MIAMI, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, has accused the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) and others in her country with “gaslighting” regarding the regulations within the state or emergency (SoE) that was imposed on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country less than two months after a more than year long similar measure had been lifted.
In a statement posted on X, Persad-Bissessar, who said she would be returning to her homeland “soon” following her attendance at a conference where Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana joined the newly formed Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition, a military alliance led by the United States, said there was nothing wrong with the regulations.
She recalled that during the SoE of 2024, the Emergency Powers Regulations, Regulation 12 stated that “No person shall– (a) endeavour, whether orally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in a manner likely to be prejudicial to public safety and order; or (b) do any act or have any article in his possession with a view to making or facilitating the making of any such endeavour”.
Persad-Bissessar said that the then PNM government was taken to court and forced to amend the State of Emergency powers regulations, 2024, three months later, by removing references to “public order” following a constitutional challenge.
“The Emergency Powers (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations, 2025, were signed by President Christine Kangaloo on March 21, 2025, to eliminate the phrase “public order” from regulations 12(a) of the Schedule.
“The ‘public order’ provisions were overly broad and unconstitutional, raising concerns that they could be used to suppress freedoms of speech, assembly, and political expression.
Yet none of the current PNM MPs who were then Cabinet ministers seem to remember these facts,” she said.
She said in that in the the current SoE 2026, the Emergency Powers Regulations, Regulation 11 states that “No person shall– (a) endeavour, whether orally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in a manner likely to be prejudicial to public safety; or (b) do any act or have any article in his possession with a view to making or facilitating the making of any such endeavour”.
Persad-Bissessar said that the regulations concerning freedom of speech, expression, assembly, and dissent “were broad and restrictive under the PNM’s 2024 SOE use of ‘public order’ while under the current 2026 SOE, it is specific to endangerment of public safety”.
She said that last Friday, the opposition PNM had a public political meeting during the SoE to “ironically complain that the government called an SoE to suppress public meetings.
”They complained about interference with free speech, assembly, and expression. Still, they told the small audience present that the current State of Emergency regulations published so far do not, and cannot, interfere with your right to freedom of expression.
”They complained about crime and dictatorship, but at the same meeting defended violent home invaders, and drug traffickers, while also publicly supporting international dictatorships.
”The haters, trolls, doomscrolllers, red couch alumni, and my PNM fans who are self-gaslighting regarding the SoE 2026 regulations as a way to cope with my absence need not worry or meltdown. Your loving Prime Minister will return soon,” she wrote on X.
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