Persad Bissessar denies involvement with British political consulting firm

T&T Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar has described as “a malicious, deliberate falsehood” statements by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi linking the former People’s Partnership government to the activities of the British based political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica (CA), claiming it had undertaken a project here involving the harvesting the data of this country’s population.

Mischievous effort to mislead

“The Attorney General’s statement, by virtue of what appears to be calculated omissions and deliberate vagueness, amounted to a mischievous effort to mislead the Parliament, and by extension, the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, in what is undoubtedly an important issue regarding their privacy rights in the uncontrolled and largely unregulated global virtual world of social media,” Persad Bissessar said in a statement.

Information from whistle-blower

On Wednesday, Al-Rawi told Parliament that the whistle-blower, Christopher Wylie, had told United Kingdom lawmakers that the company, combines data mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process, had undertaken the work in Trinidad in 2013 under the former People’s Partnership administration headed by Persad Bissessar.

Opposition legislators had tried unsuccessfully to get Parliament to prevent Al-Rawi from continuing the statement after indicating that he had passed the allocated time for statements by ministers. But the government moved a motion suspending the Standing Orders.

“Malicious, deliberate falsehood”

Persad Bissessar was not present in the Parliament when the Attorney General made the statement, said she “categorically condemn as a malicious, deliberate falsehood, allegations made today by Attorney General Faris Al Rawi concerning the global controversy that has evolved over the issue involving social media giant Facebook and British data analysis firm SCL/Cambridge Analytica. She said that Al Rawi cited brief statements made by a whistle-blower who claimed that the company dealt with a former government minister and political officials, but did not specify the names or any further details of such claims.