PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Jul 28, CMC – Former prime minister Dr. Keith Rowley Tuesday called on the government to end the current state of emergency (SoE) now as he dismissed a suggestion by Prime Minister Kamla Persad–Bissessar that critics of her government’s anti-crime campaign are deliberately attempting to inflame tensions between the two main races in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Surprise! Surprise ! The Prime Minister thought that bigotry and racist remarks were reserved only for her use. When she called me an Oreo in the service of the one per cent , what did she think that was , her birthright?,” Rowley wrote on his Facebook page.
He said for the last month this country has seen Persad-Bissessar’s government in all its nakedness “being spiteful, vindictive and incompetent in the extreme.
“It took an embarrassing collapse at the Privy Council to slow them down even as they pushed back against the reasoning of our Court of Appeal,” he added, in reference to the detention of prominent businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife, Genevieve for almost a month amid allegations of being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Persad-Bissessar and senior members of her government.
Earlier this week, in a statement posted on social media Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar alleged that those who had benefited from criminality had “spread false narratives to stoke hatred between the two major ethnic groups” while attacking the country’s protective services and the United States for supporting Trinidad and Tobago’s crime-fighting efforts.
She also accused social media trolls, deranged commentators, race grifters and mainstream media of participating in those attacks, noting that the increase in American support for the local protective services had unsettled individuals who had amassed wealth and influence through criminal activity.
“Since the increase in American support to our protective services began last year, we have witnessed a heightened unease and furor among those who have built their wealth and social status by upholding illegality and criminality.”
The prime minister said that despite sustained criticism from what she described as criminal interests and their agents within the legal profession, business community and media, members of the Police Service, Defence Force, Strategic Services Agency (SSA) and Prison Service had remained committed to their duties.
Persad-Bissessar also vowed that Government would continue working with its international partners to dismantle the country’s “local drug mafia.”
“For too long, this country has accepted a tiered justice system in which different rules, conditions and treatment apply to persons and groups in society based on income levels, ethnicity, where they live and who they fund,” Persad-Bissessar said, adding that “time has come to an end. No one’s wealth or social status will put them above the law.”
In his statement, Rowley said that “now that the population has been made aware of the recklessness of this administration which is hiding under a state of emergency in order to abuse the machinery of the state as they try to settle personal and political scores against citizens , one would expect that a government so exposed and disgraced will humble itself as the people directly responsible are held to account.
“Instead we have the absentee Prime Minister trying from home to continue to fool the population about waiting on “ foreign jurisdictions,” Rowley said in reference to Persad-Bissessar saying that the alleged plot to assassinate her and senior members of her government had widened significantly and now involves multiple foreign agencies.
“I would not have any specific details on the ongoing local and foreign investigations. As Minister Roger Alexander stated in his press release, the investigation has widened beyond the original scope to new areas and across multiple jurisdictions,” Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper, adding that she cannot comment on the specifics of the ongoing investigation.
“I am advised that multiple foreign intelligence and investigative agencies are involved and that new persons, financial institutions and businesses have been identified in the expanding investigation. I am also advised by local and foreign authorities that these investigations have increased in complexity and will take some time,” she added.
But Rowley questioned the statement saying the government “for one whole month have been on the attack without evidence and could not lay a charge or defend their position of jailing people without charge in our country that this fiasco is now left to some unnamed foreign jurisdiction?
“Is it that a foreign country will intervene to save this government from the people or is it that this government is feeding lies and entreaties to outsiders inviting them to act against our citizens.
“If the Prime Minister and her government have evidence of criminal conduct against any citizen then they must act against such person/s decisively within the law. Don’t disgrace yourself in discharge of your duty here and when you get exposed you send out a tweet to talk about “ foreign jurisdictions “.
Rowley said apart from ending the SoE that is due to end in September, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar must “fire the Minister of Homeland Security (Roger Alexander) and the Attorney General (John Jeremie) if she harbors any hope of restoring any respect from the right thinking citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
“The statement that the US government is now helping TT in the fight against crime, is downright foolishness. They have been doing so for decades. What is different now is the wholesale prostitution of our nation’s sovereignty by this government in the hope of getting personal and political favours,” Rowley said, calling on the government to “stop wasting my taxes on lawyers who are laughing at a foolish government that is enriching them whilst misleading the taxpayers”.
CMC/jh/ir/2026