Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der is ad­vis­ing the pub­lic to go about their busi­ness as nor­mal, “un­less oth­er­wise di­rect­ed.”

With the USS Grave­ly (DDG 107), a guid­ed mis­sile de­stroy­er in the Unit­ed States Navy, com­ing to the Port of Port-of-Spain on Sun­day, the min­is­ter was asked to re­spond to cit­i­zens who are ex­press­ing con­cern that this is hap­pen­ing dur­ing in­creas­ing geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela.

Speak­ing with mem­bers of the me­dia at the Part­ners in Pink func­tion, a spe­cial women’s health ini­tia­tive host­ed by Alexan­der as Tu­na­puna MP, he said he was un­aware of any pub­lic un­ease about T&T be­ing caught in the crosshairs of a po­ten­tial con­flict be­tween the US and Venezuela.

In­stead, the min­is­ter said he has not­ed a sense of cu­rios­i­ty.

“While you were try­ing to call me and I didn’t an­swer, schools are call­ing to find out if they can go and look at the ship and all of that. So, it seems to be a tourist thing, more or less, than this war­fare that per­son’s try­ing to cre­ate. So, I don’t un­der­stand why all of this is tak­ing place,” Alexan­der said.

The Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter said so­cial me­dia ru­mours are dri­ving an agen­da of fear mon­ger­ing.

“Look at who’s on their pages and all of that. So you’ll see.”

In seek­ing to as­suage the con­cerns of the pub­lic, the min­is­ter said, “Tell the pub­lic that they must go about their law­ful busi­ness un­less oth­er­wise di­rect­ed. And that’s how the sys­tem works.”

The min­is­ter was al­so asked if the gov­ern­ment would re­turn to Par­lia­ment to ex­tend the State of Emer­gency by a fur­ther three months, as it is set to ex­pire on Oc­to­ber 28. How­ev­er, Alexan­der said he must first have some dis­cus­sions be­fore pro­vid­ing an an­swer.

Mean­while, out­side the Red House, par­lia­men­tar­i­ans were asked about the im­pend­ing ar­rival of the war­ship.

Point­ed­ly asked if this coun­try is on the brink of war, Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath said, “As the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter said yes­ter­day, we have no in­for­ma­tion about any war.”

He added, “Ob­vi­ous­ly, if there is any fur­ther con­cern with any co­her­ent and co­he­sive in­for­ma­tion on that mat­ter, the Gov­ern­ment will take the re­spon­si­ble steps to in­form the na­tion of what’s hap­pen­ing. But as of now, we have no in­for­ma­tion on that mat­ter.”

With the naval ves­sel dock­ing at the Port of Port-of-Spain im­pact­ing the port’s op­er­a­tions, the min­is­ter said the gains for this coun­try out­weigh the tem­po­rary in­con­ve­nience.

“I think there’s a long-term ben­e­fit for Trinidad and To­ba­go in terms of these sorts of part­ner­ships. The Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs clear­ly stat­ed that this would al­so in­clude ar­eas of co­op­er­a­tion and al­so ar­eas of train­ing. So, I think, while there may be is­sues that would arise on the port, there would be con­tin­gen­cies that would be put in place to ad­dress those is­sues that may arise. But I think the long-term ben­e­fit to Trinidad and To­ba­go is very clear in this cir­cum­stance,” he replied.

Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John was asked what ben­e­fits the US mil­i­tary would bring to this coun­try dur­ing its five-day stay.

“They’re go­ing to be help­ing out with schools, help­ing our mil­i­tary in terms of train­ing and so on,” she said as she walked in­to the Red House.

And Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee said there was no un­ease amongst the pop­u­la­tion.

“Are you feel­ing un­easy? I’ve nev­er come across any­one who’s un­easy. I am not un­easy. I think, you know, it’s a lot of fear-mon­ger­ing that has tak­en place. Maybe it’s from the po­lit­i­cal hus­tings. But there’s noth­ing to fear about.”

How­ev­er, Op­po­si­tion MP Symon de No­bri­ga chal­lenged Lee’s as­ser­tion.

“I think the Hous­ing Min­is­ter should maybe see what is be­ing said on so­cial me­dia. Up to this morn­ing, it was be­ing dis­cussed on the morn­ing talk shows, on ra­dio. So, I think that is not ac­tu­al­ly re­flec­tive of what the pop­u­la­tion is tru­ly say­ing,” de No­bri­ga replied.

Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land al­so said “Noth­ing about this is nor­mal.”

—Akash Sama­roo