Kamla on new committee: PM trying to mamaguy TT

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the national recovery programme to address issues in at-risk communities announced by the Prime Minister on Thursday is an attempt to “mamaguy” the country. She said the PM’s “useless” press conference was an attempt to gain sympathy and play the blame game.

The Opposition Leader was speaking at the UNC’s virtual campaign meeting On the Ballot on Thursday.

She said Dr Rowley failed to address what she called the failure of the PNM government to lift the communities which protested on Tuesday.

“He has always been a coward and a bully. He is like a 70-year-old child, trying to get sympathy and act like victim number one in TT. He really wants you to believe that he now find out that these areas are underserved by his government.

"He is now discovering that these people in these communities have not been served well by his government. He takes us for fools, but the only fool in the room is not us, I will not say who it is but he wants to take everybody else for a fool.

"He takes loyalty of these communities for granted, the objective has always been to keep these communities in dependency syndrome, desperately needing the State. They have deliberately victimised their own constituencies, because they take for granted that they are loyal.”

Persad-Bissessar said the creation of the new committee was too little too late, as the ills in those depressed communities should have been addressed over the past five years while the government was in power, rather than in the last two months before an election. She said the unsettling events of the last few days showed the levels of dissatisfaction with the Rowley-led regime.

“The circumstances which led to the unrest in the capital city are being investigated and we must await the outcome of these investigations. I call upon you to respect each other and heed my call for peace. The TTPS is not the enemy, and yes there may be some rogue elements, but we must respect them, give them due respect, we need law and order.”

The Opposition Leader said the PM was trying to bribe citizens with misinformation and promises to share borrowed money.

She asked citizens to choose between what she said was the PNM’s blame game and feeding trough for friends, family and financiers and the UNC’s plan for 2020-2025 as laid out at uncplan2020.com.

UNC candidates Sean Sobers (San Fernando West), Taharqa Obika (Point Fortin) and Nabilah Green (Toco/Sangre Grande) also laid out their proposals for their respective constituencies should they be elected as MPs.