(Trinidad Express) – Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley has accused Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of fuelling racial and social disharmony in Trinidad and Tobago, and has called on her to apologise to the nation for what he described as “vile racist rubbish”.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, Rowley said Persad-Bissessar’s Independence Day messages had moved beyond political rhetoric and amounted to what he described as dangerous ethnic and racial targeting.
He accused the Prime Minister of returning to office with a desire for vengeance against sections of the population and said her government had failed to build on the foundations of previous administrations.
Rowley was particularly critical of Persad-Bissessar’s references to different ethnic and social groups in her Independence messages.
He accused her of targeting the Arab community by referring to “the 1%”, describing this as “ethnic targeting, plain and simple”.
He also criticised her comments about the descendants of enslaved Africans, saying her call for them to stop complaining about the past and move forward was insensitive.
