Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has con­firmed he will re­tire from pol­i­tics, ho­n­our­ing a pledge he made in 2020 not to seek re-elec­tion and mark­ing the end of a 45-year ca­reer in pub­lic ser­vice.

Speak­ing at a post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Cen­tral Ad­min­is­tra­tive Ser­vices, To­ba­go, he con­firmed he will not con­test the next gen­er­al elec­tion and plans to step down as prime min­is­ter be­fore the end of his cur­rent term.

“I will not be of­fer­ing my­self again to rep­re­sent any­one, ei­ther in Trinidad or in To­ba­go,” Row­ley, T&T’s sev­enth prime min­is­ter, re­vealed at the end of the brief­ing.

“Forty-five years is a long time, and I would like to say thank you ap­pro­pri­ate­ly to all those who have sup­port­ed my ef­forts and ben­e­fit­ed from what I hope were pos­i­tive im­pacts on this coun­try.”

Re­flect­ing on his po­lit­i­cal jour­ney, Row­ley shared mem­o­ries of his ear­ly life and ca­reer in To­ba­go.

“My first job here was plant­i­ng grass at Hope Es­tate for sev­en dol­lars a day,” he re­count­ed.

“From those be­gin­nings, I went on to teach in To­ba­go be­fore en­ter­ing pol­i­tics in 1980. This year marks 45 years in pub­lic life.”

Row­ley, 75, cred­it­ed his lead­er­ship with in­tro­duc­ing and nur­tur­ing young tal­ent with­in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

“At the last elec­tion in 2020, I brought a num­ber of young peo­ple in­to the po­lit­i­cal are­na. Many of them are still in Gov­ern­ment to­day, hav­ing gained valu­able ex­pe­ri­ence. They are now pre­pared to lead this coun­try for­ward,” he said.

He al­so spoke about the chal­lenges of serv­ing in pub­lic of­fice. He crit­i­cised and lament­ed the grow­ing cul­ture of at­tacks fu­elled by so­cial me­dia and oth­er plat­forms.

“There is a re­lent­less at­tack on those in pub­lic life by peo­ple who have nev­er plant­ed an okra seed or swept a pave­ment,” Row­ley said.

“The mech­a­nisms avail­able to spread bile and vit­ri­ol have fu­elled a de­te­ri­o­ra­tion in the qual­i­ty of our so­ci­ety.”

De­spite the crit­i­cism, Row­ley said he had re­mained re­silient to lead dur­ing crises, in­clud­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“I man­aged this coun­try through COVID. Just to­day, I re­ceived con­fir­ma­tion from PA­HO that there is no emer­gency in Chi­na re­gard­ing a new virus out­break. That was a re­lief—God knows we don’t want an­oth­er COVID,” he added.

Row­ley re­it­er­at­ed that his de­ci­sion to step away from pol­i­tics was not a new one.

“In 2020 at Bal­isi­er House, I said I would not do this again, and I meant it,” he said.

He con­firmed he will re­sign as PM be­fore the term’s le­gal lim­it, not­ing the im­por­tance of spend­ing more time with his fam­i­ly.

“Be­fore the end of this term, I will step down and go af­ter my fam­i­ly,” Row­ley said.

While he con­tin­ues to serve as PNM po­lit­i­cal leader for now, Row­ley spoke of the im­por­tance of a smooth tran­si­tion.

“I will over­see nom­i­na­tions for the seats and en­sure con­ti­nu­ity, but I will not be of­fer­ing my­self again,” he said.

A Sun­day Guardian ex­clu­sive in De­cem­ber re­vealed that Cari­com and For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne was tipped to re­place Row­ley in the Diego Mar­tin West con­stituen­cy for the forth­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion and had the PM’s bless­ings. At the time, Browne said he had not been ap­proached by the Diego Mar­tin West ex­ec­u­tive on the is­sue but the sto­ry made it clear he had the bless­ing of the PM. Nei­ther Browne nor Row­ley had pub­licly ad­dressed the is­sue since then.

Yes­ter­day, Row­ley took time to out­line the steps be­ing tak­en as the PNM pre­pares for the gen­er­al elec­tion. He con­firmed can­di­date screen­ing for To­ba­go be­gan yes­ter­day, with a par­lia­men­tary and gov­ern­ment re­treat sched­uled for to­mor­row and Mon­day.

He ex­plained, “2025 is a very im­por­tant year. It is def­i­nite­ly an elec­tion year. Half of it is al­ready be­hind us, and the oth­er half lies ahead. Par­lia­ment dis­solves at the end of Au­gust, and with­in 90 days, elec­tions must be called. The pop­u­la­tion will then de­cide who man­ages the af­fairs of the coun­try. But I will not be part of that de­ci­sion-mak­ing process as a can­di­date.”

Ad­dress­ing his long­stand­ing ser­vice in Diego Mar­tin West, where he has been MP since 1991, Row­ley as­sured them they would not be ne­glect­ed dur­ing the tran­si­tion. “The peo­ple of Diego Mar­tin West have sup­port­ed me res­olute­ly, and I will thank them ap­pro­pri­ate­ly to en­sure they are not left adrift,” he said.

Pre­vi­ous times when Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has in­di­cat­ed his in­ten­tion to re­tire from pol­i­tics:

Au­gust 2020: In his vic­to­ry speech af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion, Dr Row­ley men­tioned that this could “eas­i­ly be my last term in pol­i­tics,” be­fore talk­ing about his de­sire for a smooth tran­si­tion with­in the PNM and the de­vel­op­ment of young lead­ers.

Oc­to­ber 2024: Dur­ing the Bud­get de­bate in Par­lia­ment, he strong­ly sug­gest­ed that he would not re­turn to Par­lia­ment af­ter the cur­rent ses­sion ends. He said, “Madam Speak­er, it has been a plea­sure work­ing with you as par­lia­men­tary Speak­er. I don’t know how much longer I will have in this Par­lia­ment, but I have done my du­ty and I have kept the course.”