Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

While the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) are pleased with the struc­ture of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Cab­i­net, one Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) MP is plead­ing for youth de­vel­op­ment to be giv­en more pri­or­i­ty.

There is no longer a Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vices (MYDNS), a brain­child of the then-PNM gov­ern­ment in 2020. It has been re­vert­ed to the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs.

Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle said he be­lieves this is a re­gres­sive step.

“Sports is a very big min­istry, and of course caters to peo­ple in the sport­ing in­dus­try, not on­ly young peo­ple, but peo­ple who are not youths and it just puts on the back burn­er the youth de­vel­op­ment and the progress that we were on,” he said.

Mar­celle said the MYDNS gave young peo­ple the pri­or­i­ty they de­served.

“You would have your own iden­ti­ty, your own min­is­ter, your own min­istry, your own staff, your own bud­get and, there­fore, you are able to put our vul­ner­a­ble young peo­ple in spe­cif­ic fo­cus when you come,” he said.

Hail­ing that min­istry’s suc­cess Mar­celle said it reached youth in the NEET brack­et which means “not in em­ploy­ment, not in ed­u­ca­tion and not in any train­ing.”

Mar­celle wants Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­mem­ber her pledge to the na­tion of every­one win­ning and he is ask­ing that she re­con­sid­ers the move to merge mat­ters af­fect­ing youth with the sport min­istry.

“I am im­plor­ing and ask­ing the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter to re­con­sid­er hav­ing that Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment joined or merged or put on a back burn­er with any oth­er min­istry, es­pe­cial­ly since the UNC just won an elec­tion based on a cam­paign that was tar­get­ed main­ly to the same vul­ner­a­ble youth that the Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice caters to,” he said.

At­tempts to get a com­ment from Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les were un­suc­cess­ful.

How­ev­er oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ties were pleased with the re­cent­ly an­nounced Cab­i­net.

Asked if he had con­cerns that there is no longer a sin­gu­lar min­istry for tourism, TPP leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine said he has no is­sue with it at all.

Tourism will fall with­in the new­ly re­named Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism.

“They are re­lat­ed be­cause what we re­al­ly need as a di­ver­si­fied tourism prod­uct is sig­nif­i­cant for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment. That is not a sec­tor that we re­al­ly want the gov­ern­ment to be spend­ing tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars to build ho­tels,” Au­gus­tine ex­plained.

He added: “The gov­ern­ment is re­spon­si­ble for pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture, and we need to at­tract pri­vate in­vest­ment and for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment in­to the is­land for our tourism. That way we can re­alise the kind of growth that we would like to see.”

No min­is­ter has yet been ap­point­ed to lead that min­istry. Per­sad-Bisses­sar in­di­cat­ed that per­son was out of the coun­try dur­ing Sat­ur­day’s swear­ing in cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House and she as­sured they would be re­vealed soon.

Au­gus­tine said he is hap­py to see that the for­mer Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty will now be split in­to the Min­istry of De­fence and Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty.

“I note that the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca, they use a sim­i­lar ap­proach post 9-11 to dis­ag­gre­gate the two port­fo­lios so that they could bet­ter be able to man­age se­cu­ri­ty in­ter­nal­ly as well as bor­der se­cu­ri­ty.

“You know, that has been a sig­nif­i­cant bug­bear for us and us in To­ba­go with in­creased lev­els of vi­o­lent crime ow­ing to porous bor­ders, I hope that the Coast Guard and the De­fence Force that has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for man­ag­ing bor­der se­cu­ri­ty, will re­ceive a lot more at­ten­tion in this par­tic­u­lar arrange­ment,” he said.

Au­gus­tine said he al­so al­ready start­ed dis­cus­sions with new At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie on mat­ters re­lat­ing to To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my.

The NTA’s Gary Grif­fith is al­so con­tent with the split­ting of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty re­spon­si­bil­i­ties say­ing it was, af­ter all, his idea.

Grif­fith al­so ex­pressed con­fi­dence in Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der, who was once his sub­or­di­nate in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

“I have worked with Roger Alexan­der. The con­fi­dence I had in him was that I ap­point­ed him head of my elite unit, the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT). That unit was re­spon­si­ble for putting a dent in kid­nap­pings, home in­va­sions and ex­tor­tion, so I be­lieve he has the ca­pa­bil­i­ty to do what is re­quired,” he said.

Grif­fith said he is al­ways avail­able to give free ad­vice to Alexan­der and De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge.

“Min­is­ter Sturge may have very lit­tle knowl­edge as it per­tains to the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force and bor­der se­cu­ri­ty but if he gets the right peo­ple around him to give him guid­ance and ad­vice, he will make the right choic­es.”

On Sat­ur­day, Sturge ex­plained that Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty will deal with in­ter­nal mat­ters, such as the po­lice, pris­ons and lo­cal crime, in­clud­ing gang war­fare, where­as De­fence will deal with transna­tion­al is­sues such as hu­man and drug traf­fick­ing and the in­ter­na­tion­al el­e­ment of crime..