I did the best with what I had – Maxwell Charles

After being described as “not aggressive enough to lead his people,” parliamentary representative for Central Leeward, Maxwell Charles has declared that he did his best for the constituency with what was provided to him.

Charles, while speaking at a Unity Labour Party (ULP) press conference yesterday, briefly addressed comments made about his style of representation by former representative and ULP candidate for the next general elections Sir Louis Straker.{{more}}

“First, I want to thank those who supported me in the past four years and in my duties as a representative and again in no uncertain terms, I would like to refute those statements wherever they are made, whether it be CNN, BBC or wherever,” the parliamentarian said.

“I think I did my best with what was provided, especially from central government. If you got a cake, it has to be divided and each person gets a slice. So, I think I did my best with the slice which I was provided.”

Charles, who succeeded Straker as candidate for the ULP going into the 2010 general elections, stated that one of his gifts is being able to deal with people and that none of his constituents could report that he had treated them in any unpleasant manner when they visited him at his office.

“They might disagree with a policy, but by and large, I think I represented my people to the best of my ability,” he said.

Straker, who returned to active politics on Sunday, March 15, after being chosen as the ULP candidate over Charles, explained that he had decided that he would go out into the community and speak with some of the constituents, when the surreptitious recording was made.

That audio recording was made public last week.

Straker told media officials that comments he made on the tape referring to Charles had been “thrown out of context” by some persons. He defended his comments, stating that his criticism of Charles had nothing to do with the substance of his representation of the constituency, but rather his style.

“There is a so-called, secret, clandestine, surreptitious tape. In some countries, that would be illegal, but we don’t have laws preventing that,” Straker said.

“I didn’t say anything derogatory. I didn’t berate Maxwell and I didn’t say anything demeaning of Maxwell, but the media and the Opposition party would try their best – as a matter of fact, he (Charles) has received several calls from them, trying to pretend they are sympathizing with him and trying to see how they can stoke the fire to see whether they can get him to use him as a wedge to divide the constituency and the party, but Maxwell has far more sense than that.”

The veteran politician added that going forward, he knows that he has Charles’ full support and that the mischief being carried out by certain persons will not succeed. (BK)