Rhon­dor Dowlat

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has come un­der fire for call­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an "Oreo" dur­ing the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ Mon­day Night Fo­rum in Pointe-a-Pierre on Mon­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar came un­der fire from Gov­ern­ment and some in her own par­ty yes­ter­day for what has been deemed a racist state­ment in­tend­ed to cre­ate di­vi­sion with­in the so­ci­ety.

In a re­lease is­sued late last night, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Stu­art Young said: “This Gov­ern­ment will not con­done the use of race or class to at­tack any cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go and we re­ject the con­tin­ued dis­dain­ful and back­ward pol­i­tics of the Op­po­si­tion be­ing led by Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her at­tempts to stir up racial ten­sion in the coun­try.”

Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian last night, Young said he be­lieves that at­ten­tion was now be­ing drawn to the dirty pol­i­tics that Per­sad-Bisses­sar us­es and the di­vi­sive and de­struc­tive race card she con­tin­ues to play.

“I con­demn the racist be­hav­iour,” Young said.

Speak­ing dur­ing the meet­ing on Mon­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed that the “one per cent,” a term which is now used to re­fer to the Syr­i­an/Lebanese com­mu­ni­ty, “owns Kei­th Christo­pher Row­ley.”

“They tried to own Mr Man­ning eh, they couldn’t do that, they didn't get away with that…They tried their luck ... They tried to own me but I sent them pack­ing…They have their ‘Oreo’ now, who is their guy in Kei­th Christo­pher Row­ley and that's how the one per cent friends and fam­i­ly of Row­ley con­trol him,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar told sup­port­ers.

Her state­ment came as she spoke of the econ­o­my cur­rent­ly ex­pe­ri­enc­ing its sharpest de­cline in three decades. She ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of “help­ing their friends and the one per cent.”

“Row­ley is fix­at­ed on van­i­ty projects and not im­prov­ing the lives of the peo­ple of this coun­try,” she said.

Last evening, Young said Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the UNC had once again “at­tempt­ed to desta­bilise the coun­try by con­scious­ly and in­ten­tion­al­ly util­is­ing race to di­vide and de­stroy Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

“This con­tin­ued naked racial and di­vi­sive be­hav­iour by Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar is here­by con­demned in the strongest man­ner. May every creed and race con­tin­ue to find an equal place in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

"Whilst this Gov­ern­ment has been guid­ing and lead­ing the coun­try in a sta­ble, in­clu­sive and pro­duc­tive way, through a num­ber of dif­fi­cult and de­mand­ing sit­u­a­tions, in­clud­ing the fi­nan­cial con­ta­gion ef­fects cre­at­ed by Petrotrin, Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) have once again at­tempt­ed to desta­bilise the coun­try by con­scious­ly and in­ten­tion­al­ly util­is­ing race to di­vide and de­stroy Trinidad and To­ba­go."

The PNM Women's League al­so called for an apol­o­gy from Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

"While not a first time of­fend­er in this re­gard, Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar is clear­ly plumb­ing the depths of des­per­a­tion in her thin­ly veiled at­tempt to shore up her dwin­dling sup­port amongst her par­ty faith­ful. Re­cent­ly pub­lished poll re­sults clear­ly in­di­cate a leader past her prime, bereft of ideas and swim­ming against the lead­er­ship tide amongst her col­leagues," the Women's League said in a re­lease.

"The Ur­ban Dic­tio­nary de­fines “oreo” as “an in­sult­ing term of­ten used by blacks to dero­gate oth­er blacks,” and there­fore this rep­re­sents a new low, even for a for­mer prime min­is­ter. Such race-bait­ing has no place in the pol­i­tics of Trinidad and To­ba­go and de­serves to be con­demned by all, in­clud­ing her own Hin­du Women’s Group and all the oth­er women’s or­gan­i­sa­tions who, with­out fail, call the PNM and its leader to ac­count for every per­ceived in­frac­tion against women. We dare say that if the shoe was on the oth­er foot, their voic­es would have al­ready been raised in protest."

But the Gov­ern­ment was not the on­ly side to con­demn Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

For­mer min­is­ter of trade un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment, Vas­ant Bharath im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond­ed by tak­ing to his Face­book post.

Bharath said: “Call­ing Dr Row­ley an ‘Oreo’ is a dis­taste­ful and racist re­mark and must be round­ly re­ject­ed.”

In re­sponse to Bharath's post, one per­son called on Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­tract her state­ment, say­ing, “This is very racist and vit­ri­olic in­nu­en­do.”

An­oth­er wrote: “Any­one call­ing any names to any per­son must look at their fa­ther, broth­er, son, daugh­ter, moth­er, sis­ter and wife. It is ig­no­rance and dis­taste­ful and shows the gut­ter mind of a per­son say­ing those words.”

An­oth­er in­sist­ed that this type of be­hav­iour should not be con­doned.

“This is ut­ter­ly dis­re­spect­ful and moral­ly wrong.”