Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is be­ing ac­cused of dis­re­spect­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans af­ter she dis­missed com­ments made by Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who said that had the de­ci­sion rest­ed with him, he would have re­ject­ed the in­stal­la­tion of the mil­i­tary radar and de­nied Unit­ed States mil­i­tary air­craft ac­cess to To­ba­go’s air­ports.

When the Prime Min­is­ter was asked for her com­ment fol­low­ing Au­gus­tine’s ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, where he said if the is­land had au­ton­o­my, he would have said no to the US mil­i­tary equip­ment and as­sets, Per­sad-Bisses­sar replied, “Well, Far­ley does not have his way, does he? He is en­ti­tled to his opin­ion; I am not of that opin­ion.”

The Prime Min­is­ter went on to say that the radar has boost­ed this coun­try’s na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty as­sets.