Carisa Lee

The Women’s League of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is con­demn­ing a com­ment made by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin North East, Colm Im­bert, yes­ter­day dur­ing a sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

The Women’s League said Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Im­bert, “Don’t point at me, be­cause I’ll cuff you down.”

The group is call­ing for her to re­flect on the grav­i­ty of her words and the ex­am­ple they set for the thou­sands who look to the na­tion’s lead­er­ship for guid­ance.

“The Women’s League finds this state­ment high­ly in­ap­pro­pri­ate, deeply trou­bling, and whol­ly un­be­com­ing of the hold­er of the of­fice of Prime Min­is­ter,” the re­lease said.

The League ex­plained that words mat­ter, es­pe­cial­ly from the Prime Min­is­ter, and that at a time when so­ci­ety is bat­tling in­creased vi­o­lence, in­dis­ci­pline, and dis­re­spect, lead­ers must set a high­er stan­dard of con­duct.

The re­lease added that sug­gest­ing a re­tal­ia­to­ry phys­i­cal act, even in jest or frus­tra­tion, con­tra­dicts the val­ues of re­spect, re­straint, and non-vi­o­lence taught to chil­dren.

“How can you speak to the na­tion’s youth about non-vi­o­lence, con­flict res­o­lu­tion, and re­spect when your own lan­guage in Par­lia­ment pro­motes the op­po­site? How can you ex­pect cit­i­zens to up­hold ci­vil­i­ty when your own con­duct falls short of the dig­ni­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of your of­fice?” the Women’s League asked.

The PNM Women’s League said it ex­pects far bet­ter from the per­son en­trust­ed with lead­ing the na­tion.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go de­serves a Prime Min­is­ter who mod­els re­straint, dis­ci­pline, deco­rum, and ma­tu­ri­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly with­in the cham­bers of Par­lia­ment, where the be­hav­iour of lead­ers sends pow­er­ful sig­nals to the pub­lic,” the re­lease said.