Prime Minister Keith Rowley claims that although crime, especially gang violence, is a long-standing issue in Trinidad and Tobago, it will eventually be solved.
During the opening of the recently renovated Balisier House on Tranquility Street in Port of Spain, Dr. Rowley stated that Dr. Eric Williams, the nation’s first prime minister, also encountered the issue of gangs. Still, he overcame it and used it as a source of pride.
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“The nation had the same challenge of having a requirement to steer our young people, like I was, away from admiring and falling prey to other people,” he remarked.
Laventille, Belmont, Tunapuna, San Fernando, and other places were home to steelpan gangs, according to him. However, firearms have replaced gas, bolts, and razors as the means of combat for young people.
He stated, “Dr. Williams came out and embraced the steelpan movement as our culture and asked the business community to provide sponsorship to steel bands.”
He continued, “And that took PNM and Dr Williams understanding how to get from gang warfare into where we are today. It took time but it was based on an understanding.”
After being accepted, he claimed, the steelpan came to be seen as a source of national pride and an essential component of Trinidad and Tobago’s culture.
Rowley also remembered how, while he was still living in Mason Hall, Tobago, at the age of ten or eleven, he looked up to a gang member who had come back to the hamlet from Laventille. He expressed his desire to dress and walk like the man he sees as a role model.
He mentioned that his interest in gangs had faded by the time he started secondary school and mentioned that a man he had previously respected had been executed for murder.
Alluding to Williams’s vision, Rowley stated that the PNM brought about the idea that no one should be denied an education, it reclaimed Chaguaramas from US forces, it bought the sugar estates from Tate and Lyle. It sustained the industry for 25 years, and it transformed the nation from collecting pennies on a barrel of oil to controlling it.
PNM’s history was Trinidad and Tobago’s history, he declared. Rowley also suggested that he might retire, claiming that he felt compelled to return home and spend more time with his family because his wife Sharon had retired at the end of 2023. Colm Imbert and Rohan Sinanan, the previous speakers, discussed how Rowley would lead the party to victory in the general election of 2025. Rowley is the deputy political leader.
As prime minister and head of the PNM, Rowley had already said that this would be his last term in office.
“So, when these fellas get up here and come talking about ‘next election’ and ‘2030,’ they not speaking for me eh? I spoke for myself already and I spoke in front of a parson and I signed for that.”
“This (the refurbished building) is for the young people and the generations that are unborn. And what we have done here tonight is to create an iconic location, an iconic building symbolizing the successful history of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
As hundreds of PNM supporters assembled on a closed Tranquility Street, there was a buzz of excitement surrounding Rowley’s speech.
Following the speeches, a time capsule containing a letter from Rowley to the future prime minister as well as PNM souvenirs were buried on the eastern end of the property, along with several balisier plants.
On January 24, the party commemorated its 68th anniversary, and as part of the celebration, the building was formally reopened.
