00:00And if you notice, we never went for an extension when that three-month period came down.
00:07And we had a state of emergency. We had no curfew. We didn't disturb people too much.
00:12And as soon as that ended, we ended it and we came out of government, not having a state of
00:19emergency continuing.
00:20Dr. Rowley spoke with TV6 News at his home in Mason Hall, Tobago.
00:25He said he continues to be shocked by the continued SOE under this government.
00:30To my shock, those who criticized us most severely and unreasonably, because basically it was another attempt to add another
00:40component to what we were doing.
00:42And we did say to the country that it was in response to specifics that the police had put the
00:48government to and asked us for that.
00:51And we gave the police that.
00:54And those opposition members wanted no part of that.
00:59And they criticized it and they criticized me and they had a crime plan.
01:05Well, we're going to an election. They had a crime plan.
01:07Dr. Rowley said he remained surprised by the whole affair facing the country.
01:13And the next thing I know, we went into a state of emergency a matter of weeks after.
01:18And then there was an extension on that.
01:21And that ended with all kinds of discussions and whatever you want to call it.
01:28And then you had individuals.
01:32We had a situation here where we had a state of emergency and the reason being given was that a
01:40minister's life was threatened.
01:42And then this last one, I followed the debate.
01:47Again, I was surprised.
01:49Rowley said he sees no justification for the present SOE.
01:53When you go to the president to ask for a state of emergency, because that is one of the powers
02:00that the 76th Constitution put with the president, the prime minister can't have it.
02:04You can ask for it.
02:06But when you ask for it, you have to give justification to the president.
02:11When I listen to the parliamentary debate, I saw nobody on the government's side providing the justification for this state
02:22of emergency.
02:23Rowley is interested to know what was told to the president.
02:28As a historian and a researcher, I would be keen to know what they told the president to get the
02:35president to extend, create a new state of emergency, the one that is here now.
02:39Because it certainly did not come up in the parliament as to the reason why we were going back into
02:45a state of emergency.
02:46And to the prime minister.
02:48The prime minister had threatened before.
02:52I don't know who she knows that she's threatening, but she seemed to be personalizing the threats to certain people.
02:57That if they don't behave, she will repeat the state of emergency.
03:02That is not a matter for the prime minister.
03:04That's a matter for the president.
03:05He said the rights of citizens continue to be deprived by the ongoing SOE.
03:12And the prime minister, who is absent from the media and the public, it is over a year now I
03:20have not seen this prime minister standing in front of the media, taking questions, explaining the government's actions, so that
03:27we could know exactly what the government is doing.
03:29Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
03:32Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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