Kamla tells Prime Minister of threats from within his Cabinet

File photo: Kamla Persad-Bissessar
File photo: Kamla Persad-Bissessar

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar issued a warning to the Prime Minister on Monday night, telling him to examine the horns in his “imploding Cabinet” as some of his own members are “gunning for him.”

She told Rowley to put his spies out to get his own proof that some of his colleagues were threatening his leadership and want him out of office as much as the UNC does.

At the United National Congress (UNC) virtual platform, Persad-Bissessar said she got three calls alluding to this prior to the start of the political meeting.

“I want to warn you Rowley, some of your own members are gunning for you. They are coming for you. Your Cabinet is imploding, it is falling apart. Not just the country you have destroyed, but your own Cabinet is imploding.

“If you think I’m wrong, you better put your spies out there because they are coming for you in this round.

“They are triggering to get you out of office, and you deserve to be put out of office politically and legally.”

She called on her membership to get ready for an election which may come sooner than they think.

Reading from the William Butler Yates poem, The Second Coming, which speaks of the world in chaos, she quoted one particular line which she referenced to life under the PNM in TT.

That line read, “Things are falling apart; and the centre cannot hold.

“The people of TT cannot wait any longer. We must get Rowley out of office now. Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.”

Regarding the furor caused by statements of Guyana’s VP Bharat Jadgeo on the dependence of this country on energy resources, which is causing the country to fall apart, Persad-Bissessar wondered if Jagdeo was correct in his assumption.

Rowley has refused to engage Bharath, even as Persad-Bissessar accused him of “undiplomatic and divisive leadership” amidst claims of him snubbing Guyana in search of oil and gas opportunities further afield than Caricom.

“We must ask ourselves – is VP Bharat Jagdeo correct in what he is saying? Is our country falling apart?

“The country had collapsed.”

She said the situation in 2022 where the revenue streams were out, gone and done, where there is joblessness and crime, is exactly where TT was in 2010 when the PP took office and turned it around.

“Today, just look around, you do not need surveys, polls anything to tell you we have a crime pandemic, an economic pandemic, an education pandemic, joblessness pandemic, rising cost of living pandemic.

“The pandemic is not just about covid 19 — the pandemic is the Rowley-PNM and the government that is leading our country. They have to go.”

While expressing happiness that the restrictions were lifted, albeit with no plans or policy to grow the economy and create jobs, she scoffed at Government’s claim that it managed the pandemic well.

“That is something we have been calling for more than a year because people’s livelihoods were sacrificed. Those restrictions were not saving lives.”

In the face of financial institutions declaring large profit margins, Persad-Bissessar called for some form of debt relief to get people back on their feet and get the country going

“The price of food is going up. The price of rent is going up. Price of gas, water, electricity will go up. What is your plan for people to sustain themselves in these very difficult times? None whatsoever.

“I heard nothing about plans to reboot and revitalise our economy, to get the economy going, earn revenue, create jobs. Do you think opening up, removing restrictions, is going to take us back to normal?”

She said while the price of food is rising, Rowley was “ranting and raving” with Guyana from where rice is imported.

Focusing on the Russian/Ukraine war, she observed moves by Russia and India to trade directly, not through the US dollar. She said this raises serious question about the petrodollar regime which is currently in place.

“The demand for payment by Russia in its own currency or gold equivalent is a signal to all nations to re-evaluate the relevance of the composition of their currency reserves.

“It now becomes urgent that Trinidad and Tobago assess not just the current composition of our foreign reserves, but perhaps more critically the future foreign exchange generation and the growing level of foreign debt incurred by this PNM government.”

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"Kamla tells Prime Minister of threats from within his Cabinet"

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