Un­de­terred by sharp crit­i­cism from po­lit­i­cal ri­vals, the Prime Min­is­ter has dou­bled down on her de­scrip­tion of the coun­try as a “law­less dump”, in­sist­ing the re­mark was in­tend­ed to con­front harsh re­al­i­ties and ul­ti­mate­ly up­lift the na­tion.

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said push­back from the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) over her choice of words on­ly high­lights what she de­scribed as the par­ty’s lack of am­bi­tion for its sup­port­ers. She main­tained that she would not low­er her stan­dards, in­sist­ing that her re­marks are in­tend­ed to up­lift the coun­try and se­cure the best out­comes for Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers and law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

The Prime Min­is­ter made the re­mark on Sun­day while de­fend­ing high­er traf­fic fines and cus­toms du­ties, blam­ing what she called “en­ti­tled at­ti­tudes” and wide­spread dis­re­gard for the law.