The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in Trinidad and Tobago is today (June 13) denouncing ‘politically desperate’ rhetoric by Opposition Leader Kamla Persaud Bissessar, who it says continue to stoke the flames of a 1990-style insurrection in the country. 

The OPM, reacting to Bissessar’s comments after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s press conference on Saturday, slammed the United National Congress (UNC) leader as unpatriotic. 

Rowley’s statement, in response to Kamla Persaud Bissessar, reads in full:

“The most recent statement of the Opposition Leader, appealing for a 1990-style insurrection to be the response of those citizens who are undergoing the hardships that many are currently experiencing, is a most dangerous, damaging and unpatriotic obstruction in this time of our national struggle in these pandemic times.

Such a statement could easily be misunderstood or viewed as acceptable encouragement by any unfortunates who may think that this thought is an acceptable response.

The Opposition Leader clearly believes that she could benefit from such a development but any such actions would be very costly and detrimental to the entire nation.

Clearly that is not any of her concern.

Equally to be roundly condemned is her relentless attack on the professional public servants in the health care sector whom she identified, by name, and subjected them to her warped and disgusting analysis.

These public officers are the cream of our professionals who have come to our defence in this moment of great need, in a pandemic and as Prime Minister, charged with the responsibility of steering this nation to a safe place in this storm, I appeal to the Opposition Leader to search within herself for any modicum of decency which would direct her to leave the public professionals out of her political desperation.”

In a Facebook post a day prior, Bissessar equally chastised the Rowley Administration as ‘liars’, arguing that they offered ‘no plans’ and ‘no hope’ in its response to the second wave of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections threatening to bring the country to its knees. 

According to the UNC leader, Rowley’s Saturday address to the nation confirmed what she had suspected from the onset of the pandemic: that the government was ‘irresponsible’ in handling COVID-19—sending the economy cratering and needlessly claiming hundreds of lives.

Bissessar’s scathing response, in full: 

“Rowley must realize that as we continue to lose lives on a daily basis, as business and livelihoods are destroyed and worse, as innocent elderly citizens may have been infected at that sham of a rollout, the seeds of civil unrest are being planted and watered.

Hundreds of thousands of people are without work, unable to provide food for their families, unable to pay bills, or unable to pay their rents. A virus of poverty is also sweeping our nation with no plan in place to resuscitate our economy. Rowley must accept help from stakeholders and make changes to his failed team. We cannot have a 1990 repeat.

Keith Rowley has today admitted before the nation that he has been lying and misleading the country, for months now. His outright lying since last year has cost this country hundreds of innocent lives, while he blamed citizens themselves for his own failure.

Only after outraging the whole country and exposing his lies and cruelty has Keith Rowley now been forced to openly admit that (1) we do not have enough vaccines, (2) that we are not sure when we are getting more vaccines, and (3) that we must live with this sad reality.

Rowley presented no plan, admitted to a BIG LIE about vaccines, claimed our country is better off than the countries that are actually donating vaccines to us and presented no hope to our citizens.

Most dangerously, he clearly is not going to make any real changes that are necessary to save lives. He is keeping the same failed medical team now turned propaganda team of Deyalsingh, Parasram, Abdool Richards, Hinds and Trotman. 

These people have been in charge for over 15 months and led us into this disaster of over 600 deaths. Continuing with them in charge is deadly, and amounts to premeditated, state-sanctioned murder.

Rowley’s incompetence has officially made him delusional. Everything he said last week he came back and debunked today. He compares us to Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere! Does he say we have the best vaccination process in CARICOM or the world? Madness is defined by the inability to recognize reality; this is clearly his permanent state of being right now.

It is atrocious that the Government and their personnel continue to use “it could be worse” or “it is improving” as their defence when the fact remains that cases continue by the hundreds each day while hundreds have died.

Rowley must realise that as we continue to lose lives on a daily basis, as business and livelihoods are destroyed and worse, as innocent elderly citizens may have been infected at that sham of a rollout, the seeds of civil unrest are being planted and watered.

Hundreds of thousands of people are without work, unable to provide food for their families, unable to pay bills, or unable to pay their rents. A virus of poverty is also sweeping our nation with no plan in place to resuscitate our economy. Rowley must accept help from stakeholders and make changes to his failed team. We cannot have a 1990 repeat.”

Reeling under the impact of the more infectious P1 variant first detected in Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago’s caseload has skyrocketed since mid-April. 

In a two-month span, from April 13 to June 12, the Caribbean twin-island state confirmed a staggering 19,710 coronavirus cases—propelling Trinidad and Tobago to the region’s fifth-worst hit territory tackling the pandemic. 

At the rate of spread, only the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica have more cases.

With 316 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the confirmed Trinbagonian cumulative stands at 28,422. Health officials in the English-speaking republic are managing 9,335 active infections. 

A total of 18,431 patients have made a full recovery from the respiratory illness, while 656 citizens have died due to coronavirus-related complications, according to health ministry data.