ROWLEY’S SUPPORT OF AN AG WHO HAS LOST VALUE AND GOODWILL

By KEN ALI

The casual dismissal of raging concerns over Attorney General Faris Al Rawi should serve as a national reckoning. 

It shows that, for now, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is the Teflon kid, engaging in plausible deniability and toying with national opinion. 

In the middle of the storm, Rowley brought his beleaguered top legal advisor before the national community, only to sneer at rampant criticisms, in his typical blasé manner. 

“Red herring,” he snapped, and stuck to his script, before an over-awed media and bewildered nation. 

Indeed, Rowley has turned cavalier rebuff of national grievances – NGC, AV Drilling, et al – into a popular pastime. 

It is like he is giving the entire country the Inshan Ishmael treatment. 

His slapdash response and refusal to treat with concerns over mal-governance and failing institutions should be an awakening for all patriots. 

It should also stir those who utilise traditional tools to seek to build political momentum against Rowley. 

This is especially so because the Al Rawi issues are not politically partisan, having drawn outrage from diverse influencers such as Martin Daly, Rhoda Bharath, Professor Selwyn Cudjoe, Martin George, Dave Persad, Ralph Maraj, and many others. 

The conservative Guardian newspaper sees the worrying legislative issues as part of “a fight for leadership within the party,” a narrative being voiced in political discussions. 

Indeed, there are growing drumbeats over PNM leadership succession. 

But that is clearly apart from “the dark clouds hovering over institutional independence and propriety” and destruction of “the last traces of public trust and confidence,” as Daly agonised. 

Or Cudjoe’s contention that Al Rawi has lost “whatever value or goodwill” he enjoyed, and should resign. 

The Express newspaper, a consistent advocate of good governance, rightly told Rowley that “pooh-poohing public anxiety will not make (the issues) disappear” and that “there is a heavy scent of something fishy having gone down.” 

As for Al Rawi, he remains captured by his jumbo-sized ego and extraordinary sense of political importance, possibly part of his inheritance from granddad Lionel Seukeran, a voluble opposition politician of the 1960s. 

In his political memoir, In and Out of Politics, Dr. Winston Mahabir, Health Minister in an early Williams Cabinet, said government officials had coined the term “To Seukeranise.” 

The meaning? “To speak a lot and say nothing.” 

Al Rawi, after taking responsibility for the flawed Police Service Commission legal order, is now quoted as stating that it was reviewed by a slew of legal luminaries. 

His well-worn blame game was also on show at the media conference, and the Express was correct in asserting that he acted “quite disingenuously.” 

Recall that Al Rawi has already survived the scandal of his children with high-powered weapons at a shooting range, and a no-confidence parliamentary motion on the $3.5 billion ALNG stink. 

He has attempted to frustrate access to the important freedom of information legislation. 

Cudjoe has noted the number of times Al Rawi recused himself from Cabinet decisions because of financial interests, and cautioned: “Sometimes those you expect to act in your interest are often the first to betray your trust.” 

Whether or not this is part of his political sally, Al Rawi is these days being featured in a propaganda programme, titled AG Talks, hosted by independent journalists, no less. 

“Self-promotion,” the Guardian said. 

In the entire Al Rawi serial, Rowley is thumbing his nose at public opinion, standing alongside his embattled AG in the manner Dr. Williams supported his much-criticised Selwyn Richardson of the 1970s. 

Richardson had roiled the country with dubious legislative measures, including a brazen attempt to ban senior citizens from driving. 

The Selwyn Richardson drama did not end well for the then-AG and his political party.