Kamla: The Rowley Regime has outlived its usefulness
It is clear that this Keith Rowley led administration has totally outlived its usefulness both nationally and regionally, given the poorly worded and misguided full-page advertisements on the “Venezuelan Situation” issued by the Prime Minister in the three daily newspapers over the weekend. The statement, rife with baseless claims and incoherent statements, fully demonstrates that the Rowley regime has reached an all-time low.
It is shameful that a sitting Prime Minister and holder of high public office would seek not only to issue a statement which totally ignores the current horrendous and disastrous situation facing the Venezuelan people but one which also seeks to insult the intelligence of our citizens, especially our young people.
As a nation, we must denounce the Prime Minister’s ramblings that sought to belittle our young people by saying there is a “gap or genuine ignorance in our younger demographic” on this issue. Our young minds are some of the brightest in our global community and from day one they have watched on at the suffering of the Venezuelan people, the violation of the basic human rights of our neighbours, the millions of children who starve each day as well as the millions of youth who are being robbed of opportunities to realize their true potential by the Maduro Regime.
With the worsening crisis in Venezuela, many right-thinking citizens of Trinidad and Tobago have demanded that our leaders stand with the free world against Maduro’s oppression. It is a sad day in our country’s history when our young people could be ridiculed by their Prime Minister for believing in what is morally correct.
When the history is written it would show that the only ignorant individual in this whole scenario has been Keith Rowley and his administration who failed to answer the calls of the global community to take a stand for humanity, as this PNM Government chose to stand with tyranny.
What we are witnessing as a nation is a Prime Minister trying to back-track and hide his initial recognition for the Maduro Regime as he has realized that his administration is now in the global political “dog house”. When he boasted about not taking “instructions from Marli street” in Parliament and his members shouted across the parliamentary chamber “what Trump could do we?” it is clear that they failed to calculate the outcome of their actions.
Today, with our international image diminishing, Rowley is seeking to hide behind the “cloak of non-intervention”. What his administration has failed to understand, as many of our commentators, this was never about Trump or the United States, it was about standing for democracy and what is right, a position validated by more than 50 countries.
Today Dr. Rowley is like a “bull in a China shop”, trying to give credibility for his failure to renounce the Maduro Government, but even he is not convinced by the position his Government has taken as, unknown to our population, he silently sent his Foreign Affairs Minister Denis Moses to meet with Juan Guiado’s representatives in Barbados over the weekend.
Keith Rowley continues to demonstrate that he is incapable of effectively governing our country. We call on him to do the right thing and call the election so that the people can elect a leader and team that can return Trinidad and Tobago to its leadership position in the region, and return our country to growth and prosperity.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, MP
Leader of the Opposition