Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar hit another low last evening when she openly attacked members of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago who voted against the two motions moved against Attorney General Reginald Armour last Friday.
In yet another rant filled with personal attacks against LATT members who were in the majority during the two-motion vote proceedings, Persad-Bissessar accused lawyers of embarrassing themselves for supporting Armour despite his admittance that he had erred in his witness statement in the Piarco Airport civil matter in a Miami court.
Not for the first time, Mrs Persad-Bissessar used the age-old tactic of stirring up discord between those who support the red and yellow to create divisiveness throughout society. So, following that playbook, she named and shamed the lawyers perceived to be in support of the People’s National Movement during the special general meeting, accusing them of “signing for their suppers” in the hope of continuing to secure state briefs from the Government.
She asserted that these lawyers had “embarrassed themselves in their desperation to eat ah food”, “made fools of themselves” and “no longer have any credibility in the eyes of the younger and larger group of lawyers in the public.” Furthermore, the United National Congress leader called on the LATT to make the transcript of the meeting public, no doubt in the continued hope that those lawyers who voted in Armour’s favour could be singled out for more attacks and ridicule by her party.
It is not the first time the Opposition Leader is attempting to incite her followers in a particular manner. Previously, she has also attacked Independent Senators for failing to vote with the UNC on particular matters. And, of course, her most recent comments about slavery as it relates to the history behind the names of Afro-Trinidadians, still resonates as another occasion in which she has managed to misappropriate commentary on crucial aspects of our society while trying to attack her political opponents.
We wonder whether these same named lawyers had voted in favour of the motion whether Mrs Persad-Bissessar would have attacked their characters with the same fervour?
The Opposition Leader, however, should be mindful of not pelting stones in glass houses. Indeed, her party still has the stain of having two former members before the courts on charges in an alleged kickback scheme emanating from the award of state briefs out of Office of the AG under then-AG Anand Ramlogan.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar was correct in her assessment that the vote of confidence did not exonerate the AG in the matter.
However, for all intents and purposes, Friday’s activity was a private matter involving the members of the LATT, which non-members of the legal fraternity had no other interest in save to see just how LATT continues to regulate itself and the behaviour of its members - an activity which the body continues to be sporadic with at best on crucial issues within the fraternity we might add.
The LATT process is completed but citizens will have their opportunity at the next national election to indicate whether the Prime Minister’s confidence in Armour, despite this transgression, is acceptable.
Persad-Bissessar’s diatribe on the podium, however, is once again off-colour and unbecoming of a leader seeking to return to office.