Kamla grabs second chance

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been quick to make an impact since winning the parliamentary elections on April 28, promising to minimise corruption and treat all 1.6 million citizens equally.

The landslide victory for Persad-Bissessar and her United National Congress reflects the state that Trinidad and Tobago has turned in recent years. 

Declining natural gas production, spikes in murders and gang violence, and a dramatically changing geopolitical order all played their part on election day. Persad-Bissessar returns to being PM, having previously held the role for five years from 2010.

Reducing crime, bolstering energy security, and strengthening relations with the United States are the key topic Persad-Bissessar is targeting in her first few months. 

She faces significant challenges considering the past year was the deadliest in Trinidad and Tobago’s modern history, with a homicide rate of 45.7 per 100,000. That puts it at the fifth-highest in Latin America and the Caribbean and the sixth most dangerous in the world. Growing gang violence and illegal small arms inflows from the US and Venezuela are primary factors, even leading previous  prime minister, Keith Rowley, to issue a state of emergency last year.

When she was sworn in, she promised to put the country “on the right pathway, where we cease to govern simply to win the next election, and instead govern to create wealth and opportunities for seven generations into the future.”

“You’ve had prime ministers before me, you will have prime ministers after me. But guess what? You will never have a prime minister who loves you as much as I do,” she insisted. 

Persad-Bissessar, 73, promised to prioritise security during her term and to turn a new page for the country, claiming its previous leadership had “forgotten” its citizens.

 “If you are living on the fringes of the Guanapo, in the coconut estates of Icacos, in Kernahan village in the Nariva swamp, on the coastline in Charlotteville, Tobago, or the lagoons of Barrackpore, I see you. You will be treated equally and fairly.”

Persad-Bissessar warned her newly elected ministers that accountability will be non-negotiable. “If you treat the citizens with callousness, contempt, and corrupt ways, I guarantee you retribution will be swift and brutal.”

The Caribbean’s second-largest producer of natural gas has also been battling an economic downturn due partly to a decline in gas production.