JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, February 28, 2025

Govt, Opposition must come together to find solution to crime problem

by

227 days ago
20240716

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Make an ef­fort to fix crime to­geth­er. That is the ap­peal from UNC MP Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly. He called for a crime-fight­ing agen­da to be em­barked up­on in the next par­lia­men­tary ses­sion and for a group of MPs, aca­d­e­mics, and se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts to be con­vened with­in a spe­cif­ic time frame to de­vise short-term so­lu­tions to crime.

Ram­bal­ly did so in a state­ment yes­ter­day on the crime and mur­der sit­u­a­tion, chal­leng­ing po­lit­i­cal lead­ers of both Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion on the is­sue. Ram­bal­ly said, “Our peo­ple and our coun­try de­serve lead­ers who are com­mit­ted to tak­ing de­ci­sive ac­tion to pro­tect them. I urge all lead­ers, mem­bers of Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion to step up and ful­fil their du­ties to the na­tion. The time for ac­tion is now.” His state­ment per­tained to the mur­der rate, which reached un­prece­dent­ed lev­els over the week­end.

He said, “Mur­der en­joyed per­haps its most en­vi­able per­for­mance in many years this past week­end, yet an­oth­er in­stal­ment in the on­go­ing crime and no-pun­ish­ment sto­ry that is T&T.

“This vi­o­lence is a stark re­minder that our na­tion is in cri­sis, and it is clear that the root cause is failed lead­er­ship. Af­ter nine years in pow­er, the PNM has shown it has no idea what to do. The Gov­ern­ment’s so­lu­tion as mur­ders have now climbed to al­most 600 per year with­in the last two years is to get more se­cu­ri­ty for gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, in an­tic­i­pa­tion of the in­crease in the mur­der rate an­tic­i­pat­ed by ex­perts.”

Ram­bal­ly said that as MP, “I was elect­ed to speak for my con­stituents, and my con­stituents have asked me to plead with my fel­low politi­cians to own up to their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties to the cit­i­zens. Many par­lia­men­tar­i­ans are hap­py with the perks of po­lit­i­cal of­fice but are ab­sent when the times for re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and ac­count­abil­i­ty roll around.

“Pet­ty pol­i­tics and emp­ty rhetoric fill the air­waves while in­no­cent lives are tak­en, as politi­cians bick­er and point fin­gers. There is no rea­son why a crime-fight­ing agen­da can­not be em­barked up­on so that it can in­form the next par­lia­men­tary ses­sion (Sep­tem­ber–De­cem­ber 2024).”

But to do that, he said, re­quires an ef­fort of will, “ ... and an ap­pre­ci­a­tion of just how bad things are. I do not be­lieve that our po­lit­i­cal lead­ers have any clue be­yond the head­lines, nor have they a care.”

He added, “Our in­sti­tu­tions are suf­fer­ing from a pro­found loss of pub­lic faith. Cit­i­zens no longer be­lieve in the abil­i­ty of po­lit­i­cal par­ties to work in their best in­ter­ests. This dis­il­lu­sion­ment has fur­ther ex­ac­er­bat­ed the chal­lenges we face. This can­not be re­cov­ered in the short term. It must be re­cov­ered in small steps. The first step is show­ing that there are con­se­quences for crime.

“Why can’t a small group in­clud­ing MPs, aca­d­e­mics, and se­cu­ri­ty ex­perts be con­vened at one lo­ca­tion and with­in a spe­cif­ic time frame come up with a se­ries of short-term so­lu­tions, with Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion com­mit­ting to im­ple­ment­ing so­lu­tions?” he asked.

“This should not be lim­it­ed to the usu­al knee-jerk re­ac­tions such as in­creas­ing po­lice pa­trols, im­ple­ment­ing rapid re­sponse units, and height­ened alert by the po­lice sta­tions. The aim would be to try things we have not yet tried. At this point, we have noth­ing to lose and every­thing to gain.” 


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored