ROWLEY BACKS A COMMONWEALTH LOSER

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has openly backed the losing candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. 

And the Trinidad and Tobago Government has so far not congratulated the incumbent, who retained the top position. 

Rowley supported Jamaica’s Kamina Johnson-Smith, who had challenged Baroness Patricia Scotland for the Commonwealth’s most senior job. 

But Commonwealth leaders, meeting in Rwanda last week, opted to stay with Dominica-born Ms. Scotland. 

Rowley had claimed that Ms. Scotland was “not representative of Caricom” and that she had spent most of her years abroad. 

He won loud praises in Jamaica. 

But several Caricom leaders, including Antigua’s Gaston Browne, attacked the move to support Ms. Johnson-Smith, terming it a “monumental error” that would “break the Caricom consensus” and “will only serve to divide” the region. 

Commonwealth observers were aware that Rowley was supporting a losing candidate because more countries were lining up with Ms. Scotland. 

Baroness Scotland would serve until 2024, when the post would rotate to a candidate from Africa. 

T&T was represented at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) by Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Amery Browne. 

There is no word of T&T congratulating the re-elected secretary-general. 

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also supported Ms. Johnson-Smith, for which he faced severe criticism in his country.