Kamla’s right turn?

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s criticism of former US President Joe Biden for what she deemed a ‘woke’ and ‘extreme’ agenda, may have shocked some and drew condemnation from others- but her statements and her subsequent defense of them are not unprecedented.

The country’s first female Prime Minister has within the past few years adopted a rhetoric not dissimilar from current President Donald Trump’s, who in his first hours in office last Monday signed a flurry of executive orders on issues of immigration, gender and diversity.

They were points on which President Trump had campaigned from as far back as 2016, and which formed tenets of the right-leaning Republican party’s drive for a “return to common sense” in America.

But calls for stricter immigration policies and deportations, ‘stand your ground,’ laws that seek to make easier citizen’s ability to own legal firearms, and skepticism levied against the establishment have been peppered within Persad-Bissessar’s speeches from as far back as 2020, on the heels of the then General Elections and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In defense of her remarks aimed at President Biden earlier this week, Persad-Bissessar on Tuesday extended a list of points on which she questioned the People’s National Movement (PNM) stance.

Persad-Bissessar herself stated in her release, “My record will show that since 2020, I have been advocating against this woke far-left extreme insanity.”

This is everything Mrs. Persad-Bissessar has said on her official platforms that arguably resemble Republican American/Trump positions since that time (that we could find):

Vaccine Skepticism

At a Monday night forum in September 2024, Persad-Bissessar critiqued the country’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, stating that citizens were given ‘fake vaccines,’– a claim that was immediately condemned by Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh.

On September 9, while speaking at a United National Congress (UNC) Cottage meeting, Persad-Bissessar said, “This is a government that fooled the nation into believing that there was a ‘parallel healthcare system’ during the pandemic when the reality was different…Thereafter, 5,000 people died, hundreds of thousands were given a fake vaccine…”

The vaccines administered by the Ministry were approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and 89.1% of country’s COVID-19 deaths were unvaccinated persons, the Minister of Health responded.

Asked to retract Persad-Bissessar however instead doubled down, stating that mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations were pushed.

(Note: Only COVID-19 vaccines approved for use by the World Health Organization (WHO) were used by the Ministry in its vaccination efforts, according to its website. The WHO is committed to the critical evaluation of all new vaccines for their safety and effectiveness before their authorization for use.)

Persad-Bissessar was notably also on the receiving end of flak in the early pandemic for her 2020 statement that ‘sunlight will kill COVID,’– a sentiment which was suggested by Trump in April of that year during a COVID-19 briefing. 

“There’s been a rumour that – you know, a very nice rumour – that you go outside in the sun, or you have heat and it does have an effect on other viruses… I would like you to speak to the medical doc tors to see if there’s any way to apply light and heat to a cure…maybe you could, maybe you can’t,” Trump had said.

According to the WHO’s COVID-10 MythBusters page, however, “You can catch COVID-19, no matter how sunny or hot the weather is.”

Though Persad-Bissessar’s claims questioning the authenticity of the COVID-19 are not a direct parallel to sentiments shared by President Trump, vaccine and healthcare skepticism were abundant during his 2016-2020 tenure, and at the peak of the global pandemic.

President Trump, who was largely credited for a push to develop and roll out a COVID-19 vaccine, was also the subject of criticism for alleged downplaying of the virus in its initial stages.

Prior to his election win, Trump in August stated during a campaign, “I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.” -a promise he signed into action on Friday, halting federal funding to schools with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

And on the heels of his second Presidential term, Trump selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic, to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. He also said his administration would look into a long-debunked link between vaccines and autism.

In his interview with Time Magazine just days after he was elected, Trump responded, “The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it,” when asked about a potential end to childhood vaccination programs.

Guns/Right to bear arms

Throughout the UNC’s campaigning for the 2023 Local Government Elections, the party proposed the introduction of ‘stand your ground,’ legislation, which it touted as a means to make legal firearms more accessible to law-abiding citizens, and combat home invasions and violent crime.

