Pastor Cuffie: Respect Kamla

Cuffie said he strongly believed her victory was timely as the nation was under tremendous stress, “as a result of what I saw, largely, as the arrogance of the former prime minister, Patrick Manning”.

“Mr Manning had almost total disregard for public opinion, consultations and listening to the people. For that, as a result he ended up making reckless decisions. Mr Manning even lost all respect to the media, and made several attempts to be a dictator towards the media, but I am happy that the media stood their ground and took the responsibility to push for change, and as a result to stand up for their rights,” Cuffie said.

Cuffie said he has known Persad-Bissessar for quite some time and had worked closely with her when she was the Minister of Education, “her personality is opposite to Manning’s and she listens to the people’s view. She is very affable and is a strong leader but very humble. She also has respect for moral values. I worked with her in education, where I was a curriculum reform adviser with her, and I had made several recommendations about moral values and looked at her implementing them. She is quite intelligent and quite experienced.”