PNM, UNC women's arms spar over Rowley, Kamla

THE PNM and UNC women's leagues sparred in defence of their parties and leaders over political issues which arose last week.

In a release on Friday, the UNC Women's Arm criticised a statement issued by Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Ayanna Webster-Roy after the murder of Adeina Alleyne by her husband Dwight Waldrop at their Embacadere home in San Fernando.

Webster-Roy said, "The onus is on all of us to take responsibility for our thoughts, attitudes and behaviours toward violence knowing that there is a penalty and a price that is paid when people act from a place of anger and hate." She also said no one should suffer in silence, and government had zero tolerance for violence and the Gender Affairs Division of the OPM has various programmes in place to combat violence.

UNC Women's Arm chairwoman Kenya Charles, who unsuccessfully contested the St Ann's constituency in last August's general election, said Webster-Roy should "fix Keith first." She accused Dr Rowley of insulting his own government ministers, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal and criticising people for calling his name.

Charles claimed, "Keith Rowley is the vilest, most foul-mouthed, anger-fuelled, undignified leader in this country's history, with the behaviour of a raging bull and a 'wajang' as we were warned by (former prime minister) Patrick Manning (deceased)."

She said Webster-Roy should follow her own advice and "take action." She said the government has the power to act, but was doing nothing.

"We must stop enabling Keith Rowley and the culture of stupidity and aggression he promotes daily."

The PNM Women's League in rebuttal on Saturday called out the UNC women. "The Women's League of the PNM would like to congratulate the UNC's Women's Arm for its recent re-emergence. It notes the UNC arm has diligently rehashed old issues as well as non-issues in a transparent attempt to denigrate the Prime Minister and political leader (of the PNM)."

The PNM women urged the UNC women to "use the power it thinks it has to motivate their political leader (Persad-Bissessar) and cohorts to support stronger laws for the protection of all vulnerable citizens." The league also suggested "that a house of ill-repute should not be the first to cast stones." They also took issue with a statement from UNC PRO Kirk Meighoo. On Friday, Meighoo claimed Rowley "displayed an amazing lack of intelligence on a variety of critical issues facing our nation" while responding to questions from Opposition MPs in the House of Representatives on Friday.

"In fact, he could not answer most questions and instead rambled on and bickered like a confused old man," he said.

The PNM league said it is "simply bored to bits" by Meighoo's claims. Describing Meighoo as "an abject failure" in the political landscape, the league said he has found "a new role of a paid political hack at the taxpayers' expense." The league added that it would not waste its time calling on Meighoo to formally apologise to Rowley but instead asked the population to "continue to pick sense out of nonsense and refrain from entertaining the sub par UNC propaganda machinery."