Caption: Dr Keith Rowley

Summary

• Fierce Denial: Dr Keith Rowley strongly denied allegations made by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar that the PNM’s Balisier House was built using criminal proceeds.
• Doubling Down: Rowley angrily repeated his use of the derogatory term ‘Jammet’ to describe the Prime Minister, challenging her to provide even an ‘iota of evidence’ to support her claims.
• Accusations of Distraction: Rowley accused Persad-Bissessar of using the narco-trafficking allegations to distract the public from a lack of transparency regarding her recent attendance at the Shield of the Americas Summit.

By Alicia Chamely

Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley is lashing out at Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s allegation that Balisier House was built with criminal proceeds, doubling down on referring to her as a “Jammet.”

Addressing the Prime Minister’s statement in Friday’s sitting of the Lower House, Rowley angrily lashed out at what he said was an attempt by Persad-Bissessar to distract the public from her lack of transparency over the benefits to T&T that arose from her attendance at the Shield of the Americas Summit.

Rowley was speaking at a press conference at his Diego Martin home on Tuesday.

Discussing how the Balisier property was acquired and paid for, Rowley responded to Persad-Bissessar’s accusations, saying, “When you come to accuse us of criminal conduct in that exercise, I call you a ‘Jammet’ and a liar, because you are tarnishing other people. If you had done the same thing for your party, you might have had a headquarters.”

He said, “They can make these allegations. It is for you to ask them for support for the allegations they’re making, and if you can’t support it, then you are irresponsible and malicious. But when a prime minister goes to Parliament and accuses a political party in our country of being so close and involved with narco-traffickers, that goes beyond the pale.”

Rowley criticised Persad-Bissessar for using her time in Parliament to make accusations against the People’s National Movement (PNM) instead of discussing the outcome of her visit to the Shield of the Americas Summit.

He stated this was done to distract, rather than inform the public what benefits were derived from the meeting and where T&T stands on international policy, especially regarding what are being labelled the “extra-judicial” killings of suspected drug traffickers by US armed forces.

Rowley said, “When the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago goes to Parliament and says that work that took place in [Balisier] House under my stewardship was funded by narco-terrorists, I want to say to Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar: I told this country before that you are a Jammet.

“And today, if they can’t come in front of me and show me an iota of evidence to support that allegation, I say again that we are unfortunate to have a Jammet as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Because only a Jammet will do something like that—make a statement like that and not be able to provide a modicum of proof or truth.”

Rowley said Persad-Bissessar’s behaviour did nothing but tarnish the image of the country on a global scale.

He said, “So today, I just want to let the population know that in the PNM’s 70 years, we’ve climbed many mountains, we met many people along the way, but we only met one Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

“That is why this behaviour… so you care that you’re damaging the country’s image with this lie, but the Prime Minister [is] telling Parliament that the previous Prime Minister was engaged with narco-traffickers,” Rowley said.