Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

Jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s blunt warn­ing to Cab­i­net mem­bers that she will “buss their heads” and take de­ci­sive ac­tion if they are found ca­vort­ing with Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) mem­bers, crooked con­trac­tors, or “fake elites,” has drawn strong sup­port from po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts, who say this tone re­flects the kind of de­ci­sive lead­er­ship the coun­try needs.

Speak­ing at the UNC’s Mon­day Night Re­port at Cam­den Hall, Cou­va, Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­clared that any MP caught en­gag­ing in ques­tion­able al­liances would face pub­lic ex­po­sure, dis­missal from Gov­ern­ment, and pos­si­ble le­gal con­se­quences.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed yes­ter­day de­scribed the warn­ing as both time­ly and nec­es­sary, point­ing to three key speech­es, Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s in­au­gu­ra­tion, her Cab­i­net swear­ing-in, and this lat­est ad­dress, as clear mark­ers of her lead­er­ship stance.

“It was free speech. If the peo­ple who claim to be loy­al to the par­ty and loy­al to her, and in her quest to gov­ern this coun­try ef­fec­tive­ly, have, for a brief sec­ond, a gap in their thought process, and hubris has stepped in, they need to re­vert to three crit­i­cal speech­es.

“The ini­tial in­au­gu­ra­tion speech is very in­struc­tive and di­rec­tion­al. The speech that she gave when she swore in her Cab­i­net and that speech last night, I think, how many warn­ings do you want? It’s three and it’s strike three and you’re out. So I agree with her,” Mo­hammed said.

Mo­hammed re­ject­ed sug­ges­tions that the Prime Min­is­ter’s lan­guage was harsh, ar­gu­ing that her forth­right­ness is part of her po­lit­i­cal strength.

“I’ve seen and I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced where the good­ness of the la­dy was tak­en for grant­ed, and she lost an elec­tion as a re­sult, and she lost the prime min­is­ter­ship.”

Mo­hammed added that Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters had to ei­ther shape up or ship out.

“No­body is en­ti­tled, at this stage, to dis­rupt the lega­cy train that is en route to de­liv­er to this coun­try what is nec­es­sary for good gov­er­nance. This is strong lead­er­ship,” he said.

“I would say she’s right, let her do what she needs to do. And if to­mor­row morn­ing the Prime Min­is­ter de­cides to have a reshuf­fle and peo­ple get fired and their throat get bust, as we like to say in jar­gon, then so be it.”

Mean­while, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Win­ford James said Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­marks un­der­scored a com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing dis­ci­pline and in­tegri­ty with­in her ad­min­is­tra­tion. He said ef­forts are be­ing made to en­sure her po­lit­i­cal lega­cy is not com­pro­mised.

“She can af­ford to talk the way she’s talk­ing, and I would say her min­is­ters had bet­ter lis­ten to her be­cause I don’t think she will brook any non­sense that will af­fect her lega­cy.”

James warned that min­is­ters must take heed to the PM’s warn­ings.

“I am sure her at­ti­tude is sig­nalling that she will be brook­ing no non­sense in her last five years. I don’t imag­ine she will go be­yond 78. Of course, I don’t con­trol the life spans of peo­ple, but there must have been a mo­ti­va­tion for what she said, but she wants to do her best so she leaves a good lega­cy.”

For­mer UNC deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan al­so took to so­cial me­dia, say­ing he was glad the Prime Min­is­ter iden­ti­fied what was hap­pen­ing with her min­is­ters and ap­plaud­ed her lead­er­ship po­si­tion.