Gail Alexan­der

Op­po­si­tion PNM MP Amery Browne has chal­lenged Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to ex­plain how cer­tain claus­es of the state of emer­gency reg­u­la­tions re­late to crime rather than the cur­rent in­dus­tri­al cli­mate. Browne has point­ed to claus­es 7, 13 and 14 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers reg­u­la­tions (2011) un­der which the cur­rent state of emer­gency was in­sti­tut­ed. These claus­es de­bar pub­lic meet­ings, march­es and pro­ces­sions un­less with the per­mis­sion of the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er.

It al­so pro­hibits use of am­pli­fi­ca­tion of in­stru­ments.

Claus­es al­so seek to de­bar peo­ple from in­flu­enc­ing peo­ple to breach the peace and on en­dan­ger­ing pub­lic safe­ty and oth­er ac­tiv­i­ty. Browne said: "I chal­lenge the Prime Min­is­ter to say how these reg­u­la­tions are rel­e­vant to what they are deem­ing an an­ti-crime ini­tia­tive be­cause the sen­ti­ments of many cit­i­zens are that such mea­sures in the reg­u­la­tions seem more de­signed to treat with civic, in­dus­tri­al and po­lit­i­cal un­rest." Not­ing as­pects of the Gov­ern­ment's han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion, Browne said: "The Gov­ern­ment has not been hon­est with the pop­u­la­tion with the mea­sures that have been im­posed or the rights that have been with­drawn and for what du­ra­tion."

OW­TU leader An­cel Ro­get spoke on the mat­ter on Wednes­day. On the rea­son for the state of emer­gency, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan said the Prime Min­is­ter had cit­ed the up­surge in crime and re­cent large drug hauls. Ram­lo­gan said the state of emer­gency was part of a wider crime plan and was a medi­um term as­pect. (GA)