Opposition Leader criticises PM over cuff down comment

Leader of the Op­po­si­tion Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is­sued a state­ment call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to apol­o­gise for re­marks made in re­cent pub­lic ex­changes and to ad­dress what she de­scribed as on­go­ing con­cerns about con­duct in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

In the re­lease, Beck­les said the coun­try “de­serves bet­ter than an in­se­cure Prime Min­is­ter” and claimed the Prime Min­is­ter has adopt­ed a pos­ture that places her “be­yond scruti­ny” and “be­yond ac­count­abil­i­ty.” She ref­er­enced re­cent com­ments made by Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad Bisses­sar in Par­lia­ment, in­clud­ing a re­mark in which she told a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment she would “cuff you down.”

Beck­les al­so re­ferred to state­ments made ear­li­er in the ad­min­is­tra­tion, in­clud­ing ref­er­ences to “fake elites” and a sep­a­rate in­stance in which the Prime Min­is­ter said she would “buss yuh heads.” Ac­cord­ing to the Op­po­si­tion Leader, these re­marks form a pat­tern that rais­es ques­tions about lead­er­ship and sets a tone that af­fects Cab­i­net be­hav­iour.

Beck­les ar­gued that the Prime Min­is­ter has “nor­malised a Cab­i­net lack­ing the moral com­pass re­quired for pub­lic ser­vice” and said some Min­is­ters ap­pear more fo­cused on on­line ac­tiv­i­ty than on gov­er­nance. She added that the tone set by the Prime Min­is­ter has in­flu­enced the con­duct of those serv­ing un­der her.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader called on Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad Bisses­sar to apol­o­gise to the pop­u­la­tion and to take steps to “raise the stan­dard” with­in the Cab­i­net. The re­lease con­clud­ed with Beck­les stat­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go “de­serves bet­ter.”