MP Rowley, in this and previous debates, had been systematically taking aim at the PNM Government and its leader.

Seeking to draw a parallel with Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj’s undermining and eventual bringing down of the Basdeo Panday Government of 2001, Manning likened Rowley’s attack to Maharaj, whom he labelled a ’destroyer of governments’. Rowley, Manning alleged, was now joining the RamJackG faction.

During his contribution to the debate on the Validation and Immunity Bill in the House of Representatives at the Red House, Port of Spain, Manning said he saw the ’tag-team relationship between the member for Diego Martin West and the Member for Tabaquite (Maharaj)’. Manning said this method, ’which is not unfamiliar to me’, was used to bring down a government in 2001. And, Manning admitted, he (Manning) was part of it then.

’So when I see it, I recognise the hand of the man I describe as ’El Capo dei Capi’. And I will now advise this Parliament what you thought was RamJackG is now RamJackG and Rowley.’

’Oooooooooh!’ was the collective cries from MPs on both sides.

Asked by the Speaker to translate, Manning said ’El Capo dei Capi’ was a mafia term which meant ’the boss of all bosses’.

Rowley asked the prime minister to give way, and he did.

’I want to thank the prime minister very sincerely for being so gracious... But I would just like to ask him the name of the brand that he was drinking, so that I could avoid it,’ Rowley said, drawing loud guffaws from members of Opposition.

Manning, without missing a beat, swiftly responded: ’Mr Speaker, the brand from which I was drinking was the Holy Bible.’

’Now that is blasphemous!’ Rowley declared as if he, too, was expecting the rejoinder.

But Manning again shot back: ’Yuh believe you are a God? Yuh not God, yuh know.’

’If I appear to be drunk, I am drunk on God and love,’ the prime minister said.

Manning recalled when the PNM was preparing its candidates for the last general election, it discussed Corinthians, chapter 13, which speaks of the power of love, and the only candidate absent from that session was Rowley.

’Since he didn’t hear it then, I want him to hear it now...’If I could speak all the languages of earth and of the angels but didn’t love others, all I would be is a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.’ How did my friend (Rowley) sound on Monday? Noisy gong, clanging symbol?’ Manning asked rhetorically.

Manning said he had endured 12 years of Rowley’s antagonism and lack of control. Saying that in his Government, freedom of speech was a given, the prime minister stated: ’But the minute you oppose my good friend, he gets very, very angry. And if you oppose him strongly, he becomes a raging bull.

’And that is what it was, Mr Speaker. You don’t know the trouble I have seen. I have had to live with that for 12 years. I took it in silence...I didn’t complain to anybody... But last year I had enough of it,’ he said.

Rowley was fired from the Cabinet last April.

Manning said he did not want his new ministers to come into a situation where ’an experienced member was behaving like that...and (for them) to get an impression that that was the norm in the People’s National Movement. And when he cannot have his way, his method is to bully you. That is what I fought against. That is why his employment was terminated’.

’Mr Speaker, we do not tolerate bullying in the secondary school system. And we not tolerating bullying in the Cabinet. And if the member for Diego Martin West wishes a Cabinet in which bullying is the order of the day, he is going to have to form that Cabinet himself. It ain’t goin to happen in this one. We not tolerating it!’ Manning declared to loud desk-thumping support.

Manning presented to the House a picture taken of Rowley on Monday ’in full flight’ and said when he examined the picture, ’I see hate, bitterness, acrimony, animosity and, Mr Speaker, I see a man completely out of control.’

Manning said Rowley appeared to be able to control himself until 1996.

’From 1996 onwards, I noticed an unbridled attitude,’ he said.

The leadership campaign in the PNM was in November 1996.

The prime minister said he did not know if Rowley realised that his hatred was impairing his judgment. On the CH Development issue, Manning read two Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) press releases, which stated that Calder Hart and his wife denied any interest or involvement in CH Development (the company awarded the $367 million contract) or that any member of their family was involved in the award of the contract for the construction of the Ministry of Legal Affairs Towers.

’Look it here,’ Manning said, holding up the newspaper report.

Noting that the Opposition and Rowley ignored these denials and were insisting there was a relationship between Hart and CH Development, Manning said: ’The source of the information that has led to all of this is the former husband of Mr Hart’s wife (Carl Khan).’

’They prefer to rely on the evidence of a jilted lover,’ he said, causing an uproar.

The prime minister said the divorce proceedings in the court between Sherrine Hart and her former husband were so acrimonious that they remain sealed until today.

’It was so violent,’ Imbert chimed in.

’And yet, it is on the say-so of that individual that they choose to hang their case,’ the PM said.

Manning had a theory about the attacks on UDeCOTT.

’It is not really Calder Hart and UDeCOTT. They want the prime minister and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. That is what they after. And they cannot understand how we ain’t fall yet. And let me tell you, we shall not fall.’

The bill was eventually passed with unanimous support.