WITH Trinidad and Tobago under a crime siege, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has quietly taken a one-week vacation in Guyana.
When Rowley returns, he will go on a 10-day holiday.
That means the Prime Minister will be away from his post for almost a straight month.
Altogether, Rowley is spending two weeks in Guyana, attending the country’s two-day energy conference, and, after a one-week hiatus, a Caricom leadership meeting.
He had no engagements in that country for the entire interlocking week.
In announcing his departure for Guyana on February 18, his office did not reveal his return date.
Upon his return from a recent international trip, Rowley announced that he “will be leaving the country on private business, my long-awaited vacation.
“It is being arranged right now,” he revealed.
“I will be away for about 10 days.”
While Rowley was vacationing in Guyana, that country’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali was busy conducting his official duties.
Ali made a brief visit to St. Lucia as a special guest at observances for that country’s 45th anniversary of independence.
Interestingly, Rowley’s prolonged absence from T&T did not provoke enquiries from the daily press.
But he and the media were sharp critics of the foreign travels of previous Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
On July 9, 2014, the Express newspaper screamed a page one headline HOTFOOT KAMLA over a foreign visit she was undertaking.
Rowley was quoted as describing the then-Prime Minister as “carefree hotfoot Kamla,” questioning the timing of her visit.
He said that Persad-Bissessar chose to “abandon her post” at “the first opportunity,” to “the detriment of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley’s extended visit to Guyana came amid the massive spillage of diesel in Tobago’s waters, causing extensive environmental damage and leading to negative international media reports.
Foreign media houses accused the T&T authorities of being tardy in responding to the disaster.
When Rowley recently announced his planned 10-day holiday, he stated: “I said to you last year that I intended to go on a vacation last year. I did not.”
But last year, he took two vacations in Barbados.
Ahead of the first holiday, in August, he said: “This is not my doing. This is my family’s doing.
“They insist that I accompany them to Barbados and I am very happy to do that.”
In May last year, he also vacationed in Barbados.
He stated before the trip: “I intend to enjoy the weekend on some of the best golf courses in the world.
“I have no apologies to make.”
Rowley has taken several breaks from his duties since becoming Prime Minister in September 2015.
He took his first vacation in July 2016, less than a year into his job.
Professor Selwyn Cudjoe last week criticised Rowley’s travels.
“Instead of flying all over and going on vacations,” Cudjoe said, “he must put the country first and go into the communities and engage the stakeholders to deal with crime.”
The Prime Minister has faced caustic criticisms for his foreign travels and golf-playing in the midst of national crises.
Cudjoe wrote last September: “Our PM walks the greens while the country descends into anarchy and barbarity.”
He likened Rowley to Roman emperor Nero, who played the fiddle while his city burned.
