Akash Sama­roo

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ac­cused Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of re­sort­ing to po­lit­i­cal in­sults and per­son­al at­tacks in­stead of ad­dress­ing what she de­scribes as Trinidad and To­ba­go's wors­en­ing eco­nom­ic cri­sis.

In a strong­ly word­ed state­ment ti­tled "KAM­LA, STOP!" Beck­les con­demned the Prime Min­is­ter's lat­est so­cial me­dia at­tack on the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), ac­cus­ing her of los­ing her com­po­sure and fail­ing to demon­strate a clear plan for eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery.

"At this point, the Prime Min­is­ter could spare us her im­ma­ture rants and her des­per­ate rhetoric," Beck­les de­clared.

Her re­sponse fol­lows Per­sad-Bisses­sar's lat­est Face­book post, in which she ac­cused the PNM of en­trench­ing what she de­scribed as a "swine cul­ture" of lazi­ness, dis­hon­esty, de­pen­den­cy and poor work eth­ic that must be up­root­ed for the coun­try to pros­per.

The Prime Min­is­ter ar­gued that suc­ces­sive PNM ad­min­is­tra­tions had trans­formed tem­po­rary wel­fare pro­grammes, state con­tracts and pub­lic-sec­tor em­ploy­ment in­to schemes for gen­er­at­ing per­son­al in­come.

She said her Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue cut­ting wel­fare schemes, cor­rupt em­ploy­ment pro­grammes and non-per­form­ing state agen­cies and em­ploy­ees.

"The PNM's en­trenched swine cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go has to be up­root­ed for this coun­try to pros­per," Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­clared.

She main­tained that her ad­min­is­tra­tion was com­mit­ted to redi­rect­ing na­tion­al re­sources to­wards hard­work­ing cit­i­zens, par­tic­u­lar­ly those in the work­ing and mid­dle class­es.

How­ev­er, Beck­les ac­cused the Prime Min­is­ter of us­ing in­flam­ma­to­ry lan­guage to dis­tract from the coun­try's eco­nom­ic chal­lenges.

"Since my an­nounce­ment that the coun­try is in a Re­ces­sion, the Prime Min­is­ter has launched a cheap, class­less and cum­ber­some cam­paign against me and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go," she said.

Beck­les in­sist­ed that the Gov­ern­ment lacked a cred­i­ble eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery plan and was more con­cerned with at­tack­ing the Op­po­si­tion than ad­dress­ing cit­i­zens' needs.

She al­so ref­er­enced Per­sad-Bisses­sar's re­cent con­tri­bu­tion to the 2027 Bud­get de­bate, ac­cus­ing her of at­tempt­ing to use of­fen­sive lan­guage against her in Par­lia­ment.

"It was a dis­play that was in­deco­rous, nau­se­at­ing and re­pul­sive," Beck­les said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader in­sist­ed she would not be in­tim­i­dat­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter's at­tacks.

"I am un­de­terred by the po­lit­i­cal vom­it spewed by our Prime Min­is­ter," she de­clared.

Beck­les said the PNM would con­tin­ue scru­ti­n­is­ing the Gov­ern­ment de­spite what she de­scribed as its in­creas­ing­ly hos­tile po­lit­i­cal rhetoric.

"Trinidad and To­ba­go de­serves lead­er­ship, not the­atrics; so­lu­tions, not in­sults; and a gov­ern­ment fo­cused on the peo­ple, not con­sumed by a psy­chot­ic ob­ses­sion with the Op­po­si­tion."

She end­ed, "Kam­la, stop the crazy and crass rhetoric and start de­liv­er­ing for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. If you can."