DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is de­fend­ing its La­dy Vice Chair­man and head of the par­ty’s Na­tion­al Women’s League, Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, af­ter she faced crit­i­cism for sharply re­buk­ing the Prime Min­is­ter’s call to ex­pel mis­be­hav­ing stu­dents from school.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­cent­ly raised con­cerns about a rise in dis­rup­tive in­ci­dents in class­rooms, warn­ing that stu­dents who do not take their ed­u­ca­tion se­ri­ous­ly risk end­ing up in me­nial jobs—or as PNM MPs.

Gads­by-Dol­ly re­spond­ed with a blis­ter­ing cri­tique of the Prime Min­is­ter, ac­cus­ing her of be­ing in “ear­ly-stage de­men­tia” and adding that if the Prime Min­is­ter were younger, she would tell her where to “haul a body part which we all hold dear.”

Amid mount­ing crit­i­cism on­line, Op­po­si­tion leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said the back­lash against Gads­by-Dol­ly miss­es the broad­er is­sue, ar­gu­ing that the Prime Min­is­ter’s call for im­me­di­ate ex­pul­sions un­der­mines es­tab­lished dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ce­dures in schools.

“The prime min­is­ter con­tin­ues to give this im­pres­sion about be­ing a dic­ta­tor and ig­nor­ing that you have a rule of law and you have a pro­ce­dure. So, there is a pro­ce­dure to ap­ply if you have a child that has com­mit­ted some kind of con­duct to which there is a breach and you have, but clear­ly her po­si­tion is that, you know, you are ex­pelled.”

Beck­les said the Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments had al­so an­gered many ob­servers.

“I’m sure Dr Dol­ly was very up­set. I mean, I my­self was very up­set about it, but I am re­al­is­ing dai­ly that the Prime Min­is­ter re­al­ly, while she talks about, you know, love and love, the ques­tion al­ways aris­es, I mean, where is the love? Where is the love that you spoke about when you were sworn in as Prime Min­is­ter, that you spoke so much about lov­ing the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and it clear­ly does, the love clear­ly does not ex­ist.”

PNM chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les al­so weighed in, sug­gest­ing that while the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­marks were provoca­tive, the par­ty should avoid be­ing drawn in­to pro­longed ex­changes.

“When the Prime Min­is­ter has de­cid­ed to go to the low­est lev­el and to re­flect the worst of Trinidad and To­ba­go, she needs to be ig­nored, or per­haps we just choose one sim­ple, you know, one-word­ed sen­tence to treat with it.”

He added that the par­ty’s re­sponse re­flect­ed its frus­tra­tion with what it views as re­peat­ed at­tacks from the Prime Min­is­ter.

“And MP Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly’s re­sponse, it demon­strates our ab­hor­rence and the way that we feel in which the Prime Min­is­ter con­tin­ues to dis­re­spect the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. And per­haps this is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us as a coun­try, this is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us as a par­ty, this is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us as cit­i­zens to not al­low the Prime Min­is­ter’s con­duct to cause us to re­act in any par­tic­u­lar way which can in turn re­sult in our re­ac­tion be­ing scru­ti­nised and be­ing ex­am­ined as op­posed to what re­al­ly would have trig­gered it.”

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion, mean­while, said it sup­ports the Prime Min­is­ter’s view that ed­u­ca­tion should be used as a path­way out of pover­ty and wel­comed ef­forts to hold par­ents ac­count­able for their chil­dren’s be­hav­iour. How­ev­er, the union al­so cau­tioned against po­lit­i­cal rhetoric that in­flames pub­lic de­bate.

“TTUTA al­ways main­tains that it is not as­so­ci­at­ed with any po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ty what­so­ev­er. That be­ing said, the Prime Min­is­ter’s ut­ter­ances as specif­i­cal­ly re­lat­ed to stu­dents us­ing ed­u­ca­tion to over­come pover­ty may have a lot of mer­it.”

“TTUTA does not con­done any sort of de­viant be­hav­iour by our na­tion’s stu­dents. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, if par­ents are aware that the law will hold them ac­count­able for their chil­dren’s be­hav­iour, this may pos­si­bly help to curb the var­i­ous of in­ci­dents as re­port­ed by the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion.”

“We as a union do not sub­scribe to the name-call­ing and oth­er neg­a­tive ut­ter­ances by politi­cians,” said TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe.

Weigh­ing in, po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath told Guardian Me­dia the dis­pute is a dis­trac­tion, ar­gu­ing that both the Prime Min­is­ter and Gads­by-Dol­ly have be­haved worse than the stu­dents at the cen­tre of the con­tro­ver­sy.