Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is al­leg­ing that the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is en­gag­ing in “pro­pa­gan­da” and play­ing “nasty” pol­i­tics with peo­ple’s lives.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s con­dem­na­tion of the Gov­ern­ment comes af­ter she was tak­en to task by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley for re­leas­ing in­for­ma­tion on the coun­try’s first COVID-19 death be­fore it was of­fi­cial­ly ac­knowl­edged and count­ed.

In a me­dia re­lease Thurs­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “They con­tin­ue to spew a dai­ly di­a­tribe of ma­li­cious pro­pa­gan­da, de­hu­man­i­sa­tion and de­mon­i­sa­tion of the me­dia, the Op­po­si­tion and our very cit­i­zens who hap­pened to un­for­tu­nate­ly be caught abroad when the worst of the cri­sis hit.”

She said un­der a false premise of try­ing to pro­tect the pop­u­la­tion, the PNM was pit­ting cit­i­zens against each oth­er in a time when the coun­try should be unit­ed. How­ev­er, she said she will not be si­lenced.

“The PNM threats, bul­ly­ing and in­tim­i­da­tion tac­tics can nev­er si­lence me, or the Op­po­si­tion UNC, from do­ing our du­ty to the cit­i­zens of this coun­try,” she said, adding she was con­cerned about how Gov­ern­ment was han­dling the re­lease of in­for­ma­tion to the pub­lic.

“I do not need the PNM’s per­mis­sion to speak out on any mat­ter, es­pe­cial­ly one of such se­ri­ous na­tion­al con­cern which threat­ens to de­stroy our coun­try’s econ­o­my, health and the very lives of our cit­i­zens.

“Un­til the PNM Gov­ern­ment acts in the in­ter­est of all cit­i­zens in a man­ner that can pro­tect their lives dur­ing this on­go­ing and dead­ly coro­n­avirus cri­sis, the UNC and I, as its leader, will not be si­lenced.

“We will con­tin­ue to lob­by on be­half of the peo­ple of this coun­try for truth­ful, ac­cu­rate sta­tis­tics and in­for­ma­tion to be forth­com­ing from the PNM Gov­ern­ment.”

She ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of sup­press­ing in­for­ma­tion, calls and ques­tions about the virus and its im­pact on the pop­u­la­tion.

She said Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young had “failed at every sin­gle task in the cru­cial area he over­sees”and Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh was “a com­plete and ut­ter fail­ure.”