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.”