On July 31 of that year, Persad-Bissessar spoke at a UNC meeting, expanding on the proposed laws, and cited a story of a woman who killed a home invader. Under the Stand Your Ground laws she said, “When the criminals invade your homes, you can draw your licensed firearm and light them up! Empty the whole clip! Empty it! Light them up! We have to fight fire with fire!” she then said.

Her statement was then described by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley as being “reckless and irresponsible.” But responding to this, Persad-Bissessar later said, “I want to make one thing very clear concerning my comments to light up the criminals who invade your homes. I apologise… to absolutely no one for saying to light up criminals who are invading homes, killing mercilessly and forcing you to live in fear!”

Campaigning for the 2016 Presidential Elections in February of that year, President Trump released a 30-second video to his Facebook, in which he stated, “I won’t let them take away our guns. “

His campaign stated that he believed every American had ‘God-given right,’ to protect themselves, and that he would defend law-abiding gun owners.

After facing harsh criticism throughout his first term for what some believed to be a lack of action in dealing with the issue of gun violence and assault weapons, Trump last year addressed the US National Rifle Association (NRA) – a nonprofit which lobbies for gun rights- describing himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House”.

“During my four years, nothing happened,” Trump said. “And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield,” he said in February.

He later received the NRA’s official endorsement.

Immigrants/Deportation

In the aftermath of the killing of the elderly Winston Thomas last November Persad-Bissessar issued a lengthy statement attributing his killing to illegal Venezuelan migrants. Thomas, 69, was taken from his Penal home by spanish-speaking men, police were told. He was later found deceased in the back seat of his vehicle near Golconda.

Days after his killing, Persad-Bissessar called for action against Venezuelan migrants, whom she said were committing crimes against citizens.

“I will not stand idly by as this current government has done and allow more citizens like Mr. Winston Thomas to be terrorized and murdered by illegal Venezuelan migrants…The well-being of Trinidad and Tobago citizens must always come first, our nation’s generosity is now being exploited and our citizens terrorized…Illegal Venezuelan migrants have a clear choice to make, either peaceful law-abiding habitation in our country or deportation, there is no middle ground. Their future within our country rests solely in the decisions they make in the coming months,” Persad-Bissessar said.

Her statement followed a global trend in anti-immigration sentiment championed by right-wing and right- from-centre leaning political groups, including that of the American GOP (Grand Old Party).

The 2024 GOP platform which was approved and formally adopted at the Republican National Convention in July committed to seal the American border and ‘stop a migrant invasion.’

“Republicans offer an aggressive plan to stop the open-border policies that have opened the floodgates to a tidal wave of illegal Aliens, deadly drugs, and Migrant Crime. We will end the Invasion at the Southern Border, restore Law and Order, protect American Sovereignty, and deliver a Safe and Prosperous Future for all Americans,” it stated.

A series of orders signed by President Trump following his inauguration weeks ago facilitated a systematic crack down on undocumented immigrants in the US, and a bid to cut off birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens- the latter of which is the subject of legal contention.

Even so, Persad-Bissessar’s call came after proposed anti-immigration sentiment and policy changes have also swept across other western and European nations in recent times.

In Sweden for example, the official government offices’ website currently cites a ‘paradigm shift’ in migration policy and a government effort to reduce the number of migrants coming to the country. “Labour immigration fraud and abuse must be stopped and the ‘shadow society’ combated,” it states.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, who in 2017 called Moroccan immigrants “scum,” saw his Party for Freedom succeeding in the country’s national elections in November.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came to power promising to curb immigration to the country. In late 2023, the Italian government launched a crackdown passing measures to give authorities power to detain migrants for as long as 18 months.

Bring religion back into schools

Persad-Bissessar also last year announced her intent to restore religion to the nation’s classrooms if elected in the 2025 General Elections.

