By MARISSA WILLIAMS Tobago Bureau Friday, April 25 2008

click on pic to zoom in

Return to Tobago: Dr Keith Rowley and his wife Sharon at Piarco International Airport before they left for Tobago yesterday....

A brother of Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley yesterday said his dismissal as Trade and Industry Minister had hurt their family pride as Tobagonians.

Rowley and his wife Sharon flew to his homeland of Tobago yesterday, a day after Prime Minister Patrick Manning fired him for misbehaviour during a Cabinet sub-committee meeting two weeks ago. They are expected to attend the Plymouth Jazz Festival which begins tonight.

His brother George Joseph said he was not at all surprised by the move since “Manning was out to get him (Rowley) since he challenged him for leadership of the party” in 1996. Rowley’s family is from Mason Hall.

Joseph did not have any advice for his “baby brother” on what next to do but said he was hurt “as a Tobagonian” over the firing.

Mason Hall villager Hollis Ottley, who said he knew Rowley for many years, described Rowley as “a personable neighbour and an even better minister”. One woman from Mason Hall, who did not want to be named, said the dismissal was an attempt to divert the public from the food prices and crime crisis.

“The Prime Minister fires one of the most hardworking ministers in the Cabinet over something as trivial as his behaviour. There has to be some other explanation,” she said.

Former PNM Tobago East MP Eudine Job-Davis said Manning needed to explain the real reason behind Rowley’s dismissal.

“One press conference on the issue will not suffice because if the dismissal was really due to misbehaviour, that is strange. Because Rowley is not a child and, as far as I know, I have never seen anyone in the party disrespect the Prime Minister,” said Job-Davis.

Echoing Rowley’s calls for the PNM to look at how the Government was running the country, Job-Davis said: “We as citizens have to start to focus on governance, on real accountability and transparency.”

THA Minority Leader Ashworth Jack the reason given for Rowley’s dismissal indicated that “all isn’t well in this country.”