NATUC condemns Rowley’s ‘jamette’ remark; urges higher standard in political discourse

The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go has strong­ly con­demned re­marks made by for­mer prime min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley about Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, warn­ing that such lan­guage un­der­mines the dig­ni­ty of pub­lic of­fice and the stan­dard of na­tion­al lead­er­ship.

In a state­ment is­sued by Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette, NATUC ex­pressed con­cern over com­ments cir­cu­lat­ing in the pub­lic do­main af­ter Dr Row­ley used the term “jamette”, wide­ly re­gard­ed as deroga­to­ry and misog­y­nis­tic.

“Jamette” is some­times used to de­scribe a sex­u­al­ly promis­cu­ous woman.

The labour body said the coun­try is fac­ing se­ri­ous eco­nom­ic and so­cial pres­sures and in­sist­ed that those in po­si­tions of in­flu­ence must demon­strate a high­er lev­el of con­duct.

NATUC ac­knowl­edged that dis­agree­ment is a nec­es­sary part of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic life in Trinidad and To­ba­go but warned that there are lim­its that must not be crossed.

“Po­lit­i­cal dis­agree­ment, and even pi­cong, are part of our cul­tur­al fab­ric and a nec­es­sary fea­ture of a healthy democ­ra­cy. How­ev­er, such dif­fer­ences must nev­er de­scend in­to per­son­al at­tacks, deroga­to­ry lan­guage, or ex­pres­sions that un­der­mine the dig­ni­ty of in­di­vid­u­als or the of­fices they hold,” An­nisette stat­ed.

The labour fed­er­a­tion al­so is­sued a broad­er ap­peal to po­lit­i­cal lead­ers and their sup­port­ers, urg­ing re­straint and ma­tu­ri­ty in the face of provo­ca­tion.

“As rep­re­sen­ta­tives of work­ing peo­ple across Trinidad and To­ba­go, we urge all par­ties, es­pe­cial­ly those who may feel pro­voked, to re­sist the temp­ta­tion to re­spond in kind,” NATUC said. “The best re­sponse is not to mir­ror such con­duct, nor to de­scend to that lev­el.”

NATUC warned against nor­mal­is­ing in­flam­ma­to­ry rhetoric in pub­lic life, cau­tion­ing that lead­er­ship must not be guid­ed by the low­est stan­dards of be­hav­iour.

“Lead­er­ship de­mands re­straint, ma­tu­ri­ty, and a stead­fast com­mit­ment to high­er prin­ci­ples. The stan­dard we up­hold must nev­er be dic­tat­ed by the low­est ex­pres­sions in the pub­lic space,” the state­ment con­tin­ued.

Reaf­firm­ing its po­si­tion, NATUC said it would not tol­er­ate what it de­scribed as a de­cline in the tone of na­tion­al dis­course.

“We re­ject a pol­i­tics of in­sult over ideas,” An­nisette de­clared.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion end­ed its state­ment with a call for na­tion­al lead­ers to el­e­vate the con­ver­sa­tion and up­hold re­spect for the of­fices they hold.

“We say, rise above the noise. Re­spect the of­fice. Re­spect the peo­ple. Re­spect the na­tion,” the state­ment said.

NATUC added that it stands “unit­ed in prin­ci­ple, unit­ed in pur­pose”, in­sist­ing that lead­er­ship in Trinidad and To­ba­go must al­ways re­flect the dig­ni­ty of its peo­ple.