Lead Editor-Politics
Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley has accused Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of hypocrisy, claiming that while she now condemns racial attacks and bigotry, she previously directed similar remarks at him when she was Opposition Leader.
In a statement yesterday, Rowley said Persad-Bissessar’s recent complaints about racist rhetoric rang hollow because she had once referred to him as “an Oreo in the service of the one per cent.”
“Surprise! The Prime Minister thought that bigotry and racist remarks were reserved only for her use,” Rowley said.
He questioned whether Persad-Bissessar believed such remarks were her “birthright” while now seeking to portray herself as a victim of racial attacks.
The former prime minister also launched a wide-ranging attack on the Government’s handling of the State of Emergency and the now-collapsed preventive detention case involving businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife, Genevieve.
He described the administration as “spiteful, vindictive and incompetent in the extreme,” arguing that it had spent the past month abusing the machinery of the State to pursue personal and political vendettas before being embarrassed by the outcome of the legal proceedings.
Rowley claimed the Government had attempted to push back against the reasoning of the Court of Appeal before ultimately suffering what he described as an embarrassing collapse before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
He argued that the administration had failed to justify the detention of citizens without charge and questioned the Prime Minister’s recent references to “foreign jurisdictions.”
“What is the Prime Minister saying, that she and her government for one whole month have been on the attack without evidence and could not lay a charge or defend their position of jailing people without charge in our country?” Rowley asked.
He also questioned whether the Government was relying on unnamed foreign authorities after failing to substantiate its actions locally.
Rowley maintained that if the Government possessed evidence of criminal conduct against any citizen, it should pursue the matter through the courts in accordance with the law rather than making public allegations or referring to foreign jurisdictions.
Calling for an end to the State of Emergency, Rowley said the Government had lost any moral authority to continue exercising the extraordinary powers granted under the emergency regulations.
He also called on Persad-Bissessar to dismiss both Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander and Attorney General John Jeremie, arguing that doing so was necessary if she hoped to restore public confidence.
Rowley further dismissed Persad-Bissessar’s recent statement that the United States was now assisting Trinidad and Tobago in the fight against crime, saying such cooperation had existed for decades.
He also criticised the legal costs arising from the Government’s handling of the matter, saying taxpayers should not be footing the bill for what he characterised as the administration’s mistakes.
PM fires back at Rowley
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has strongly defended Attorney General John Jeremie and Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander, rejecting calls by former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley for both men to be dismissed and for the ongoing State of Emergency (SoE) to be lifted.
In a response to Guardian Media yesterday, Persad-Bissessar said the Government’s anti-crime strategy was producing measurable results, claiming that crime had fallen significantly since the administration took office.
“Under Minister Alexander and AG Jeremie there have been 400 less murders in the last 15 months than were projected to occur based on the rates under the PNM,” she said.
The Prime Minister also claimed that “serious crimes are also down 15 per cent this year,” adding that “PNM strongholds have seen the largest decreases in murders and serious crimes over the last 15 months due to the work of the UNC and protective services.”
Persad-Bissessar contrasted those figures with the PNM’s decade in office, saying, “Over 5,000 citizens were murdered, 8,000 were raped or sexually assaulted and over 120,000 serious crimes occurred over his term in government.”
She further claimed that the country recorded “the highest murder rates over multiple years” under the former administration and alleged that “the majority of murder victims [were] young Afro men killed in gang violence in PNM strongholds.”
“His government did nothing to help these communities far less the rest of the country,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar accused Rowley of failing to protect the country during his tenure before criticising his recent comments.
“Rowley failed to protect this country and most egregiously failed to protect the PNM’s own strongholds from violent crime but is now angry that a ‘stinking coo*ie’ as his supporters call me is doing the job he never cared to do,” she said.
She also defended the continuation of the State of Emergency, insisting, “Law-abiding citizens are fully supporting the Government in our fight against crime as they know that law-abiding citizens have absolutely nothing to fear.”
The PM added, “If he wants to end the SoE and fire Minister Alexander and AG Jeremie, he can go ahead and do it. I don’t know how he will do it, but someone should explain to him that he is no longer prime minister and has become what he always complained about, a Facebook troll.”
