By Prior Beharry
RECALLING her struggles from humble beginnings, Kamla Persad-Bissessar remembered how she was called “roti girl” in school as her mother sold many things to make ends meet for her family.
She was speaking to a packed audience at the United National Congress (UNC) 2025 general elections launch at the Naparima College Auditorium in San Fernando on Monday evening.
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Persad-Bissessar spoke about the lessons she learnt from her mother, who was also a housemaid and sold pholourie, to remain strong and not break event in the midst of adversity.
She recalled how in 1996, then prime minister Basdeo Panday removed her as attorney general to put Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj after a “ten days” as AG.
Persad-Bissessar, who will turn 73 six days before general election day, said she never forsake her party making a not so veiled reference to a number of resignations in the UNC recently.
She reintroduced herself to the party saying: “I am Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the proud daughter of Rita Persad, a socially ostracised person, coming from the lowest caste and classes.
“She was a garden worker, she was a housemaid, she was a shop cleaner, she was a roti seller, in fact when I was going to school they used to call me ‘roti girl.’
“But she made the best roti you could ever taste in all of Siparia.
“Roti seller, roadside pholourie seller, vendor, jewellery, street seller, and part-time seamstress, she used to sew all my clothes.
“And she created and moulded the first female Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago. Together with my father they both moulded and created the first female leader of the opposition and together, they moulded, they created, the first woman prime minister of T&T.
“And with your help on April 28, I will be the second female prime minister of T&T.”
Persad-Bissessar said, “They could say whatever they want about me, and what they have not said, is not left to be said because they have made up everything they could and say about me.
“You know that Kamla does not back down from anyone. No backing down!
“I don’t runaway from any fight. I fought this wicked this oppressive government to defend our citizens. I have done that every day since I entered into politics.
“My wounds are on my chest because I lead my party from the front.
“I have the strength and the will from my mother’s blood in my veins.
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“No one could bully, no one could berate me, no one can break and no one can buy me, no one, no one. And no one can control me, no one at all.
“That’s what my mother taught me from the pain, the abuse, the humiliation she endured in her early years. She taught me don’t crawl on your belly for anybody.
“Tonight, I am letting the wicked bully know… that the UNC bigger and badder than anyone of them.
“And you know why, very simple answer, because when the UNC wins everybody wins.” The crowd was in unison with her words.
She how in 1995 she became the first woman to be an attorney general of T&T.
Persad-Bissessar said she was “happy like pappy” but she was a “ten days” appointment.
She said, “I was sitting in the Parliament, Mr Panday sitting next to me, he said, ‘minister we going up President’s House to swear in a new attorney general.’
“What? Okay. That’s my party leader. It’s my party. And during that sitting the PNM knew; members of the other side was throwing words at me. But, I too nice, I too innocent… I didn’t know.”
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When Panday told her, Persad-Bissessar said, she sat down a while to get her composure and them she ran outside and went to the washroom and called her husband.
She said her husband said, “‘Get to hell out of there… leave them alone.’ I never did that. I never betrayed my party. I didn’t get then what I thought I deserved… but I didn’t go all about complaining like some people doing now. And we will see a few more of them when the seats are all named.”
Persad-Bissessar said, “When I was moved I was put in a ministry that did not exist as a stand alone ministry. It was always AG and Legal Affairs.”
She said for the first time there was a ministry of legal affairs.
“But God don’t sleep, God only wears pyjamas.
“And when I went the Winsure Building was the Attorney General Office and Legal Affairs. I was on top floor.
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“When I became the minister of legal affairs there was no portfolio because it never existed.
“And I was given one office, one desk and one chair and one secretary outside… sometimes I fell to cry when I remember it but I cannot break me.
“It will never every bend or break me. I stayed with my party.”
