Ramsamooj: PM’s ‘Trump-like’ Caricom stance overplays its power

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Derek Ram­samooj says Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar must aban­don what he de­scribed as her “Trump-like” and ego­tis­ti­cal ap­proach to Cari­com and ac­cept that Trinidad and To­ba­go is no longer the re­gion­al su­per­pow­er it once was.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew, Ram­samooj ar­gued that CARI­COM can ad­just its bud­get with­out Trinidad and To­ba­go’s sup­port, warn­ing that it is this coun­try that stands to lose more if the Per­sad-Bisses­sar ad­min­is­tra­tion con­tin­ues to widen the rift with the re­gion­al bloc.

Ad­dress­ing the cur­rent im­passe be­tween the T&T Gov­ern­ment and CARI­COM over the han­dling of the elec­tion of Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett, Ram­samooj said threat­en­ing to with­draw fund­ing due to a dis­agree­ment is out of the Don­ald Trump play­book.