(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has warned that those who “want war will get total political war,” as she promised supporters that brighter days are ahead for Trinidad and Tobago with thousands more jobs, increased police posts and new homes in the pipeline.
Even as she promised supporters and citizens that better days are ahead, Persad-Bissessar warned that nothing good comes without pain.
She sent the warning of political war yesterday as she addressed the United National Congress’ National Congress and Report to the Nation just days shy of Government’s first anniversary in office at Couva South Hall carpark.
But while the Prime Minister spoke about jobs, crime, housing, health care and the economy, the afternoon belonged mostly to the UNC faithful.
Her strongest message was aimed at those she accused of mistreating UNC supporters during the party’s ten years in opposition.
She told supporters she had not forgotten what happened after the UNC lost office in 2015.
“Between 2015 and 2025, I watched how my supporters were excluded, abused and kicked by some on the other side. I want those people who oppressed my UNC faithful to understand that I’m a different human being,” Persad-Bissessar said.
She said she would not use the office to give anyone an unfair advantage, but warned that the bad treatment of UNC supporters could not go unanswered.
The Prime Minister also had a message for people she said had returned to the party after staying away during the UNC’s years in opposition.
She said she saw some people in the room who were around when the UNC was last in government, but whom she had not seen for many years.
Persad-Bissessar thanked UNC supporters for standing with her and the party through what she described as years of insult, hardship, propaganda, betrayal and disappointment.
She said the party survived because of its base.
She also said the country was now moving in a better direction. “You took the first step on April 28, 2025, and brighter days are ahead,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said one of the biggest cries before and after the general election was for jobs.
She said her Government had moved away from what she called the old make-work system under CEPEP and URP, saying those programmes had become “deeply compromised by inefficiency and corruption.”
She said between April 2025 and April 2026, the Government had delivered more than 15,000 jobs across ministries.
Among the figures she listed were 3,185 jobs in Rural Development and Local Government, 2,647 in Education, 1,800 in Works and Transport, 1,749 opportunities in Tertiary Education and Skills Training, 1,667 in Culture and Community Development, and 1,304 in Health.
She said more jobs would come from new HDC projects, the Government’s revitalisation plan, the expansion of the Plipdeco estate at Point Lisas, and a Special Economic Zone for data centres at Picton, near the UWI South Campus.
Persad-Bissessar said she wanted citizens to move away from welfare and temporary work and into proper long-term jobs.
