President: Leadership cannot be about trading insults

Public discourse in Trinidad and Tobago has become “harsher, coarser, and more inflammatory”, and insults and provocation are too often replacing argument and persuasion, President Christine Kangaloo has said.

Speaking on Tuesday evening at the International Women’s Forum of Trinidad and Tobago’s (IWFTT) Inspirational Women Awards Gala at the Hyatt Regency (Trinidad), Port of Spain, Kangaloo said the situation was particularly concerning when such language came from people entrusted with public authority.

Kangaloo said as President, she has had to choose not to answer every allegation, caricature, or unkindness that has been directed at her or at her office.