By Sue-Ann Wayow
INSTEAD of comparing names, examine your character.
This is the message the People’s National Movement (PNM) National Women’s League sent to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar condemning her statements made towards PNM government minister Camille Robinson-Regis.
Housing Minister Robinson-Regis is also the League’s Vice-Chairperson.
In a media release on Friday, the Women’s League said that Persad-Bissessar seemed to be blatantly race baiting.
The release stated, “To deem Mrs Robinson-Regis ‘s name as a slave master’s name is xenophobic. Mocking not only our African ancestors’ survival of the brutality of chattel slavery but also denigrating their advancement beyond it, their individual accomplishments and their achievements are no less than other races and ethnicities.”
The Women’s League said that Persad-Bissessar’s name was not “more beautiful” than Robinson-Regis’s.
On Thursday, Persad-Bissessar spoke about Robinson-Regis at a United National Congress (UNC) T&T Speaks meeting in Princes Town.
She told Robinson-Regis, “Stop calling my name on your platform. What you so vex about my name for? This lady went on a platform last week and three or four times, Kamla Susheila Persad-Bissessar…
Persad-Bissessar continued, “Camille, at least I have a name from my ancestors, where you got yours from? Your name is that of a slave master.”
She also said, “Be real and understand that we respect you and we respect ourselves.”
