Akash Sama­roo

Op­po­si­tion MPs are flab­ber­gast­ed as to how Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds still has a job, af­ter he at­tempt­ed to place some blame for the high mur­der rate on the pub­lic.

As the mur­der count crossed 500 for the third con­sec­u­tive year this week, Hinds told Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day that crim­i­nals op­er­ate with im­puni­ty part­ly due to pub­lic com­pla­cen­cy.

How­ev­er, shad­ow Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter and Barataria/San Juan MP, Sad­dam Ho­sein strong­ly crit­i­cised Hinds in a state­ment yes­ter­day.

He said, “The Min­is­ter blam­ing cit­i­zens for the crime sit­u­a­tion reeks of gross in­sen­si­tiv­i­ty and a to­tal lack of con­cern for vic­tims and their fam­i­lies who have had to en­dure the phys­i­cal, men­tal, and emo­tion­al scars in­flict­ed by crim­i­nal el­e­ments.”

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, St Au­gus­tine MP Khadi­jah Ameen said, “I am amazed that every time Fitzger­ald Hinds opens his mouth, Dr Kei­th Row­ley does not fire him.”

Ameen said this was a typ­i­cal ap­proach from a min­is­ter she claimed has a laid-back ap­proach to the coun­try’s most press­ing prob­lem.

“He is un­fit as the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty. The ad­di­tion of the new min­is­ter in the min­istry has not helped but I think it is re­al­ly for Dr Kei­th Row­ley to re­move Fitzger­ald Hinds as Min­is­ter and put some­one more ef­fec­tive,” she con­tend­ed.

Ca­roni Cen­tral MP Arnold Ram said it has al­ways been clear that PNM min­is­ters want au­thor­i­ty with­out re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“Peo­ple are there­fore turn­ing to a life of crime. We have the ad­vent of kid­nap­pings again in this coun­try and it re­minds me of the 2000 to 2003 pe­ri­od where kid­nap­pings were hap­pen­ing every day,” he said.

Al­so speak­ing while on his way in­to the Red House was Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee, who ques­tioned Hinds’ role.

“We have two min­is­ters of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and if he can say that the pop­u­la­tion should take some blame, I don’t know what he means by that. But it’s a sad case and I am very sur­prised by that.

“From what I see the num­ber of mur­ders could go over 600 and I think Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley should take some re­spon­si­bil­i­ty al­so,” Lee said.

Cou­va South MP, Rudranath In­dars­ingh added, “When they cam­paigned be­fore the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tions, they told the coun­try that as a po­lit­i­cal par­ty they had all the an­swers to the is­sues fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, that was their mantra and they have not been able to de­liv­er.”

Ch­agua­nas West MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly said to blame the pub­lic for a surge in crime shows a bla­tant dis­re­gard for the true caus­es of vi­o­lence.

Min­is­ter Hinds de­clined to stop for ques­tions as he made his way to Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.