Port of Spain, Trinidad (Trinidad Express) — Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has served notice she has no intention of responding to the constant attacks levelled against her by corruption-accused Jack Warner.
At a meeting in Debe on Tuesday, Persad-Bissessar said Warner and People’s National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley are a “tag team”, and she will not go along with their plan to distract from the real issues of the general election campaign.
“No doubt you have detected I am fed up of the gruesome twosome of Rowley and Warner, and tonight I want to serve notice that I have no intention of engaging in their script, in their play, in their comedy, in their soap opera. I have none, no intention,” said Persad-Bissessar, as the audience applauded.
“I serve notice further I will not respond to the lies and the fabrication coming from Mr Warner, and every one of those I will place in the hands of my lawyers, who will deal with him in the court of law. That is the one place he ’fraid, the court of law, but he cannot escape it. He will have to come in to that court of the land,” she added.
“I repeat my point. I serve notice to you and to all the media and to all the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago: I will not be distracted, I will not be engaged in the script, in the game and in the play of Warner and his tag team Rowley.
“Instead, I will focus on the priorities, on the policies and the programmes to bring up Trinidad and Tobago into the new Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.
I will fight to the end
Persad-Bissessar said one cannot play politics with the lives of the people who expect the elections to be about issues that affect them—jobs, healthcare, education, safety and security, etc.
She said to date the Opposition forces have not presented their polices or plans for the country.
“Mr Rowley has made it very clear he will increase his pay and that of his other MPs. They’re concerned about their pay. That is one plan they surely have,” she said.
She said the people of this country have a clear choice: “Warner and Rowley’s poison or Kamla’s plan for a better tomorrow.
“I am a woman who will fight like any mother when their children are in danger, I will fight to the end, to fight and believe that I will do what is right for my country,” she said.
Describing both Rowley and Warner as dinosaurs, Persad-Bissessar added they were both bitter and angry men.
“Most of Warner’s anger seems to be directed at the fact I am a strong woman. The first female Prime Minister of our great nation. He resents my gender and does not respect the office I hold. That is an insult not just to me, but to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.
Warner, she said, is delusional “because he knows he cannot overthrow me and I have refused his attempts at control and influence”.
“This dinosaur uses language I thought we had left behind. His uttering become ever more incredible, far-fetched and bizarre,” she said.
“No doubt later this week I will be accused of knowing the sister of a cousin of a friend who was involved in the Kennedy assassination.
“Or perhaps I will be accused of being in a house owned by someone who once met someone who knew someone who was a villain in Scooby Doo?
“I am just waiting to be accused of taking free flights on Warner’s new flying squad which clearly navigate past Warner’s mansion,” she said.
Rowley, she stated, was bitter because she fought him on Emailgate.
“I went to the Supreme Court of California (USA) and cleared my name on this vile attempt to overthrow my Government. Google confirmed all the e-mails Rowley cited were fakes. Yes, that’s why he is so bitter,” she said.
She said Rowley recently tried to “bully” the President over the Integrity Commission appointments because he could not get his way.
“Then he had to boil down like bhajee after his colleagues told him he was in the wrong,” she said.