PRIME Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is not driven by any compelling zeal to zap armed bandits, lift people out of poverty, or grow more food.
That is despite Trinidad and Tobago being one of the most murderous small states in the world, 30 per cent of nationals eking out a living under the poverty threshold, and food inflation soaring 50 per cent since 2018.
Rowley has made no diligent effort to move away from the see-saw energy sector, reinstate Petrotrin and revive Point Lisas, or lure foreign investors.
T&T has slumped from attracting foreign direct investments of US $1.5 billion in 2014, to an annual flight of investors at an average of US $439 million.
That is one reason for the foreign exchange crunch, which has also led to the marking up of food prices.
Instead, Rowley is consumed with rooting out “white-collar criminals … who distressed this country,” as he roared earlier this week, for the umpteenth time.
He remains unrelenting and wistful after spending literally hundreds of millions of scarce taxpayers’ dollars over seven years, with bare returns.
Getting rid of supposed bad boys of the previous administration has been an almost singular focus by the Prime Minister, a task he sub-let to his handmaidens Stuart Young and Faris Al Rawi.
Young remains an ever-loyal flatterer and is being rewarded with chairmanship of the PNM even though he was a backroom attorney a mere seven years ago.
Interestingly, there has been no media focus on the sidelining of incumbent chairman Colm Imbert.
In carrying the anti-corruption baton, the glib Al Rawi received solid prime ministerial support, even after embarrassing bloopers, such as his failure to recognise his children with high-powered weapons.
Rowley backed his embattled attorney general through a parliamentary motion of no-confidence, failed legislation (remember promises to root out criminal gangs and catch money launderers?) and a series of self-inflicted wounds.
The PM defended his AG in his family’s multi-million-dollar deals with the state, reflected in his stunning 47 recusals from Cabinet sessions.
Professor Selwyn Cudjoe was on firm ground in stating that “Trinbagonians are tired of Al Rawi’s bleating and poor performance.”
But for Rowley, the criticisms were “nothing more than an attempt to derail white-collar investigations…”
But a lack of delivery on the presumed corruption, along with intelligence reports on certain Al Rawi meetings, and the AG’s clash with the chief parliamentary counsel (of all people!) made him a cross too heavy to bear.
Rowley removed Al Rawi from the AG’s hot seat in March and brought in his family attorney, Reginald Armour, a live depiction of someone with two left feet.
Through all of this, $42 million assigned to the police service to hound selected opposition politicians has brought no dividends.
For a while, Gary Griffith was the handpicked sleuth to bring in his ex-political colleagues in handcuffs.
When Griffith refused to play ball (he later claimed to have damning evidence of gross political interference), he lost his treasured job of police chief, in which he revelled, posing with large guns, and all.
The sinister Vincent Nelson deal-making was part of the anti-corruption contrivance, and Al Rawi knows of what he speaks when he said he discussed the matter with certain – unnamed – people.
Through these fresh slings and arrows, Al Rawi could reliably depend on his leader’s active backing and bluster.
The former attorney general, after all, was simply carrying out the boss’ master plan.
For his part, Rowley has taken the moral high ground, demonising the political opposition and branding the media as its “echo chamber.”
He has moved to seize the narrative.
So good luck if you expect any fortitude from the feeble Law Association, trade unions, political scientists, business bodies, and the media, except for the Express editorial writer, Martin Daly, and maybe a couple of others.
Banish any thought of public rallies and mobilisation.
At age 73, Rowley clearly wants his legacy to be about a celebrated conquest of corruption.
He does not have a similar zeal about the sea of social and economic problems with which the country is beset.
But he is unlikely to have the final word on the Al Rawi-Nelson stink.
Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard may be slow but steady, careful but calculating.
Certain DPP investigations are said to be underway.
Ultimately, Al Rawi’s fate may not be in his loyal leader’s hands.
