At this juncture, the chasm separating the persona from the reality seems unbridgeable, riddled as Ms. Persad-Bissessar's political career has been with inconsistencies, contradictions and paradoxes that too often blurred the lines between the politically tolerable and the morally unacceptable.
Try as UNC spin doctors undoubtedly will to script that legacy, only history's unsentimental, impartial, and ultimately unforgiving judgement of Ms Persad-Bissessar will matter. Self-serving campaign rhetoric, political lies, propaganda and appeals to tribal loyalty and insecurities that brought her electoral victories will give way to the hard facts, and cold, undisputed acts of her two terms as prime minister and the ten years she spent as Leader of the Opposition.
The First Term: A Foundation of Controversy
Ms. Persad-Bissessar’s first term was dogged by allegations of serious wrong-doing that no amount of political PR could bury. Scandals became routine, their existence denied and dismissed until investigations and public disclosures forced acknowledgment.
The roll call of controversies is extensive: the Reshmi Ramnarine fiasco, Anil Roberts and the infamous LifeSport Programme, Section 34, Krishna Lalla and the Beetham Waste Water Treatment Project, the Vincent Nelson matter with allegations and admissions of legal-fees kickbacks, corruption linked to the EMBD Company, the OAS/Point Fortin Highway debacle, and the ten million-dollar firetruck retrieval fee, are just a few of the more memorable ones.
The above are not figments of political malice or anyone's idle mind. While the courts hold the final word on legal culpability, the stench of favouritism and political rot lingers over the era.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index tells its own unflattering story. Between 2010 and 2015, Trinidad and Tobago averaged a dismal 37 out of 100, sinking to a historic reputational low for institutional integrity. Put more bluntly, Trinidad and Tobago rose to its highest level of corruption, its most corrupt period in three decades, under her watch. That is not PNM propaganda or Rumshop 'ole tork'; it is the verdict of an independent global index, recognised and respected worldwide. Like it or not, that mud stuck, and it forms the foundational layer of Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s political legacy.
10 years in Opposition: No Renewal
The 10 years she spent as Opposition Leader and Prime Minister-in-waiting brought no renewal. She surrounded herself with many of the same figures tainted by unresolved allegations from her first administration and even elevated some of the most politically damaged, including Anil Roberts to the Senate in 2020. Also, during this period, her then Deputy Political Leader and Opposition Chief Whip David Lee was charged with conspiring to deprive the state of tax revenue relating to vehicle-duty concessions as a sitting member of parliament. He was eventually freed on a no-case submission mere weeks before the April 2025 general election - timing that raised eyebrows across the political spectrum.
Second term as Prime Minister: May 2nd, 2025, to present.
Ms. Persad-Bissessar's return to the prime ministership has brought little if any meaningful change. To use one of her popular expressions, its just the same old, same old. Tolerance of unresolved controversies involving public funds, and indifference to public perceptions of ethical standards seem to have become solidified..
The Return of LifeSport Figures:
Any leader subscribing to basic ethical standards of governance would have distanced themselves from the fallout of the 2014 Life Sport scandal. Instead, key figures from that era sit comfortably in her current administration, restored to ministerial status even as ongoing investigative reporting continues to unearth troubling details regarding the historic misuse of state money. Her obvious indifference to the unresolved issues attached to LifeSport speaks to her political and leadership instincts.
David Lee
Rearrested on the same charges he was previously acquitted of for conspiracy to defraud the government and currently on a million-dollar bail bond awaiting a new trial date, Lee continues to sit in Ms. Persad Bissessar's Cabinet as Minister of Housing, another example of her indifference to matters involving taxpayers' money.
The EMBD lawsuit & Roodal Moonilal
The EMBD lawsuit, still before the courts after eight years of legal challenges from the defendants, alleges cartel-style collusion and inflated contracts between contractors and public officials. Court filings identify Moonilal as a supposed “shadow director” who allegedly issued instructions regarding contract awards and payments of funds. The claim alleges corrupt involvement by Moonilal in “cartel arrangements". It paints a disturbing picture of inflated contracts, political kickbacks and attempts to defraud the incoming administration of millions in taxpayer dollars. It further alleges Moonilal breached his fiduciary duties and those under the Integrity in Public Life Act.
