Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to apol­o­gise to the na­tion over an In­de­pen­dence Day mes­sage to Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers, ac­cus­ing her of pro­mot­ing racial di­vi­sion and threat­en­ing the coun­try’s so­cial har­mo­ny.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, how­ev­er, dis­missed Row­ley’s crit­i­cism, ac­cus­ing him of bit­ter­ness and liken­ing him to a “jam­mette” un­able to at­tract cus­tomers.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, Row­ley said Per­sad-Bisses­sar used the coun­try’s 64th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence to tar­get sec­tions of the pop­u­la­tion and un­der­mine Trinidad and To­ba­go’s long-stand­ing racial and so­cial co­he­sion.

“I am call­ing on her to apol­o­gise to the na­tion for de­fil­ing our 64th an­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence with the pub­li­ca­tion of her vile racist rub­bish, which threat­ens the peace, pros­per­i­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of the coun­try,” Row­ley said.

He said T&T’s di­ver­si­ty and rel­a­tive sta­bil­i­ty re­main among its great­est strengths but ar­gued that Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s rhetoric puts those achieve­ments at risk.

“Re­cent­ly, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is demon­strat­ing that she has re­turned to gov­ern­ment, not to build on any foun­da­tion or to keep the promis­es made for a bet­ter life for all, but as a vile and an­gry old woman who is hell-bent on ex­tract­ing vengeance up­on se­lect por­tions of the pop­u­la­tion who she be­lieves had kept her out of of­fice for a decade,” he said.

Row­ley’s com­ments fol­lowed one of the In­de­pen­dence Day mes­sages Per­sad-Bisses­sar is­sued on Mon­day to what she de­scribed as her “UNC fam­i­ly.”

In the mes­sage, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­flect­ed on the strug­gles of the par­ty’s sup­port­ers and their an­ces­tors, say­ing they had en­dured pover­ty in the “la­goons, cane fields and oil­fields” and had long faced ridicule and ha­tred un­der post-In­de­pen­dence PNM gov­ern­ments.

Row­ley ar­gued that the mes­sage crossed the line from po­lit­i­cal crit­i­cism in­to racial di­vi­sion.

“This is no longer a mat­ter of in­ept po­lit­i­cal pi­cong,” he said.

He ac­cused Per­sad-Bisses­sar of mak­ing a racial ap­peal to rur­al In­do-Trinida­di­ans and en­cour­ag­ing a sense of sep­a­ra­tion from oth­er groups.

“The worst is her re­cent racial ap­peal to the rur­al In­di­an pop­u­la­tion that they can now feel sep­a­rate and apart be­cause she has brought them recog­ni­tion so that they can now wage war and spew in­vec­tives at all those who she claims has looked down up­on In­di­an peo­ple who hith­er­to strug­gled in pover­ty,” Row­ley said.

He main­tained that pover­ty and hard­ship have af­fect­ed all eth­nic groups and de­scribed Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­marks as “naked racism and the worst form of di­vide and rule.”

Row­ley al­so crit­i­cised the Prime Min­is­ter’s state­ments urg­ing sup­port­ers to live with love in their hearts but “not crawl on your bel­ly for any­one,” while de­clar­ing, “It’s ei­ther peace or to­tal war, noth­ing in be­tween.”

He fur­ther ob­ject­ed to her as­ser­tion that “fi­nesse and diplo­ma­cy must be backed up with stee­li­ness and sav­agery when re­quired to de­fend the UNC mem­ber­ship.”

Ac­cord­ing to Row­ley, such lan­guage is dan­ger­ous in a mul­ti-eth­nic so­ci­ety.

“She some­how be­lieves that she is now in a po­si­tion and en­ti­tled to call out one sec­tion of the pop­u­la­tion to utilise jin­go­ism against the rest. This is dan­ger­ous pol­i­tics in any mul­ti-racial or mul­ti-eth­nic so­ci­ety,” he said.

He warned that his­to­ry has shown how di­vi­sive po­lit­i­cal rhetoric can push oth­er­wise peace­ful so­ci­eties “down slip­pery slopes from which they nev­er re­cov­ered.”

Row­ley al­so linked Mon­day’s state­ment to an ear­li­er In­de­pen­dence Day ad­dress, in which he al­leged Per­sad-Bisses­sar en­gaged in “eth­nic tar­get­ing” of the Arab com­mu­ni­ty through ref­er­ences to “the one per cent.” He fur­ther crit­i­cised her com­ments on colo­nial­ism and repa­ra­tions, ar­gu­ing that her sug­ges­tion de­scen­dants of en­slaved Africans should move be­yond colo­nial griev­ances amount­ed to “in­sen­si­tive racism” and un­der­mined re­gion­al repa­ra­tions ef­forts.

“She un­der­mines the repa­ra­tion ef­fort at Cari­com with her most re­cent fool­ish dri­v­el that says that we were bet­ter off un­der British rule,” Row­ley said.

The for­mer PNM leader ar­gued that Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ap­proach marked a de­par­ture from pre­vi­ous oc­cu­pants of the coun­try’s high­est of­fices.

“None of the pre­vi­ous six Prime Min­is­ters or Pres­i­dents and gov­er­nor gen­er­al has ever sought to set up the so­cial struc­ture in this dan­ger­ous way,” he said.

Ac­cus­ing the Prime Min­is­ter of pur­su­ing “a path of fu­el­ing so­cial and racial dishar­mo­ny,” Row­ley said na­tion­al uni­ty amid di­ver­si­ty re­mains one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s proud­est achieve­ments.

“This an­gry, spite­ful woman has tar­get­ed that for de­struc­tion and we will not put up with any more of it,” he said.

Asked to re­spond to Row­ley’s crit­i­cism and call for an apol­o­gy, Per­sad-Bisses­sar brushed aside the at­tack.

“Row­ley needs to stop be­hav­ing bit­ter like a jam­mette (not the ex­pen­sive kind) who can’t get cus­tomers,” she said.

She added: “I wish Trinidad and To­ba­go a won­der­ful week ahead. Love you all.”