(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was set to travel so he was dressed casually before he was roped into an international press conference. That’s the reason offered by Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America (USA) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) who yesterday came out in defence of Rowley’s attire.
Dr Rowley made an appearance on stage dressed in casual wear on the final day of the Canada-Caricom Summit on Thursday alongside a very formally dressed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Dr Rowley received a lot of criticism on social media from the United National Congress (UNC) and other locals, with some even accusing him of embarrassing the country.
However, in a post to his Facebook page yesterday, Sir Ronald offered clarification to what he called, “Regrettable comments that have been made on Facebook that do a great injustice to Prime Minister Rowley, who was an outstanding voice at the Canada-Caricom meeting on the issues that are important to us as a region.”
Sir Ronald said he could attest to this because he sat next to Dr Rowley at all sessions of the Meeting.
“The circumstances of his dress for a media conference with Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, were that the Conference Chair, PM Skerrit of Dominica, had to leave early because of the prospect of Hurricane Tammy hitting his country. So he was not available for the end of the conference media appearance.
“PM Rowley had dressed to leave the hotel for the multiple airplane journeys home, but in the absence of PM Skerrit, as he was leaving, he was pressed into service at the very last minute. He stepped up to the plate, and even though he was drafted with no prior notice, he spoke well for all. He should be lauded, not criticised,” he said.
Dr Rowley did not address the matter but instead reposted Sir Ronald’s defence of him on his Facebook page.
On Friday, Professor of International Relations and co-founder of the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean, Andy Knight, advised citizens to focus on the substance of the recent Caricom-Canada Summit, rather than Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s attire.
“I don’t see why we should be giving the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago hell for wearing a fairly casual outfit, it really distracts from the substance of the meeting. We don’t know the circumstances under which the Prime Minister was forced to dress the way that he did and I don’t think it should really matter and I hope that message gets across,” Knight said.