In fairness to Moonilal, these allegations are yet to be proven; he has consistently proclaimed his innocence of the allegations and any involvement, calling them “political persecution”. However, in the court of public opinion, perception easily replaces reality. His failure to step aside - and Ms. Persad-Bissessar's failure to demand it until the matter is legally resolved, hopefully in his favour - speaks volumes. Placing a figure facing such massive, unresolved state claims into a vital economic portfolio is a direct challenge to public ethics.
OAS Constructora/Point Fortin Highway.
The catastrophic handling of the Point Fortin Highway contract is no longer a matter of an unproven allegation or political speculation; it is a judicially proven, legally recorded disaster. In the dying hours of her first tenure, Ms. Persad-Bissessar’s administration executed a controversial contract addendum that removed critical state protections, effectively waiving claims by the incoming PNM administration against the bankrupt Brazilian firm OAS Constructora.
This reckless amendment nearly brought Trinidad and Tobago to its economic knees when an international arbitration tribunal- stymied by the altered terms- initially ordered the state to pay a staggering US$126.3 million (approx. TT$850 million) to the contractor.
It took years of aggressive, high-stakes legal warfare by the Rowley administration to clean up the mess. The state successfully fought the award in the local courts, culminating in a historic April 2026 Court of Appeal victory that permanently nullified the multi-million-dollar payout and saved taxpayers from funding the fallout of her government’s disastrous last-minute change to the contract.
Ms. Persad-Bissessar's total public silence on why her administration deliberately exposed the treasury to such massive foreign liability remains an unfixable stain on her legacy. But more than that, it breeds speculation as to all manner of impropriety on the part of the government she led.
The pattern that emerges over the years suggests a prime minister seemingly unchanged and unfazed by experience, oddly tolerant of unresolved controversies involving taxpayers' money and indifferent to public perceptions of misbehaviour in office by her ministers.
The Apex of Parliamentary Authority
The pattern reaches its zenith in the appointment of the Speaker of the House. By installing an individual whose past criminal conviction was erased by the Privy Council strictly on a procedural technicality to sit at the apex of parliamentary authority, Ms. Persad-Bissessar has once again proven her readiness to ignore optics and sacrifice institutional integrity for political expediency.
The individual is legally acquitted, yes, but only because the Law Lords targeted the trial judge's flawed jury instructions, rather than vindicating the evidence and exonerating the individual based on the facts of the case.
To pretend this is a clean slate is an insult to the public. The Speaker's appointment may scrape by the letter of the law, but placing a figure burdened by such a compromised history into Parliament's most neutral chair is a deeply controversial move that reeks of poor political judgment.
While ordinary citizens face strict scrutiny for far less, Ms. Persad-Bissessar continues to reward controversial figures - some of whom remain subjects of intense public and legal scrutiny - with appointments to high office. These decisions reinforce a troubling message: loyalty over integrity; expediency over principle; power before propriety and legality before legitimacy.
Beyond domestic scandals: Foreign Policy Blunders/
Within a matter of months, Trinidad and Tobago has been transformed from a respected CARICOM voice into what many now describe as a compliant instrument of American gunboat diplomacy in the region.
CARICOM’s united stance against U.S. warships in the region was twisted by Persad-Bissessar to mean abandonment of Trinidad by the regional group in support of Venezuela - a narrative not supported by the facts of the situation, and which regional leaders rejected outright. Venezuelan officials and Caribbean commentators alike have openly questioned the sobriety of her judgement and the integrity of her statements.
Her abrasive rhetoric toward Venezuela - branding its president a dictator and narco-trafficker - has fractured the historically friendly relationship we have enjoyed with that country for well over a century. Threatening to unleash deadly Coast Guard force on Venezuelan vessels and publicly stating her willingness to host U.S. military operations against Caracas left diplomats and regional observers stunned.
