THE Prime Minister spoke cryptically to ask that he not be forgotten, as he prepares to demit office soon, for Energy Minister Stuart Young to take over the reins of government.
Dr Rowley said goodbye to the media at a mix and mingle function held by the PNM at Balisier House on January 15, but left listeners wondering exactly what he meant.
"As I address you here I don't know how many of you believe in I-don't-know. But there is something happening that I will share with you.
"I won't be talking to you a lot in the not-too-distant future. So I hope you don't forget me."
He recalled visiting his house in Goodwood Park to get ready to move in after almost ten years away from it, living at the Prime Minister's Residence, St Ann's.
>
He recalled a book fell off the shelf, which incidentally he had won as a Tobago schoolboy in a public speaking contest in 1967. "I talked a lot," he quipped, "and I won the Tobago leg."
However upon coming to Trinidad for the national finals at Queen's Hall, he stood on the stage awed by the setting but uttered not one word.
"I am looking at this huge audience in Queen's Hall looking for a face I would recognise, and I never said a word."
Rowley recalled that after what seemed an eternity – but what was probably just two minutes – he was escorted off by his school principal.
"And that is how I started my speaking career," he quipped, "saying absolutely nothing, but getting a prize."
His tale prompted giggles from media personnel and politicians.
"I think it was not by happen-stance that I took that book down yesterday.
"I think it is telling me that I have come full circle and maybe I should have nothing more to say.
"If that is so, it behoves me to say to you that when you think of me, try and remember the afternoon in Queen's Hall because that might have been the most spectacular performance that I have had in public in Trinidad." He said after he had left the stage as a youngster, he vowed to himself to never be in that situation ever again.
>
"That if I have something to say, then I will say, without let or hindrance. And I have done that in Trinidad and Tobago, from 1970 to 2025."
Rowley said he hoped that some of what he had spoken about in his political life had benefited people.
"I want to thank the PNM for being able to fulfil my promise to myself that I would speak again and speak my truth.
"I want to thank all of you in the media for trying so hard to sometimes try to get me to a place of silence but most times in recording the words that I would have uttered." The PM thanked his ministerial colleagues over the years, some whom had died as he recalled the likes of former PM Patrick Manning and former MP Morris Marshall. He lamented the recent passing of veteran journalist Jones P Madeira, as the end of an era.
Rowley urged reporters to not ignore the existence of the good things in TT, saying while the country has its challenges it has very much to be glad for.
He was glad reporters felt comfortable attending a function at a political party's headquarters.
Rowley quipped that the media last week had seemed more concerned about the future of the PNM than even the party had done, in a reference to a week of reports and speculative articles about the leadership succession. "Ladies and gentlemen, if I had known that I would be missed, I would have left along time ago." Saying nothing happens before its time, he said, "My time is drawing nigh."
"But I am very pleased to see so many young people in the media, because you will be walking in time with an equivalent number of young people in the PNM, because our transition is being effected and the future of this country is bright and secure, between the PNM and the media corps of TT. Happy New Year to you all."
Earlier, the PM said the media had played a notable role in ensuring government ministers think before they act.
>
"If we do make a mistake and act before we think, then we are reminded by the media that you are there."
