All mem­bers of the law en­force­ment agen­cies, in­clud­ing the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the T&T De­fence Force, are on stand­by to de­ter any act of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence aimed at dis­rupt­ing traf­fic on Monday.

The Gov­ern­ment is al­so ask­ing the pub­lic to de­sist from ac­tions fol­low­ing a call shared on so­cial me­dia on Sun­day for mo­torists to block all ma­jor road­ways and in­ter­sec­tions from 6 am.

The mes­sage, which has been shared all so­cial me­dia plat­forms and through What­sApp read: “Are you fed-up of tax­es? Are you fed-up of in­crease fu­el prices? Are you fed-up of the poor gov­er­nance? Are you fed-up of the se­cret deals? Well this is your op­por­tu­ni­ty to take a stand.”

It called on “all con­cerned cit­i­zens” to park their re­spec­tive ve­hi­cles at strate­gic lo­ca­tions and “shut down” the coun­try.

In re­sponse, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Stu­art Young de­scribed the mes­sage as “ir­re­spon­si­ble, un­pa­tri­ot­ic and de­signed to neg­a­tive­ly af­fect law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.”

“Please do not fall prey to re­quests to en­gage in this type of de­struc­tive be­hav­iour,” Young said in a state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

He al­so warned those who may be tempt­ed to com­ply.

“The source to cre­ate dis­rup­tive events is here­by high­light­ed, so that should any per­sons de­cide to break the laws of T&T, as they are be­ing called to do, civic-mind­ed cit­i­zens will know in ad­vance who has set about to dis­rupt our twin is­land state.”

Young point­ed fin­gers at the Op­po­si­tion, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), along with oth­er mem­bers of the pub­lic, as be­ing re­spon­si­ble for the planned protest ac­tion.

But UNC mem­ber Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said it was “scan­dalous” for Young to blame the Op­po­si­tion and added that the min­is­ter’s mes­sage in the re­lease is “threat­en­ing, in­tim­i­dat­ing and ha­rass­ing” to­wards mem­bers of the pub­lic.

Mooni­lal said if Young has in­for­ma­tion of the per­son or or­gan­i­sa­tion be­hind the mes­sage he should file a re­port with the Po­lice Ser­vice.

“This is a puerile and triv­ial mat­ter that ought not to be tak­ing the at­ten­tion of a se­nior Cab­i­net min­is­ter…if any­one on the in­ter­net or Face­book, as the case may be, is ad­vis­ing per­sons to break the law this is a breach of the law and the mat­ter should prop­er­ly be re­port­ed to the po­lice,” Mooni­lal said.

He said the po­lice can take ac­tion against any­one —whether the mes­sage was placed on the in­ter­net, Face­book or whether they put up a plac­ard some­where— who is hell-bent on break­ing the law or ad­vis­ing per­sons to break the law.

“This is not a mat­ter for a min­is­ter, this is a mat­ter if it is gen­uine for the po­lice. The min­is­ter is cer­tain­ly politi­cis­ing this mat­ter as if it is the Op­po­si­tion, which is child­ish and puerile,” Mooni­lal said.

Mooni­lal ad­vised Young, who al­so holds the port­fo­lio of Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, to fo­cus on the in­creas­ing mur­der rate which now stands at 408, with eight mur­ders be­ing record­ed in the last sev­en days.

Alder­woman at the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion, Marisa Ram­lo­gan, who shared the mes­sage on Face­book, de­nied she was be­hind the call for the block­age of all ma­jor road­ways and in­ter­sec­tions.

“This is not my protest or what­ev­er they are call­ing this thing. It cir­cu­lat­ed on What­sApp and it was all over and I just shared it but I did not plan it, it’s not mine or any­thing like that,” Ram­lo­gan said.

“I am see­ing Sen­a­tor Avinash Singh talk­ing about sedi­tion and all of that but I had noth­ing to do with it ac­tu­al­ly,” she said.

Asked if any po­lice of­fi­cer had con­tact­ed her about her post, Ram­lo­gan said, “No, no!”

An­oth­er Op­po­si­tion mem­ber, De­vant Ma­haraj said he too did not know of the mes­sage’s ori­gin but added that the mes­sage de­picts the frus­tra­tion of mem­bers of the pub­lic.

“I have no knowl­edge of this and I don’t think the par­ty ex­ec­u­tive or any mem­ber of the lead­er­ship will call for any ac­tion such. Min­is­ter Stu­art Young is just read­ing the pub­lic’s frus­tra­tion re­gard­ing the Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion. He fails to recog­nise that this has to deal with the pub­lic’s dis­gust of the par­ty and Gov­ern­ment, which he be­longs to,” Ma­haraj said.

Spokesper­son for the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM), Ozzi War­wick said that JTUM is in no way be­hind the call.

New­ly-elect­ed so­cial me­dia of­fi­cer of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), Avinash Singh sent out a call to the TTPS to “im­me­di­ate­ly in­ter­vene and in­ves­ti­gate and or act on what ap­pears to be acts of sedi­tion.”