Protector of Children? Or Creator of Orphans?
For decades, Kamla Persad-Bissessar has created an image of herself as the compassionate, gentle "Aunty Kamla", Nurturer and Protector of children. But when that benevolent image is contrasted with her own public statements, what emerges seems more consistent with 'mamaguism' than motherly love.Social media platforms and local new media archives are full of Aunty's maternal assurances. On July 7, 2016, as Opposition Leader, she posted on her Facebook page: "Children have always occupied an important part of my vision for a better Trinidad and Tobago... my love for them is what keeps me going."
Months later, in her UNICEF World Children’s Day message on November 20th, 2016, she proclaimed, "There is no duty more important than ensuring that children's rights are respected... Let us treat every child as our own and be on guard to nourish, educate and protect every child."
Even recently, in her Father’s Day National Address, she maintained this image, stating, "Let us all work together to build a society where every father is empowered, every mother is respected, and every child is nurtured."
But, harsh actions speak louder than platitudes and cliches. Claims to maternal instincts, of caring for children and protecting their well-being, are completely contradicted and proven untrue by actions and policies that render thousands jobless, disempowering fathers and single mothers from providing for the very children she professes to love. So too, inaction on matters that deserve stern responses casts doubt on the sincerity of that love. When 14 year old student Keanu Achong was brutally beaten unconscious at school by another student and left near death, during her first term as Prime Minister, her government adopted what many of its then critics considered an attitude of indiference to the incident.
Social activists who once campaigned for "Aunty Kamla" now state that as many as one hundred thousand low-income earners - the vast majority of them single mothers with families to mind - have been callously thrown onto the breadline under "Aunty Kam's" loving watch.
When Aunty Kamla's maternal persona is contrasted against her demands for extrajudicial, high-seas executions, we do not see a Nurturer of children but a Creator of orphans. Claims that frequently profess love for children ring hollow when coming from the mouth of an "Aunty" who publicly stands behind rough men comitting acts of violence" that traumatise and orphan the nation’s children.
We cannot repeat it often enough; an "Aunty" simply cannot claim to love and protect children while actively calling for extrajudicial bloodshed that creates orphans of them - whether at the hands of foreign forces on the high seas or local law enforcement on blood-soaked T&T soil.
These irreconcilable disparities between her words and actions stand as harsh testament to what clearly is profound hypocrisy. But the paradox of the "Aunty" does not stop here. Neither do the 'mamaguism' and the hypocrisy. They get much worse.
Upholder of the Law or Lawbreaker?
When Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar officially described Trinidad and Tobago as a "lawless dump" in an interview outside the Red House, she appeared oblivious to her own deep contributions to the breakdown of the rule of law. Or maybe, like the proverbial pig in mud, she was so comfortable in "the lawless dump" that the irony completely escaped her.
As a senior attorney and long-standing officer of the court, Ms. Persad-Bissessar has twice sworn solemn oaths to uphold the law - first upon her admission to the Bar and later when swearing the Prime Ministerial Oath of Office to "uphold the Constitution and the law... without fear or favour, affection or ill-will." Both oaths bind her strictly to the basic tenets of the criminal justice system: the constitutional right to due process and the bedrock presumption of innocence. As a former law lecturer, these are the exact principles she once imparted to her students.
Yet, mere months into her prime ministership, she violated both oaths by publicly exhorting the US military to "KILL THEM ALL [suspected drug traffickers] VIOLENTLY". No demand for due process; no regard for their right to be presumed innocent in her exhortation to kill ... But she loves their children.
Little did Loving "Aunty Kams" care that the blood she called for in September 2025 would come a few weeks later in October from the bodies of two innocent Trinidadian nationals, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, both killed in a missile strike by US forces on the assumption that they were drug traffickers. Both were fishermen and labourers from the north coast village of Las Cuevas whose families and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) insist were innocent. The ACLU has since taken up the matter; a major wrongful death and extrajudicial killing lawsuit was filed in a U.S. Federal Court on behalf of the grieving Trinidadian families.