She was speaking at a Town Hall meeting on Education in November, when she responded to a question on the performance of denominational schools compared to state schools. A question asked by an audience member proposed that all schools in the country become denominational, to which she responded, “On the issue of denominational school you are right, they are doing better and it was my proposal , we have not thrashed it out fully but the new UNC government will work with all religious organizations to bring religion into schools, all denominational schools and for others who are failing and trailing, we want to partner more with religious organizations.”

Conservative lawmakers in the US have long pushed for more Christianity in classrooms, with President Trump and the GOP planning to champion the right to pray and read the Bible in school.

The GOP 2024 platform states, “Republicans will champion the First Amendment Right to Pray and Read the Bible in school and stand up to those who violate the Religious Freedoms of American students.”

‘Woke agenda’ 2025

Though she had initially congratulated former President Biden for his win of the 2020 US Presidential race, calling the results ‘a victory for democracy,’ and the ‘dawn of a new era for the American people,’ Persad-Bissessar’s views on Biden seemed to take a turn when Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election to Trump last November.

In a congratulatory message on November 6, Persad-Bissessar noted Trump’s drive to restore conservative American values which she said had been ‘under attack,’ by promoters of a far-left ideology.

And last week, she issued a statement calling the Biden Administration a ‘disaster,’ which focused on pushing the same left-wing agenda.

“They focused on pushing a woke, extreme left-wing agenda that offended basic common sense and morality, overturned the norms of civilised public life, disoriented and mutilated children, censored and cancelled dissenting views, disparaged religious and conservative values, fuelled wars around the world, weaponized the judicial system against political opponents and increased nepotism, corruption, crime, poverty, homelessness, and wealth inequality,” Persad-­Bissessar said.

In her defense of her own statement, following widespread backlash, Persad-Bissessar doubled down on her initial critique and cited gender reassignment surgery, drag queen shows, transgender women, gendered pronouns, alleged forced health mandates, removal of religion in schools, and the alleged censorship of free speech, as examples of things that occurred under the previous administration.

Several of these points were similarly raised in the GOP’s platform and have been conservative talking points throughout the US election campaigning, and within traditional right- leaning and conservative media platforms.

The Rise of the Right-Wing

Analysts say Persad-Bissessar’s statements may bear a surface resemblance to those repeatedly echoed within a rising global right-wing/right leaning political landscape.

But the question of whether the United National Congress (UNC) political leader is following a trend towards the right -as has been seen throughout Europe, the US, and which some analysts say they expect in upcoming Canadian elections-, is not so simply answered.

Speaking to the Express last week analysts noted that Persad-Bissessar’s statements were specific responses to issues occurring domestically that are not necessarily attached to a global movement from centre on the spectrum.

Political Scientist Dr Maukesh Basdeo told the Express that an in-depth analysis of the Opposition Leader’s propositions and policies was necessary to make such a comparison. However, he said her statements were amid a notable trend towards the right, across the continental US and Europe.

“In a political spectrum we put the ideologies with the centre being liberalism and left being communism as the extreme and then you have the far-right conservatism. From a political standpoint what we have been seeing within the decade is a shift from the centre which can lean left or right, is the centre leaning right away from what you call the left. It is a trend happening all over the world.”

“Think about Italy. This year there will be elections in Germany and by all indications I see the rise of the right in Germany. We have seen the success of Marie LePen in France, and she is right on the spectrum. What we are also witnessing, and we may see later this year is the case of the Prime Minister of Canada who has indicated he is stepping down from active politics, his party will have to elect a new leader. All indications are that the conservative right will succeed in that election…I think Mrs. Persad-Bisessar’s statement is an indication of this. It may take an assessment of the policies she has proposed in the past five years…,” he said.

Issues such as the deportation of Venezuelan migrants, he said, were umbrella issues that were in need of more detail and context for analysis.

“In the context of the Venezuelan migrants, I am thinking Mrs. Persad-Bissessar was keener on the impact it is having on the internal security of Trinidad. If we juxtapose it against our State of Emergency, and our porous border, it is a key position if you can compare it to Donald Trump. It is something, it follows the same line where national security is a key concern and economic stability are concerns…” he said.

