Former ministers: Poor taste by UNC to plagiarise

Former ministers have called on Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to issue a personal apology to the UK leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer as well as a public apology to TT for a plagiarised statement.

A message posted on Persad-Bissessar's Facebook page congratulating the US president- and vice-president elect had clearly been taken from Starmer's message, posted online a short time earlier.

Former ambassador and head of the public service Reginald Dumas told Newsday on Monday afternoon that regardless of whether the message was a draft and released accidentally to the public, Persad-Bissessar needed to act responsibly and apologise.

He said, “It was put out as though it was an administrative error. I do not accept that. That was not an error, that was deliberate. If I were Persad-Bissessar I would get rid of the person who did it.

“This could be sabotage, as she is facing an internal election. One could never know people’s motives. Then again, it may not be sabotage, it may simply be plagiarism, in the sense that the person saw this message and decided to take a short cut and was lazy.”

Dumas along with former foreign affairs ministers Winston Dookeran and Dr Suruj Rambachan, said the matter was distasteful.

They agreed it was an unprofessional and unforgivable act which had tarnished the image of the UNC.

UNC member and former Couva South MP Ramona Ramdial told Newsday on Monday afternoon that the “error” was inexcusable and insulted the party.

She said, “Whoever is responsible for plagiarising Sir Keir Starmer’s statement and approving to passing it off as greetings from the Opposition Leader, should be dealt with firmly. Heads should roll. I do not know if it is one person or more, but whoever is responsible for doing that should be fired.

“It has now become an international embarrassment for the UNC. We need to hear from the Opposition Leader and not the administrators of her social media pages.”

A report in the TT Guardian newspaper on Tuesday suggested that a close female relative of Persad-Bissessar was responsible for the faux pas. That relative, the report said, handled her social media pages, and not the party’s communications team. Attempts to verify those claims and to reach Persad-Bissessar were unsuccessful.

MP for Oropouche West Dave Tancoo told Newsday on Tuesday that he was surprised the matter was newsworthy.

He said, “There are so many other important issues to be addressed, yet we are consumed by this. It was identified that it was an error and apologies have been extended.”

The statement in question from Persad-Bissessar were meant to be a congratulatory message on Saturday to US president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president elect Kamala Harris on the 2020 elections.

Her Facebook post which quickly made its rounds on social media was strikingly similar to a statement expressed by Starmer.

Hours after the post was scrutinised, an apology was issued on Persad-Bissessar's Facebook page stating that the post was made in error.

It said, “Today we experienced an administrative error. We apologise for this mistake and have since taken steps to ensure this does not reoccur. Apologies extended to Sir Keir Starmer (Administrator).”

Further to this, another apology was issued to both Starmer and Persad-Bissessar. This time it came from the communications team of the UNC.

It said, “The communications team apologises to Kamla Persad-Bissessar for our serious mistake this weekend. In our haste to post a congratulatory note to president-elect Biden, we used material from the message issued by the British Labour Party Leader, in a draft version of the communication we recommended as a template to be adopted for her own congratulations.

That draft should obviously not have been posted, nor edited in an attempt to address the original mistake. We deeply regret the error and the embarrassment we have caused to Persad-Bissessar – the person we are proud to work for and also represent on social media. To those who read the message and to our leader, we offer our deepest and most sincere apology, and we accept full responsibility for this critical error (administrator).”

Starmer and Kamla's statements:

In his congratulatory message posted on Facebook, Sir Keir Starmer wrote: “Congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as president of the United States of America. He ran a campaign on the values that we in the United Kingdom share – decency, compassion and strength. And I want to congratulate Kamala Harris on being elected vice-president, the first woman of colour to take that role. Their victory is one for hope and unity over dishonesty and division. Millions of Americans of all backgrounds and ages have come together to vote for a better, more optimistic future.

"It is a chance to reassert America's place as a force for good on the world stage. A nation that will work with Britain and other allies to defeat this pandemic and fight climate change. Joe Biden and the democrats have always shared Labour's values and the links between our two parties remain strong. I am looking forward on building on this and forging an even stronger relationship with the UK and USA."

Persad-Bissessar's statement said, “Congratulations to Joe Biden on his election as president of the United States of America. He ran a campaign on decency, compassion and strength. I also want to congratulate Kamala Harris on being elected vice-president, the first woman of colour to take that role. Their victory is one for hope and unity over dishonesty and division. Millions of Americans of all backgrounds and ages have come together to vote for a better, more optimistic future. This is also an important moment for the world.

“It is a chance to reassert America's place as a force for good on the world stage. A nation that will work with T&T and other allies to defeat this pandemic. I am looking forward to T&T forging an even stronger relationship between T&T and the USA. I offer the president-elect Biden my best wishes for a successful term for himself as well as for the people of the United States of America.”