After more than 45 years in public life and at age 75, two-term Trinidadian Prime Minister Keith Rowley is retiring and is handing over power to a new generation of leaders ahead of general elections due by September, hoping that the new band will ensure another five years for his governing party.
But as Rowley prepares to ride off into the political sunset, he is also ushering in a new element to politics in the twin island federation with Tobago as the country is set to have its first head of government of Chinese descent.
In recent months, Rowley, who is of African ancestry, has been red carpeting Energy Minister Stuart Young to be his successor, especially after he told parliament last year that the time to retire was fast approaching. He then appointed attorney Young, 48, to act for him whenever he was on business overseas or on vacation, signaling to the population that Young was the man to be not only the first Chinese PM but also likely to be the first of his ancestry to lead to the Afro-dominant governing People’s National Movement (PNM).
At the weekend, the PNM’s general council fully endorsed Young to succeed Rowley with all 21 lawmakers deciding to give him the nod. Young had narrowly beaten party fundamentalist and Planning Minister Penny Beckles at a cabinet retreat and vote last week but won the full support of the second highest party forum, paving the way for him to replace Rowley in the coming weeks.
As the political dust settles from a week of tensions associated with who would have succeeded Rowley, Local Government Minister Faris Al Rawi might have summed up the new political dispensation best as he noted the commencement of a new era in PNM and local politics in general.
“Today, the PNM has broken the racial glass ceiling. We have broken a huge glass ceiling in this country that people said the PNM could never do. I’m warmed and thrilled about that. It is not how I feel, you know, it’s about how Trinidad and Tobago is about to feel with team PNM. I have the support. Watch and see what team PNM is about to deliver,” Rawi told reporters.
His assessment of the situation is important to the south Caribbean as electoral voting in Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname is usually done along strict racial lines, with Blacks and Indians voting for political parties led by people who mostly look like them. This time, the PNM will be shepherded by a leader of Chinese descent as it prepares to begin campaigning for a third consecutive term against the Indo-led main opposition United National Congress (UNC).
And speaking after his impending coronation, Young said he will be focusing on uniting the party and preparing it to keep the UNC in opposition.
“Importantly, my message is one of unity and unification. I have been in very good dialogue, particularly with my colleagues, Minister Foster Cummings [general secretary] and many of my other colleagues and what you are seeing here this evening at Balisier House is what you would expect to see from the People’s National Movement. What you seeing this evening. This evening, at Balisier House, the general secretary and myself, are pleased to tell Trinidad and Tobago what you are going to be seeing is the rollout of Team PNM going to the population as a unified party.”
The oil- and gas-rich twin islands have been wracked by runaway violent crime in the last two decades. Police last year recorded 625 murders compared to 577 in 2022. A series of mass murders, mostly in the city, led to the cabinet instituting a state of emergency in recent weeks but the killing spree, blamed mostly on armed gangsters, has continued unabated. The emergency measures, the third since an attempted coup in 1990, come this time without a day or nighttime curfew as authorities fear it will severely hamper commercial activities for entities now recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is an error in the article. Trinidad and tobago are not a federation