Ramona Ramdial
Murder was made a bailable offence in the unanimously passed Bail (Amendment) Bill, 2024. For over a century before that, this opportunity was denied. This is a victory for murder accused and their lawyers.
Indeed, the bill brought into effect the judgment of the Privy Council in the Attorney General of T&T vs Akili Charles which found that murder accused should be allowed to apply for bail. Mr Charles was represented by Anand Ramlogan, SC.
The Opposition had backed a previous version of the bill in 2019 following the Orange Valley tragedy, where seven fishermen from my former constituency of Couva North were killed at sea.
The judiciary will determine if there are exceptional circumstances that justify the granting of bail. It’s all well and good that the human rights of murder accused are protected, but how do they balance with the rights of the murdered and their families? How do we receive this first-world judgment in our developing country where violent criminals run amok?
The Opposition’s senators have followed their Lower House colleagues in demonstrating how crime continues to be politicised. Why did they support the Bail Amendment Bill but did not vote for the Whistleblower Bill? It should be a great tool in the fight against crime and corruption.
Perhaps they are cowering from MP Ragbir’s independent “morals and values” voting. Before these opportunities can be accessed by those accused of murder and other serious offences, is the TTPS catching them and bringing them to justice? Are they getting swift justice? Conviction or exoneration? Or is it that multiple crimes will be committed by individuals who evade ineffective policing? How long does it take to get one’s day in court? Even mediocre criminal lawyers can make mas.
In Parliament last Wednesday the PM revealed that a cult within the SSA had been planning a coup d’état by training several members and accumulating a large cache of arms and ammunition. Pastor Ian Brown recently claimed to have been an SSA spy known as “The Phantom”. He has been very complimentary of former police commissioner Gary Griffith in the past, and I am certain that PM Rowley would be ecstatic if he was able to uncover a link between the two.
Mr Griffith has dismissed the Prime Minister’s expose as a ‘red herring’ while Mrs Persad-Bissessar has called it a “dead cat”. National Security Minister Hinds has claimed that 70,000 rounds of ammunition have gone missing at the SSA! This stockpile could be feeding the bloodlust of murderous gang members (who can now get bail) or stashed by some would-be militia with treasonous intent. When the SSA came into being in 1995, its purpose was the prevention of serious crime, not its facilitator, as it seems to have become.
Last week, in the UK, Rishi Sunak was the prime minister of a 14-year-old Conservative government. Ironically, he may have been his most prime ministerial in his concession speech in front of #10 Downing Street. He gave no excuses, apologised and showed pyrrhic magnanimity, accepting the role as Tory Fall Guy, wholeheartedly. It has been argued that he had drunk from a poisoned chalice with the Tories on the decline well before his ascension as party leader and subsequently, UK PM.
Regardless, he was the youngest prime minister of the United Kingdom who also happened to be the first Hindu of East Indian descent to hold that office. Unfortunately, he will also be remembered as having led the Conservatives to one of their worst defeats in their 200-year history. Sunak also signalled his intention to resign as soon as his party finds a suitable successor. One national election loss was enough! Their leadership issues have been protracted. (After all, Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, lasted all of 50 days in office.)
As Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer succeeds Sunak, ending 14 years of Conservative rule in the UK, the UNC would hope for a similar occurrence at home. However, what the UNC leadership is ignorant of is that the change of leadership in the Labour Party from Jeremy Corbyn to Sir Keir in 2020 would have been a major factor in the change of fortunes for a party that had long languished in Opposition.
The UNC is like Labour in that sense, except for the part about changing leadership to win national elections, of course. We recall when our Opposition Leader or her speechwriters plagiarised (then UK opposition leader) Sir Keir’s message of congratulations to US President-elect Biden in 2021. Perhaps she would be better off trying to plagiarise Sir Keir’s national election victory next year.
Will it be next year, though? PM Rowley has been playing “cat and mouse” with Mrs Persad-Bissessar and the public. This prime ministerial tomfoolery can be remedied with fixed election dates, amongst other constitutional reforms. This year, both the Opposition Leader and the Prime Minister have been playing their own party members for fools with their dangling of sometimes late/sometimes early election dates. Perhaps the “cat” is of the Schrödinger variety, being both dead and alive, at the same time.
At least we can celebrate that the steelpan is now officially our national instrument. Quite frankly, I thought that it always was.