Prime Minister Keith Rowley is coming to Guyana in May for the Regional Agricultural Forum. This visit comes on the heels of the deliberate unstatesmanlike conduct by Vice President Bharat Jagdeo in Region 2, in March of this year.
During a government outreach, the de facto President remarked: ‘Look at what’s happening in Trinidad now…Trinidad is falling apart, and that’s putting it mildly – falling apart! No jobs, sustained periods of negative growth and can’t see the light of day for the near future”.
After this scathing indictment of the Rowley administration, he doubled down on that statement at a press conference. His remarks further strained the difficult political relationship between Trinidad and Guyana. However, it was no accident. It was carefully choreographed with Kamla Persad-Bissessar, leader of the UNC.
First, the regime had no choice. Hosting a CARICOM Agri Expo and excluding Trinidad and Tobago would have escalated the strained relations to an insurmountable level. The VP may have reluctantly instructed Zulfikar Mustapha to proceed.
Rowley is caught up in an awkward and delicate dance with an illegitimate PPP regime but he is a statesman. He understands that the state of Trinidad and Tobago is bigger than one man. He perfectly understands that leaders will come and go but the business of state shall endure.
Therefore, he cannot allow the political shenanigans of Bharrat Jagdeo and Kamla to deny the people of Trinidad their due. The head of state is supremely conscious of the PPP and the UNC alliance which goes back decades.
The PPP anti-CARICOM posture revealed the depth of this relationship. When the PPP returned to power in 1992, it advocated for a sub-regional organization including Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, all of which were then governed by East Indian-based parties.
While the initiative did not gain much traction, the PPP and Trinidad’s UNC developed a close fraternal relationship that superseded their relations with other CARICOM leaders and countries.
Former UNC Prime Minister, Basdeo Panday made frequent trips to Georgetown and delivered several lectures at Red House. There is an Indo-centric school of thought that suggests that the East Indians of Trinidad, Suriname, and Guyana must stick together, it is in their existential interest.
It is in this context, that Rowley finds himself. Therefore, he must be careful.
More, In The Ring.
