For­mer in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors and the Op­po­si­tion are crit­i­cis­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar over a se­ries of re­marks tar­get­ing in­de­pen­dent in­sti­tu­tions, rais­ing fresh ques­tions about the tone of po­lit­i­cal dis­course and the role of un­elect­ed over­sight bod­ies. A po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst, how­ev­er, has come to the prime min­is­ter’s de­fence, ar­gu­ing that she is re­act­ing to sus­tained crit­i­cism and grow­ing frus­tra­tion ear­ly in her term.

Hazel Thomp­son-Ahye and Dr Maria Dil­lon Re­my, who both served as in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors be­tween 2018 and 2025, took is­sue with Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s sug­ges­tion that sen­a­tors ap­point­ed by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo were aligned with the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and would of­fer “va­pid and shal­low” con­tri­bu­tions be­fore vot­ing with the Op­po­si­tion.

The Prime Min­is­ter made the com­ments in an in­ter­view with a dai­ly news­pa­per. They fol­lowed ear­li­er at­tacks on oth­er in­de­pen­dent bod­ies, in­clud­ing the Law As­so­ci­a­tion, whose mem­bers she pre­vi­ous­ly de­scribed as “greedy” and “eat-ah-food” at­tor­neys, and more re­cent­ly the En­er­gy Cham­ber.