When subsequently confronted with new photographs showing helpless survivors of a first strike struggling in the water, then being killed by a second strike, 'Aunty' suddenly hid behind the shield of international diplomacy, claiming she "cannot be judge and jury of US actions" conveniently forgetting that she had acted as precisely that when issuing her original, hardline 'KILL THEM ALL VIOLENTLY' call weeks prior.
But that was not the first time that "Aunty" has thumbed her nose at due process and civil liberties. On August 21, 2011, her People's Partnership government declared a state of emergency that lasted 106 days, during which the Constitution was suspended to facilitate mass dragnet operations. Without evidence of any kind, security forces corralled more than 1,200 young Black men into hastily constructed detention facilities where they were charged for being gang members. Not a single prosecution was successful; the courts ultimately determined that Aunty's government had acted as a "law unto itself, showing total contempt for due process and the fundamental right to liberty."
Taxpayers were left to foot the bill for millions of dollars in compensation for the lawless overreach of an attorney-turned-Prime Minister who swore to safeguard the Constitution and people's human rights but did neither, because she simply did not care. But citizens are expected to believe that Maternal Aunty Kams loves them, much more than prime ministers before her were capable of loving them, and not only that, but even more than prime ministers who would come after her, could possible love them.
While Aunty's administration is busy violating ordinary citizens' right to due process and the presumption of innocence, she has been just as busy extending those exact same shields, selectively, to favored members of the Cabinet accused of serious wrongdoing - conveniently leaning on the presumption of innocence to avoid taking disciplinary action. This stark double standard exposes political favoritism. Clearly, 'Aunty" has favourites among her 'nephews' and 'nieces'. Maybe if Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo had changed their names to David Lee and Roodal Moonilal they would not have been posthumously defamed by Aunty. Who knows? Maybe the administration's committment to due process might have magically reappeared to protect their memory from being slandered?.
Defender or Betrayer of the National Interest.
A patriot is defined as a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies. Conversely, a traitor is defined as a person who betrays their, country. In light of these definitions, citizens must wonder which of these two titles would apply to Aunty when her final and ultimate recall by the Almighty is issued.
Post-Election Sabotage
Upon losing general elections, the UNC has repeatedly engaged in what can only be described as unpatriotic "scorched-earth" strategies by writing formally to international multilateral lending agencies requesting that these global financial institutions freeze or completely cancel multi-million dollar developmental loans that had already been approved for Trinidad and Tobago - demonstrating a willingness to derail national development for narrow UNC gain simply because they were no longer in office
The Australian Patrol Boat Campaign
When Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley’s administration negotiated a strategic government-to-government arrangement with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in May 2018 to procure Evolved Cape Class patrol vessels from shipbuilder Austal, the opposition UNC launched an aggressive international lobbying campaign to derail the security pact. In late 2018, under Ms. Persad-Bissessar's explicit direction, the UNC took the unprecedented step of writing directly to the the Australian Attorney General, Christian Porter, and the Australian Federal Parliament's opposition, levelling severe, unsubstantiated procurement corruption charges, in a transparent attempt to trigger a formal international criminal probe by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
On January 11, 2019, Dr. Rowley delivered a comprehensive statement to the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, placing these activities into the official record and condemning the opposition for deliberately attempting to isolate the country on the global stage.
The Rebuff from Canberra
Finding absolutely no substance to the UNC’s allegations, the Australian Attorney General’s division and federal authorities completely rejected the intervention. Instead of halting the deal, the Australian government doubled down on its commitment to Trinidad and Tobago. Canberra formally authorized a massive state financing framework through the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC, now Export Finance Australia), dismissing the UNC's maneuvers as a meritless domestic political stunt. By April 2019, Austal officially commenced its high-profile metal-cutting and handover ceremonies in Henderson, Western Australia, alongside Trinidadian Coast Guard officials - leaving Ms Persad-Bissessar and the UNC looking as foolish and unpatriotic on the global stage as they did at home.
