Rowley’s historic choices

MANY are the options open to Keith Rowley, 75, as he leaves the Office of the Prime Minister.

Dr Rowley can opt to make a clean break from public life, resigning as PM, as leader of Balisier House and as MP.

Or, he can give up any combination of these positions.

The PNM special convention of March 16 must present the clearest picture of the “smooth transition” promised by the Diego Martin West MP in his televised exit interview of March 13.

In that pre-recorded media session, Dr Rowley stated, tellingly, “I am not holding on to anything.” He also reminded the country he took no part in the legislative caucus poll that resulted in Stuart Young’s ascent.

The PM’s decision to grant a nearly two-hour interview ahead of the convention is a sign that he might recede fully from the spotlight sooner rather than later. Might.

What’s clear, however, is that the move underlines the unprecedented nature of Dr Rowley’s decision, a decision which serves as a striking punctuation mark to a history-making career. He steps away confident that he has left TT better off.

He has reason to: the PNM leader is the first prime minister to yield office voluntarily.

Others have been voted out, seen their governments collapse, been supplanted by presidential discretion or died. Patrick Manning, after his 2010 defeat, was jeered and insulted outside Balisier House. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, on losing in 2015, was, according to reports later denied, abandoned by her security.

Dr Rowley seeks to exit differently.

The unique departure marks the end of a career which saw the PNM politician overcome many obstacles and rise notwithstanding.

Once known as a “rottweiler,” Mr Manning turned against him in spectacular fashion, labelling him a “wajang” and firing him in 2008. The Integrity Commission Affair was tied to that bad blood. The UNC/PP also made scandalous allegations in Parliament and barred him from the House after Emailgate. There was the so-called “teacup affair.”

None of it stopped him.

“I look at all the near misses in my life and I see how things could have gone one way or the other,” the PM writes in his memoir. “I think of it as coincidence.”

Yet, the Prime Minister retains one of the most stellar electoral records, serving two terms. He is the longest-serving MP. During his tenure, he also installed the first female president and commissioner of police.

The other side of the ledger includes a record crime rate, economic issues, and an often-querulous public demeanour.

But as his smooth and confident exit interview showed, this has been the career not of a pilgrim progressing through fate, but, rather, that of a skilled and effective politician with a capacity to surprise.