PM: Brighter days ahead

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

Se­nior Re­porter

eliz­a­beth.gon­za­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has warned that those who “want war will get to­tal po­lit­i­cal war,” as she promised sup­port­ers that brighter days are ahead for Trinidad and To­ba­go with thou­sands more jobs, in­creased po­lice posts and new homes in the pipeline.

Even as she promised sup­port­ers and cit­i­zens that bet­ter days are ahead, Per­sad-Bisses­sar warned that noth­ing good comes with­out pain.

She sent the warn­ing of po­lit­i­cal war yes­ter­day as she ad­dressed the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ Na­tion­al Con­gress and Re­port to the Na­tion just days shy of Gov­ern­ment’s first an­niver­sary in of­fice at Cou­va South Hall carpark.

But while the Prime Min­is­ter spoke about jobs, crime, hous­ing, health care and the econ­o­my, the af­ter­noon be­longed most­ly to the UNC faith­ful.

Her strongest mes­sage was aimed at those she ac­cused of mis­treat­ing UNC sup­port­ers dur­ing the par­ty’s ten years in op­po­si­tion.

She told sup­port­ers she had not for­got­ten what hap­pened af­ter the UNC lost of­fice in 2015.

“Be­tween 2015 and 2025, I watched how my sup­port­ers were ex­clud­ed, abused and kicked by some on the oth­er side. I want those peo­ple who op­pressed my UNC faith­ful to un­der­stand that I’m a dif­fer­ent hu­man be­ing,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She said she would not use the of­fice to give any­one an un­fair ad­van­tage, but warned that the bad treat­ment of UNC sup­port­ers could not go unan­swered.

“I am not go­ing to ad­van­tage any­one, but I will square up the ac­count be­cause the bad treat­ment of good peo­ple can­not go unan­swered,” she said.

“I have noth­ing to lose; we lost every­thing be­fore, and we re­built it. Those who want peace will get peace; those who want war will get to­tal po­lit­i­cal war.”

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so had a mes­sage for peo­ple she said had re­turned to the par­ty af­ter stay­ing away dur­ing the UNC’s years in op­po­si­tion.

She said she saw some peo­ple in the room who were around when the UNC was last in gov­ern­ment, but whom she had not seen for many years.

“I want you to know that I see you, and while I may for­give you be­cause that is how I am, I will nev­er ever for­get your ab­sence dur­ing our ten hard years in op­po­si­tion,” she said.

“You know who tru­ly loves you when you have noth­ing ma­te­r­i­al to give.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar thanked UNC sup­port­ers for stand­ing with her and the par­ty through what she de­scribed as years of in­sult, hard­ship, pro­pa­gan­da, be­tray­al and dis­ap­point­ment.

She said the par­ty sur­vived be­cause of its base.

She al­so said the coun­try was now mov­ing in a bet­ter di­rec­tion. “You took the first step on April 28, 2025, and brighter days are ahead,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said one of the biggest cries be­fore and af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tion was for jobs.

She said her Gov­ern­ment had moved away from what she called the old make-work sys­tem un­der CEPEP and URP, say­ing those pro­grammes had be­come “deeply com­pro­mised by in­ef­fi­cien­cy and cor­rup­tion.”

She said be­tween April 2025 and April 2026, the Gov­ern­ment had de­liv­ered more than 15,000 jobs across min­istries.

Among the fig­ures she list­ed were 3,185 jobs in Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, 2,647 in Ed­u­ca­tion, 1,800 in Works and Trans­port, 1,749 op­por­tu­ni­ties in Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing, 1,667 in Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, and 1,304 in Health.

She said more jobs would come from new HDC projects, the Gov­ern­ment’s re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion plan, the ex­pan­sion of the Plipde­co es­tate at Point Lisas, and a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone for da­ta cen­tres at Pic­ton, near the UWI South Cam­pus.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she want­ed cit­i­zens to move away from wel­fare and tem­po­rary work and in­to prop­er long-term jobs.

“You need to un­der­stand that you will al­ways be at the mer­cy of politi­cians if you con­tin­ue to look for make-work and wel­fare jobs. I am try­ing to get you to move to sus­tain­able em­ploy­ment,” she said.

On crime, she de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s use of states of emer­gency, say­ing they were de­clared to pro­tect cit­i­zens.

“And so we de­clared states of emer­gency to pro­tect our cit­i­zens. The re­sults are al­ready show­ing.

“Well, I will take an SoE any day, every day, it will keep our cit­i­zens safe, keep you safe.”

She said the Gov­ern­ment had re­paired 82 po­lice ve­hi­cles, leased 50 more and would soon de­ploy 30 mo­bile po­lice posts across the coun­try.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so said phys­i­cal up­grades would be done at Ce­dros, Teteron and Cu­mu­to.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so said the Gov­ern­ment had laid 30 Bills in Par­lia­ment in its first year, call­ing it one of the most ac­tive leg­isla­tive agen­das in re­cent his­to­ry.

She said amend­ments to firearms leg­is­la­tion would soon be brought to make firearms more ac­ces­si­ble.

On hous­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said ten parcels of land had al­ready been trans­ferred to the HDC, cre­at­ing space for 1,543 new hous­ing units.

She said Gov­ern­ment planned to build 3,700 new homes through pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships this year and in­to next year, cre­at­ing over 3,000 jobs.

She said no tax­pay­er funds would be spent, ref­er­enc­ing the $3.4 bil­lion HDC con­tract which was stopped by the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tor.

On To­ba­go, she said Gov­ern­ment had al­so agreed on re­forms to ad­dress is­sues in the THA Act, ex­plore a To­ba­go lo­cal po­lice ser­vice, main­tain the Stud­ley Park quar­ry ex­port li­cence, move for­ward with plans for a new de­sali­na­tion plant in Char­lot­teville, and deal with land tenure is­sues.