Kamla: PNM only for rich

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar claimed the PNM was only supportive of the wealthy, talking to reporters at an election screening on February 21 at UNC headquarters in Chaguanas.

She alleged the PNM says decent things in its broadcasts and on its political platforms but was running a racist ground campaign.

Asked to clarify, she said she was referring to a door to door campaign, even as a general election loomed.

She said the PNM had sought to vilify East Indians as "thieving, lying, devil worshipping, coconut-oil head and living in lagoons."

She later added "pepper smelling" and "rum drinking" to that alleged description.

She alleged that what was even worse was the PNM 's treatment of Africans who did not support the PNM.

She urged, "We have to vote them out."

Persad-Bissessar disparaged three government ministers, saying one collected a lot of rent and the two others had wives who undertook projects of public construction.

"The three Indians who are there are not about the people. They are only about the economic interest for themselves and their families. So it (PNM) is elitist."

She hit a controversial calypsonian for his phrase "lick-bottom Africans." Persad-Bissessar said, "They weaponise calypso to denigrate both Indo and Afro."

She accused the PNM of espousing the idea that "once you don't support them, you are the worst of the worst. "

She repeated her claim of a racist PNM ground campaign.

Alleging people wished to divide Indians and Africans, she claimed, "It is happening now."