The 'Gas to Aruba' Controversy
Following an explosive Reuters International report towards the latter half of May 2020, believed to have been fed to the news agency by the opposition UNC, alleging that a shipment of 150,000 barrels of gasoline destined for Aruba from the Trinidad state-owned Paria Fuel Trading Company, had bypassed US restrictions and ended up in sanctioned Venezuela, the party, again under Ms Persad-Bissessar's approval, embarked on an unprecedented campaign of betrayal against Trinidad and Tobago.
During the high-stakes controversy, Ms Persad-Bissessar and her sidekick, Roodal Moonilal, took the unprecedented, unpatriotic step of attaching internal parliamentary Hansard records to a letter sent to US Ambassador Joseph Mondello inviting this foreign superpower’s representative to take whatever action he and the US government saw fit, not excluding punitive actions for what Moonilal alleged was a clear and deliberate violation by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago of US sanctions against Venezuela.
Immediately following the dispatch of that letter, Ms Persad-Bissessar convened a high-profile press conference to report the arrival of a Venezuelan aircraft carrying Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, which she claimed deliberately violated international legal frameworks. Apparently Ms. Persad-Bissessar, senior attorney at law, was unaware that a US presidential executive order is not international law and therefore has no international standing.
UNC spin doctors and apologists in some quarters have attempted to sanitise Ms Persad-Bissessar's and Roodal Moonilal's actions arguing that the UNC duo were in fact patriotic whistleblowers simply exposing the T&T government's breaking of U.S. sanctions. In other words, their 'whistleblowing" was motivated by a profoundly patriotic love for Trinidad and Tobago.
But the facts completely obliterate that self serving garbage because Ms Persad-Bissessar went entirely out of her way to aggressively hunt down and publicise sensitive passenger manifests and flight plans when it became obvious that the US was willing to give Trinidad and Tobago the benefit of the doubt, that its government did not deliberately violate US sanctions.
Citizens are entitled to question, what possible motive could there be for Ms. Persad-Bissessar deliberately attempting to discredit the government's explanation? Why would any patriotic opposition leader seek to prove Trinidad and Tobago deserving of punitive US sanctions? A patriot would be happy that a foreign superpower was prepared to show leniency to her homeland given its government's explanations. But instead of welcoming this relief, or simply accepting it, to let the issue die a natural death, Ms. Persad-Bissessar did everything in her power, and more, to ensure Trinidad and Tobago faced the full, crushing weight of international sanctions. But the US government did not take the bait.
Whose interests was Ms Persad-Bissessar truly seeking?
Ms. Persad-Bissessar's brand of conditional, self-serving patriotism fools no one. In more authoritarian jurisdictions, such calculated efforts to undermine the state's economic survival and national interest would carry severe legal or criminal consequences. But this is Trinidad and Tobago, land of steelband, calypso and the Political Limbo Dance, where the bar is placed lower and lower with each general election, and just when it seems the bar can go no lower, Ms. Persad-Bissessar approves some candidate who manages to wiggle right under it, leaving space for another to follow.
When History delivers its verdict on Ms Persad-Bissessar’s political life, it may not only condemn her governance, but also indict the community that gave her political life, that condoned if not encouraged her less than statesmanlike leadership, and indulged her recklessness.
More importantly, will she be eulogised as a Patriot whose allegiance to the national interest was singular, absolute and unconditional at all times, regardless of her political station at any given point? Or will she be condemned as a political opportunist and Betrayer of the national interest, whose loyalty to Trinidad and Tobago depended on where she was positioned on the political spectrum when that loyalty was required, and whether she and the UNC stood to benefit?
There will be no mitigating or comparative context to History's verdict, no appeal to the maudlin sentiment of the party's East Indian support base. Whether other prime ministers did better or worse than she will be of no consequence. They have already been judged.
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