Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ac­cused Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his Gov­ern­ment of us­ing race bait­ing in their po­lit­i­cal cam­paign in or­der to paint her po­lit­i­cal par­ty as a threat to Afro-Trinida­di­ans.

“Over the past few months, I have seen the PNM re­vert­ing to the use of race to cam­paign. The PNM Gov­ern­ment has not built one house since en­ter­ing of­fice in 2015,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said at the par­ty’s Mon­day Night Fo­rum at the Brazil High School.

Like the colo­nial mas­ters, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Row­ley was now us­ing race to di­vide the Afro and In­do-Trinida­di­ans.

“They cre­ate this false race bo­gey that the UNC is an­ti-African and paints UNC as a threat to the sur­vival and pros­per­i­ty of Afro-Trinida­di­ans. They have start­ed that nar­ra­tive, they see elec­tions are com­ing. You see it in the writ­ings of their paid colum­nists and their trolls on so­cial me­dia,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar again de­fend­ed the de­ci­sion to build the UWI South Cam­pus in Pe­nal/Debe, say­ing it was built be­cause the land was avail­able and it was a key lo­ca­tion which would have giv­en per­sons in South and Cen­tral ac­cess to ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion.

“The PNM has re­fused to open this cam­pus be­cause they think South on­ly have In­do, de­scen­dants of In­do,” she said, adding “con­stituen­cies such as Point Fortin, La Brea, San Fer­nan­do East and West, Ma­yaro etcetera would ben­e­fit but in­stead Gov­ern­ment opt­ed to use race in a very skil­ful way in ill-speak­ing the project.”

Call­ing on cit­i­zens not to be fooled by the race talk, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “As a peo­ple, we need to stop this con­stant hate and fear against each oth­er. This is how the PNM friends and fi­nanciers main­tain con­trol, by cre­at­ing chron­ic fear against each oth­er and ma­nip­u­lat­ing you in­to de­hu­man­is­ing each oth­er.”

She promised that when she gets back in­to of­fice there will be op­por­tu­ni­ties for all races to pros­per. She al­so vowed to of­fer land in­cen­tives and homes to poor Afro-Trinida­di­ans, who his­tor­i­cal­ly have been de­prived of prop­er­ty own­er­ship, once she gets in­to of­fice.

She said dur­ing colo­nial­ism, Afro-Trinida­di­ans were de­nied op­por­tu­ni­ties for land own­er­ship be­cause the colo­nial elites want­ed them to be con­tin­u­al­ly en­slaved.

“The plac­ing of freed slaves in­to slums was a de­lib­er­ate act to keep them in­to a forced type of slav­ery by trap­ping them in a vi­cious cy­cle of low wages, poor liv­ing con­di­tions and no prop­er­ty own­er­ship rights. This is a prob­lem we will still face to­day, where young Afro-Trinida­di­ans have dif­fi­cul­ty in ob­tain­ing prop­er­ty own­er­ship,” she said.

Say­ing In­do-Trinida­di­ans had “an ad­van­taged start” over the Afro-Trinida­di­ans, as their fore­fa­thers re­ceived land in lieu of a pas­sage back to In­dia, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “The In­do-Trinida­di­ans must ac­knowl­edge that the Afro-Trinida­di­ans were wronged by these acts and while it is al­so dif­fi­cult for many In­do-Trinida­di­ans to al­so ob­tain land and own­er­ship now, it is a more dif­fi­cult task for oth­ers be­cause of his­tor­i­cal dis­crim­i­na­tion.”

How­ev­er, she said when the UNC gets in­to of­fice the poor will get op­por­tu­ni­ties for land and hous­ing.

“I promise you, I pledge tonight, when you put us back in­to Gov­ern­ment we will rein­tro­duce all these land and home own­ing pro­grammes and in­cen­tives so we could make right what went wrong in our his­to­ry, “ she said.

She stressed that un­til all races see each oth­er as broth­ers and sis­ters and not com­peti­tors or en­e­mies, T&T was not go­ing to move for­ward.

“The sta­tus quo will re­main and one small group of per­sons will pos­sess the ma­jor­i­ty of the na­tion’s wealth,” she added.

She not­ed that when she was prime min­is­ter she led the charge for change by of­fer­ing af­ford­able land and home­own­er­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties for the poor Afro-Tri­ni and In­do-Tri­ni fam­i­lies, many of whom were squat­ters.

“This is why I had in­tro­duced pro­grammes such as Land for the Land­less; squat­ter reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion; in­creased grants for home re­pairs and con­struc­tion; sale of HDC homes for one dol­lar; cer­tifi­cates of com­fort and de­vel­op­ment of roads, drainage and util­i­ties in many squat­ting ar­eas,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar added.