For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has is­sued a state­ment crit­i­cis­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, her gov­ern­ment, and re­cent po­si­tions on for­eign re­la­tions, re­gion­al en­gage­ment and na­tion­al sov­er­eign­ty.

It came less than a day af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar ripped in­to the re­gion­al or­gan­i­sa­tion again, la­belling it dys­func­tion­al.

In the state­ment, Row­ley said that since In­de­pen­dence in 1962 he has not seen a leader he re­gards as more un­pa­tri­ot­ic or in­com­pe­tent. He said he al­so has not en­coun­tered a state­ment from a na­tion­al leader that he con­sid­ers more of­fen­sive to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s sov­er­eign right to agree or dis­agree on mat­ters af­fect­ing the coun­try and its in­ter­ests.

Row­ley ac­cused Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her ad­min­is­tra­tion of re­duc­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to what he de­scribed as a vas­sal state. He al­leged that the gov­ern­ment is tak­ing in­struc­tions from an­oth­er coun­try and warn­ing cit­i­zens that the coun­try must be­have in or­der to avoid con­se­quences such as re­stric­tions on ac­cess to Unit­ed States visas.

Ac­cord­ing to the for­mer Prime Min­is­ter, such ac­tions amount to a re­jec­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion and a de­nial of the le­git­i­ma­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go as a sov­er­eign na­tion. He said the ap­proach un­der­mines the idea that the coun­try’s ex­is­tence war­rants de­fence or vi­sion by its lead­ers.

The state­ment al­so ad­dressed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s role with­in the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty. For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Row­ley said the pub­lic with­draw­al from CARI­COM mat­ters and de­ci­sions places the coun­try in a po­si­tion he char­ac­terised as dan­ger­ous. He sug­gest­ed that this stance is mo­ti­vat­ed by ex­pec­ta­tions of pro­tec­tion or re­ward from the Unit­ed States.

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Row­ley fur­ther crit­i­cised Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar for ac­tions he said fol­lowed a re­cent gen­er­al elec­tion in which she re­ceived a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty. He re­ferred to in­creased se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures in the coun­try and al­leged that the Prime Min­is­ter has not ad­dressed the pop­u­la­tion to ex­plain agree­ments made with Unit­ed States au­thor­i­ties.

He al­so said the Prime Min­is­ter has de­clined to ap­pear be­fore lo­cal me­dia to an­swer ques­tions about her de­ci­sions and poli­cies. For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Row­ley stat­ed that the Prime Min­is­ter has de­scribed pub­lic con­cern and ques­tion­ing as an­ti-Amer­i­can.

In clos­ing, For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Row­ley ex­pressed con­cern about the coun­try’s fu­ture. He said there is hope that the sit­u­a­tion will change but in­di­cat­ed that, based on cur­rent cir­cum­stances, the out­look is un­cer­tain.

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