UNC leader: ‘TT, unite!’

OPPOSITION leader Kamla Persad Bissessar called for all races in the nation to unite against the “wicked” Government and their elite “friends and financiers” during the first Monday Night Forum for 2019, held at the Brazil High School on Arena Road in the La Horquetta/Talparo constituency.

Speaking to a packed auditorium at the high school, Persad-Bissessar took the Government to task, accusing it of using race politics to divide and rule, and distract from the fact that it has done nothing to develop the country in the past three and a half years.

“This tit-for-tat racial issue must stop, and stop now,” Persad-Bissessar said “We must stop this constant hate and fear of each other. This is how the PNM friends and financiers maintain control. As I put my hand up here, I say to you that if you cut my hand, it is the same red blood flowing from my veins as yours. The same things that make me cry would make you cry,and the same things that make me happy would make you happy. We have to learn to forgive and love each other, because there is only one race – the human race.”

Bissessar reminded the constituents that while Indo-Trinidadians were brought into the country as indentured servants and were given the opportunity to repatriate or work an allotted portion of land, Afro-Trinidadians were brought in as slaves and were given neither opportunity.

While admitting that the only thing she inherited from her ancestors was “her kindness and her smile,” she said since the abolition of slavery, the elite have used this difference in circumstances to divide the races and pit them against each other.

“We came here from India and Africa under different circumstances, but we are all in the same boat now, sink or float. The Indo-Trini must admit that the Afro-Trini was wronged. And we must understand that it is difficult for many Indo-Trinis now. And don’t take it as something to ‘tote feelings.’ It means we have to unite, we have to get together and work to get TT working again!”

Earlier, Jearlean John made fun of Health Minister Terence Deyalsingh, who she said constantly asked questions about the Couva Hospital, yet has not done anything with the building. “He wants us to focus on why the hospital was opened and closed on the same day,” John said, “ But it was not closed: it was commissioned. What he had to do when he unfortunately became Minister of Health was open the doors and continue the commissioning.”

John taunted the minister to the tune of There’s a Hole in My Bucket, challenging him to open the hospital.

“There’s a closed door in Couva, dear Kamla, dear Kamla/There’s a closed door in Couva, dear Kamla, a door.

“Well, open it, dear Terrence, dear Terrence/Well, open it dear Terrence, dear Terrence, open it!” John sang.