Renu­ka Singh

Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the reshuf­fle by the Prime Min­is­ter was noth­ing more than a “naked at­tempt” to “dis­tract from the scan­dals which have de­railed his al­ready col­laps­ing Gov­ern­ment.”

“(Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th) Row­ley’s des­per­a­tion is grow­ing; shuf­fling the same los­ing pack won’t work,” she said in a re­lease.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said any Cab­i­net reshuf­fle that has “Row­ley re­main­ing as Prime Min­is­ter, Paria line min­is­ter Stu­art Young re­main­ing as En­er­gy Min­is­ter, Fitzger­ald Hinds re­main­ing in Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty as crime spi­rals out of con­trol, and Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, who has presided over thou­sands of COVID deaths re­main­ing as Health Min­is­ter - is a com­plete waste of time.”

“In fact, the whole Cab­i­net should im­me­di­ate­ly re­sign,” she said.

She said that the “des­per­ate ac­tion by Row­ley will not de­ceive the cit­i­zens of our na­tion. We will not stop de­mand­ing jus­tice for the four de­ceased divers. We will not stop hold­ing Kei­th Row­ley re­spon­si­ble for his law-break­ing ac­tions re­gard­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, how­ev­er, said news of the reshuf­fle came as no sur­prise to her.

“The fact of the mat­ter is that Row­ley and his en­tire Cab­i­net should step down over their cor­rup­tion, mas­sive fail­ures, lies and in­abil­i­ty to gov­ern,” she said.

She said near­ly one month af­ter the trag­ic div­ing ac­ci­dent at State-owned Paria, where four divers died while work­ing, the Gov­ern­ment is yet to fi­nalise the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry de­tails.

“Af­ter fi­nal­ly fol­low­ing the law and call­ing for a Com­mis­sion of En­quiry, Row­ley has yet to name the full com­ple­ment of com­mis­sion­ers for the en­quiry.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Prime Min­is­ter’s de­c­la­ra­tion that he met with the for­mer Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion chair was “be­yond ap­palling”.

“The Prime Min­is­ter’s ac­tions are a clear vi­o­la­tion of the law and a bla­tant at­tempt to sab­o­tage the se­lec­tion of a Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er. This is noth­ing short of an as­sault on the Con­sti­tu­tion and the democ­ra­cy of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.

On the is­sue of pass­ing in­for­ma­tion to the PolSC head, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Prime Min­is­ter’s “dic­ta­to­r­i­al ac­tions led to the col­lapse of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion and is the rea­son our na­tion is lack­ing a sub­stan­tive Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er at a time when the crime sit­u­a­tion re­quires a strong and sta­ble Com­mis­sion­er at the helm of the TTPS.”

“Row­ley has al­so now im­pli­cat­ed Her Ex­cel­len­cy Pres­i­dent Paula Mae-Weeks in a se­ri­ous vi­o­la­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion. Row­ley’s lat­est chaot­ic, scram­bled Cab­i­net reshuf­fle is sim­ply a sym­bol of an em­bat­tled Prime Min­is­ter drown­ing in his own lies and ev­i­dent mis­deeds,” she said.

CLICK FOR MORE NEWS