‘We must now take note of the prime minister of a country, virtually, race-baiting and inciting those who may fall prey to his inflammatory language’ – Gary Griffith
By Sue-Ann Wayow
PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley should be condemned by all right-thinking citizens of Trinidad and Tobago for saying that guns were now being used to add to racial division in the country.
This is according to political leader of the National Transformation Alliance (NTA) Gary Griffith who was the main subject of Dr Rowley’s political address in St James on Thursday.
He said Dr Rowley’s statements were a desperate attempt at old politics.
Griffith in a media release on Friday stated that if statements reported in the media were indeed spoken by Dr Rowley, it meant that the Local Government Election (LGE) political season was becoming dangerous.
“We must now take note of the prime minister of a country, virtually, race-baiting and inciting those who may fall prey to his inflammatory language,” he said.
At the meeting Dr Rowley fired at Griffith who is now a main political opponent in the LGE saying that his choice to unite with the United National Congress (UNC) against him was a choice to “to give people of a certain race gun to shoot people of another race.”
Dr Rowley said according to the UNC and its affiliated parties, crime, “is one race attacking another.”
Griffith said, “I condemn this behaviour and language in the strongest possible terms, and I call upon the Council for Responsible Political Behaviour to act on this inflammatory, disdainful and disturbing language. I call on all religious organisations to condemn such inflammatory and divisive race-baiting. I call upon the business community to call the Prime Minister to account, and stop this divisiveness with immediate effect. I encourage all other political leaders to call out the reprehensible actions of the Prime Minister.”
He also said, “Regardless of your political affiliation, each of you are acutely aware of the consequences of such irresponsible and reckless verbiage on the psyche of the nation, and such whistle calls must be condemned in the most robust manner.”
Dr Rowley spent almost an hour talking to supporters about Griffith, his alleged actions when he was Commissioner of Police and all the reasons why NTA’s candidates should not get a chance in winning an electoral district in the LGE.
Dr Rowley said, “This NTA entity was formed deliberately in the hope that it will provide protection for people who behave like that, so when the police come after them, they could say, it is politically motivated.”
But Griffith fired back saying, “Keith Rowley’s tirade at the St James meeting presented as a desperate attempt at the politics of old, by throwing everything at an opponent and hoping something will stick, except this time, it was everything he has regurgitated over the years, with not one thread of uniqueness, or fact, as is evidenced by all the contrived reports being rubbished in and out of court, most of the State matters related being challenged, and absolutely nothing in terms of evidence-based fact.”
I suspect he is laying the ground work for his supporters to continue their vile attacks on a particular segment of the population. Recall the female PNM activist who said jump their wall and deal with them on a video posted 2 yrs ago. That video has borne fruits and the TTPS has struggled to mitigate these home invasion. The govt has also done little.