BARRY PADARATH, Public Utilities Minister and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, flatly rejected allegations that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was asleep at the helm and alleged it was in fact Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles who now needed to “change her pyjamas and put on some work clothes.”

He spoke to Newsday on July 20 in response to Beckles’ statement the day before where she alleged the PM was asleep in the fight against crime. Beckles had claimed the declaration of a state of emergency (SoE) indicated the government lacked a crime plan, was waving a white flag of surrender, was hiding behind the police service, and was a sign of galloping authoritarianism and an admission of failure, while not addressing the root causes of crime.

Padarath said, “Well it seems Mrs Beckles has been asleep for the last ten years. She found no voice at a time when murders sky-rocketed and home invasions sky-rocketed and she sat in a Cabinet as part of a government – five years as a minister and five years as an ambassador – and had not one word to say.