JESSE RAMDEO

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has dou­bled down on her claims that Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gov­ern­ment are us­ing “racial­ly charged pro­pa­gan­da” ahead of the gen­er­al elec­tion. She al­so ac­cused Row­ley of us­ing “di­vi­sive rhetoric to dis­tract from his own fail­ures.”

Her lat­est claims fol­lowed a news con­fer­ence by the Prime Min­is­ter yes­ter­day to re­spond to Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­fence of Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader dubbed Row­ley’s news con­fer­ence “a use­less ex­er­cise,” dis­miss­ing it as a “re­hash of tired talk­ing points he has been us­ing for years.”

“Row­ley can rant and rave, but the truth is clear: he has been a fail­ure as Prime Min­is­ter,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said at the UNC’s Ch­agua­nas head­quar­ters ahead of an­oth­er round of screen­ing.

“His on­ly ‘achieve­ment’ in of­fice has been re­ward­ing him­self with a mil­lion-dol­lar back­pay and a 47 per cent pen­sion in­crease for life, while work­ers are ex­pect­ed to set­tle for a measly four per cent. And where is the miss­ing three bil­lion? He has no an­swers, on­ly dis­trac­tions.”

Hours ear­li­er, Row­ley rub­bished claims by Per­sad-Bisses­sar that the lat­est al­le­ga­tions against Mooni­lal in the EM­BD case were “fab­ri­cat­ed” and a “racist strat­e­gy” by the PNM ahead of the gen­er­al elec­tion. He said the fact that the case against Mooni­lal has been pro­ceed­ing in the court for years showed it was not a “hoax” but a se­ri­ous mat­ter. He al­so as­sured there was no “racist” cam­paign against East In­di­ans.

“You have noth­ing to fear from the rest of the pop­u­la­tion. The law will de­ter­mine who is po­lice and who is thief. This is a par­tic­u­lar­ly of­fen­sive com­ment by Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar,” he said while speak­ing at White­hall.

In re­sponse, how­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed Row­ley’s at­tempt to fo­cus at­ten­tion on con­tracts award­ed by the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion through the EM­BD in 2015, af­ter the dis­so­lu­tion of Par­lia­ment, was “old, dis­cred­it­ed pro­pa­gan­da.”

She re­peat­ed her claims that the court mat­ter was part of Row­ley’s “racial­ly charged cam­paign strat­e­gy.”

“This is part of the PNM’s de­lib­er­ate and co­or­di­nat­ed racist pro­pa­gan­da cam­paign. For decades, their ground strat­e­gy has been to paint In­di­ans who sup­port the UNC as thieves, rum drinkers, and peo­ple with­out morals or val­ues,” she said.

She ac­cused Row­ley and the PNM of fos­ter­ing di­vi­sion to dis­tract from their fail­ures in gov­er­nance.

“Look at the com­mu­ni­ties that sup­port the PNM—they have the high­est crime rates, the worst in­fra­struc­ture, and the low­est op­por­tu­ni­ties. Row­ley has done noth­ing to up­lift these ar­eas. In­stead, he us­es hate­ful and di­vi­sive rhetoric to de­flect from his own fail­ures.”

She al­so ad­dressed the tim­ing of Row­ley’s fo­cus on the EM­BD case, which she de­scribed as a “civ­il mat­ter or­ches­trat­ed by a Row­ley-ap­point­ed EM­BD board and draft­ed by his hand­picked PNM lawyers.”

“This isn’t a mat­ter brought to the courts by in­de­pen­dent law en­force­ment agen­cies,” she said.

“It’s a pro­pa­gan­da piece de­signed to at­tack me and the UNC. The en­tire goal is to feed their elec­tion nar­ra­tive that ‘all them In­di­ans is thief.’ It’s dis­gust­ing, but it’s what we’ve come to ex­pect from Row­ley and the PNM.”

Asked if she was con­cerned that the PM was di­vulging de­tails about a mat­ter be­fore the court, Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed, “He’s giv­ing these de­tails as part of his de­lib­er­ate and co­or­di­nat­ed racist pro­pa­gan­da cam­paign for the PNM ground troops to use in the gen­er­al elec­tion. The PNM ground cam­paign for decades has al­ways been to paint In­di­ans as UNC vot­ing thieves, idol wor­ship­pers, la­goon dwellers, rum drinkers and cane cut­ters who have no moral and spir­i­tu­al val­ues. So, they go about cam­paign­ing and say on the ground ‘all them In­di­an is thief’, ‘them In­di­an does wor­ship the dev­il’ and you can’t trust them with the trea­sury.”

She added, “The PNM has al­ways re­lied on race-bait­ing and de­flec­tion, sup­port­ed by pseu­do-in­tel­lec­tu­als, weak men, and elites who on­ly care about fi­nan­cial gain. It’s dis­grace­ful, and it’s tear­ing this coun­try apart.”

She called on cit­i­zens to re­ject the pol­i­tics of hate and fear.

“The peo­ple of this coun­try de­serve lead­er­ship that unites rather than di­vides.

“The UNC will con­tin­ue to stand firm against the PNM’s di­vi­sive tac­tics. We will fight for a brighter fu­ture for all cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, no mat­ter their race, re­li­gion, or back­ground,” she said.