Conservative country

Political scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath said on Sunday that Persad-Bissessar’s statements were not indicative of a global movement as she had maintained a rhetoric on a number of common-ground issues with Trump and the Republican Party, despite his fluctuating popularity within the US. He said he believed she was instead looking at the challenges facing our local society and responding accordingly.

“I do not think she was being directed by the right of centre policies as opposed to left of centre policies which the democrats were projecting,” he said.

Asked if he believed her citing of gender issues may have any effect on voting in the upcoming General Elections, Ragoonah said that the country was still significantly conservative and highly religiously attached.

The gender issues which may have been projected by other countries, he said, may not necessarily find favour in the ideology of the majority of the country’s citizens.

“I recall some years ago they raised the pride flag, and it was the intention by the British to recognise everyone notwithstanding your status but that doesn’t mean that because the British did it is accepted in general in Trinidad the LGBTQ community in Trinidad is not significantly publicly large.”

“Those who would have come out and openly supported such a movement, it has not been significant to say it is a significant constituency (in the context of our national electoral system). It is the same complaint I would have had with the MSJ (Movement for Social Justice) for instance. While the MSJ may have support throughout the country their support base is and only consistency is not significantly concentrated to give them a hold on a constituency. That is the manner in which I am talking about the LGBTQ community. Will it take away votes from UNC? I am of the opinion that similar levels of support or conservatism exists in both the UNC and PNM communities,” he said.

Political analyst Dr. Shane Mohammed yesterday said that the UNC party had never been a right-wing party. However, he said Persad-Bissessar was likely assessing the current geopolitical landscape, as other countries are likely to do in the context of Trump’s presidency.

“What I do think is smart about Mrs. Persad Bisessar’s comments is it doesn’t push a necessary agenda but assesses the situation from a geopolitical and geoeconomic standpoint and takes in to consideration that President Trump, if anyone doubted in their mind that he is serious about what his plans were in terms of ‘Make America Great Again,’ they would have been delusional. All nations whether in the global south or developing need to realign their plans, perspectives, and economic goals with the US based on its new foreign policy,” he said.

“…There are certain alignments that must be returned that speak to a natural order. I do not see anything wrong with that. There are certain elements of what was said that could be seen as extreme in an attempt to ensure we do not step on toes of persons who might be excluded from society. I think how we go about that has to be very well crafted and communicated and dialogue,” he added.

‘Message based on Principle’

The Express contacted the UNC last week to ask about its policy stances and whether it was aligning itself to the global right wing.

Responding last week, the UNC’s Public Relations Officer Dr Kirk Meighoo referred the Express to a letter to the editor, authored by himself. The letter referred to UNC founding member Trevor Sudama, and states that the majority of Americans and Trinidadians do not find what he referred to as the ‘woke agenda,’ to be favourable.

“Her message was based on principle, and certainly not on finding favour with elitist opinion.

Even when it did not appear at all likely that Donald Trump would return to office, the Opposition Leader constantly spoke against the spreading woke agenda, including fake outrage, virtue signalling, and cancel culture, since 2020. It is not a new position,” Meighoo said of Persad-Bissessar’s statements on Trump’s inauguration.

Referring to the political left, he said, “They now look down on, or even actively despise the working classes.The “left”/“progressives” used to stand for free speech. They now stand for government censorship of speech and opinion.The “left”/“progressives” used to be anti-war. They now support unlimited war, even against nuclear powers.”

‘The UNC still stands for the ideals in its constitution, which Mr Sudama helped to draft. When those principles were drafted, those values were mainly seen as “left-wing”. Today, they do not necessarily align all on one side of those global divides. If the global “left”/“progressives” have changed their positions, the UNC sticks by its founding principles, and does not shift to the dangerous and globally impoverishing agenda that the global left has embarked upon.”