The fundamental failures of former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley and his governments to achieve in the two terms of office 2015-2020-2025 are threefold and significant.
One, the historic task of the Government to successfully diversify the economy (at least to begin meaningful transformation) from the one-crop dependence of Caribbean sugar economies, in our instance oil and gas. Two, to make an impact on criminality, now endemic in society. And three, to reform the Republican Constitution, which has been recognised as a serious impediment to democratic and administrative advancement.
Historian that he was, understanding of the nature of the Caribbean economy, Dr Eric Williams in office as prime minister made a valiant attempt at diversification through the production of steel and the expansion of the petrochemical industry at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.
At a later point PM Patrick Manning supported his finance minister Wendell Mottley and a group of valiant and progressive public sector technocrats to initiate a measure of diversification through natural gas production and a few spin-offs in the petrochemical industry.
Dr Rowley, like his immediate predecessors, Persad-Bissessar, Manning, Robinson and Chambers, was not able to stimulate the growth and development of a non-energy production base that could boost manufacturing and agro-industrial production driven by research and technology as a means of expanding the base of the economy, inclusive of developing an export services sector.
Dr Rowley, however, showed his awareness of the transformational need when he established the Economic Development Advisory Board and initiated the Government’s Road Map plan. He appointed noted economist Dr Terrence Farrell and a number of other economists, planners and trade unionist/economist/politician David Abdulah to the task.
“I did not expect that all its (EDAB) recommendations would become policy and be implemented, but that—by my own standards—a reasonably high percentage should be. I have not been able to achieve that,” stated Dr Farrell in his letter of resignation in which he listed seven recommendations made over the two-year period of his chairmanship. The Central Government’s Road Map to economic diversification, while mentioned as late as the 2024 National Budget, remains on a list of proposed policy decisions for implementation. The fact remains that diversification of the economy has not been achieved, even though marginal progress has been made in the production of manufactures for export.
In this historic mandate, Dr Rowley and his Government share in the continued refusal, or inability perhaps, of the local private sector’s ongoing reliance on the import trade to earn a living. One economist, Dr Justin Ram of the Caribbean Development Bank, has argued that the Government has made it too easy for the traders to make a living.
The current serious anxiety about whether US President Donald Trump, eager to place pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, will collapse the Dragon venture with Venezuela highlights the failure to achieve at least a measure of economic diversification.
In this issue, however, Dr Rowley’s Government has to be credited for negotiating the oil and gas agreements with Venezuela; it cannot be blamed if the US ultimately slays the dragon.
Related to the failure to expand the economy is the almost 40 years of failures of Caricom (T&T being a central part of the Caricom Single Market and Economy grouping) to combine and industrialise the resources of the region; Dr Rowley, as PM of a senior member of Caricom, must share in that responsibility like others before him.
The second major failure of Dr Rowley’s administration is the inability to make but the slightest impression on criminality in the society. It’s a long-standing problem which has intensified over the last 25-plus years, with succeeding prime ministers and their governments having been unable to eliminate, or at least suppress, the gangs.
On occasion, Dr Rowley has sought refuge in holding the police responsible for not being able to successfully combat criminality and the pointing out of parental shortcomings. Ultimately, however, widespread vicious criminality, which has taken thousands of lives, led young men and women into non-productive patterns of existence, and the inability to shield law-abiding citizens from the brutal and murderous violence of the criminal gangs, is the inescapable responsibility of the Government.
The other very significant underachievement of Dr Rowley’s administrations has been the inability to initiate meaningful constitutional reform. The promises to do so were part of the 2015 campaign of the PNM; they were repeated in 2020.
Towards the end of 2024, when it was clearly too late to achieve anything fundamental, an exploratory National Advisory Committee on Constitution Reform was established. Its findings and recommendations are headed for ignominy, filed on a dusty shelf and/or a little-used computer hard drive. I have chosen the areas listed above for making judgements on the performance of the administrations headed by Dr Rowley, as they are fundamental to the country and people being able to realise the objectives and hopes of independence, politics, economics and the construction of a viable post-colonial society.
Many of the other problems in the society and the continuing failure to meaningfully approach them with real initiative, proposals and programmes are dependent on resolving those listed above.
Tony Rakhal-Fraser–freelance journalist, former reporter/current affairs programme host and news director at TTT; programme producer/current affairs director at Radio Trinidad; correspondent for the BBC Caribbean Service and the Associated Press; graduate of UWI, CARIMAC, Mona and St. Augustine – Institute of International Relations.
