{"id":8376,"date":"2014-08-23T07:12:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=8376"},"modified":"2014-08-23T07:12:22","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:12:22","slug":"patrick-manning-no-thanks-kamla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=8376","title":{"rendered":"PATRICK MANNING: NO THANKS, KAMLA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Clint Chan Tack
\nAugust 23 2014 – newsday.co.tt<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n

NO THANKS, KAMLA<\/a>FORMER Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday publicly declined the recommendation of his successor \u2014 Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar \u2014 that he receive the country\u2019s highest honour, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, at this year\u2019s National Awards Ceremony at Queen\u2019s Hall, Port-of-Spain on Independence Day.<\/p>\n

During an Independence Day cocktail reception which she hosted at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann\u2019s on Thursday night, Persad-Bissessar announced she had recommended to President Anthony Carmona that former prime ministers Manning and Basdeo Panday receive the Order of the Republic.
\n
\nWhile not indicating whether Manning, the San Fernando East MP, or Panday were consulted about or had accepted this award, Persad-Bissessar declared, \u201cThey are worthy of awards. I thought it fitting that we pay tribute to those who came before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panday, who is in Singapore, had not issued an official comment on the award up to press time.<\/p>\n

But Manning, in a statement issued by his constituency office, not only refused the award but hit out at Persad-Bissessar and her People\u2019s Partnership (PP) Government saying she had led attacks against him in the 2010 general election campaign in which she defeated his People\u2019s National Movement (PNM) administration which she did not withdraw in Thursday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Manning said, \u201cI wish to respectfully decline the publicly announced nomination by the Honourable Prime Minister to have me receive the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, this nation\u2019s highest award.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained, \u201cThe primary reason is rooted firmly in my principled stance to not accept any Trinidad and Tobago awards while serving as an MP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning added, \u201c It is important to note what is appropriate and what is not, regarding the announcement of such awards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explaining that the Order of the Republic is given to a national of this country who \u201chas rendered distinguished and outstanding service to Trinidad and Tobago,\u201d Manning said, \u201cI was made aware of this nomination through persons who saw it reported on the social media, Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confirming that Newsday called his son Brian for a comment on the nomination, Manning said, \u201cI was neither consulted, nor advised prior to this announcement. I consider this approach a gross discourtesy.\u201d Manning, who served as Prime Minister from December 17, 1991 to November 9, 1995 and December 24, 2007 to May 26, 2010, explained there was a well-established process for the selection of persons to be recipients of national awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder PNM (People\u2019s National Movement) administrations, a committee considers these distinguished national awards, with the Chief Justice as Chairman and subject to the imprimatur of the Prime Minister,\u201d he said. Manning continued, \u201cDue process for these awards includes informing the potential recipients through the Office of the Prime Minister in a confidential manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further indicated, \u201cOnly recipients who have agreed to accept an award are then announced publicly, and with dignity. Had I been consulted beforehand, I would have been able to privately decline.\u201d Assuring the population that he holds \u201cour institutions, ceremonies and awards in the highest esteem,\u201d Manning added, \u201cThe need for a public distancing is unfortunate but necessary in the light of the many and increasingly debauched approaches to these matters used by this UNC (United National Congress) administration in its four years in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he prayed for the day when Persad-Bissessar and the PP Government demit office so citizens can once again \u201ctake pride in our liberty\u201d, and further Manning charged that Persad-Bissessar was able to \u201cwin government\u201d four years ago \u201cthrough a series of sustained and vicious attacks on my character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claiming Persad-Bissessar personally led those attacks, Manning alleged, \u201cThese attacks continue.\u201d He wondered whether \u201cthrough this nomination announcement, is the Honourable Prime Minister retracting those venomous accusations and charges against me?\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest post on Manning\u2019s Facebook page yesterday described Persad-Bissessar as \u201cthe worst Prime Minister in our history to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reference to the Life Sport scandal, the post also said the Sport and Youth Affairs Ministry has now \u201cbeen reduced to a place synonymous with corruption and not development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last evening, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar expressed regret over Manning\u2019s response to her gesture. (See page 5)<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader and PNM political leader Dr Keith Rowley last evening expressed support for the position taken by Manning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her desperation to be liked and play politics with institutions, once again, the Prime Minister has taken advice and action which have served only to diminish and embarrass us all,\u201d Rowley declared.<\/p>\n

Initially responding on Thursday night to Persad-Bissessar\u2019s recommendation of Manning and Panday to receive the Order of the Republic, Rowley had told Newsday, \u201cThey both deserve to be recognised and acknowledged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier PNM Public Relations Officer, Senator Faris Al-Rawi had said Rowley maintained the view that Manning and Panday stand as icons for their contributions to national development.<\/p>\n

However given Manning\u2019s disclosure that he was never asked if he wanted the award, Al-Rawi had said Rowley believed the true intention of Persad-Bissessar\u2019s recommendation \u201chas been unmasked.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his later statement, Rowley, who succeeded Manning as PNM leader after he resigned from the post following the party\u2019s defeat in the May 2010 general election, stated, \u201cIf by now the Prime Minister does not realise that she needs new advisers, then we can expect more and more of this type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, no respect for people and like most of her Government\u2019s actions, no respect for process,\u201d declared Rowley, who served as a Cabinet minister in all of Manning\u2019s administrations, before being fired in 2008 when he questioned the lack of oversight for Udecott.<\/p>\n

However, standing up for Manning, Rowley agreed with his MP\u2019s position on the Government\u2019s management of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it is the Invaders Bay land, the Constitution amendments to change the election system or making an award, the arrogance of the Prime Minister sees her dismissing the need to follow proper process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Source: www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,199459.html<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clint Chan Tack August 23 2014 – newsday.co.tt FORMER Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday publicly declined the recommendation of his successor \u2014 Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar \u2014 that he receive the country\u2019s highest honour, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, at this year\u2019s National Awards Ceremony at Queen\u2019s Hall, Port-of-Spain on … Continue reading PATRICK MANNING: NO THANKS, KAMLA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,396,30,7],"tags":[144,359,82,1015,49],"class_list":["post-8376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-peoples-partnership","category-pnm","category-politics","tag-kamla-persad-bissessar","tag-newsday","tag-patrick-manning","tag-politics","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8377,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8376\/revisions\/8377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}