Ques­tions have been raised over the fail­ure to ful­ly im­ple­ment the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry that was ap­point­ed in 2010 to look in­to the events sur­round­ing the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup. 

Sev­er­al for­mer gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials raised the is­sue yes­ter­day as the 35th an­niver­sary of the failed armed in­sur­rec­tion by the Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen was com­mem­o­rat­ed. 

Ad­dress­ing an an­nu­al wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Eter­nal Flame at the Red House in Port-of-Spain, host­ed by fel­low sur­vivor Wen­dell Ever­s­ley, for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Sel­by Wil­son said there was a du­ty to im­ple­ment the rec­om­men­da­tions af­ter the com­mis­sion was ap­point­ed un­der the tenure of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion, led by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. 

“They have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to act on the rec­om­men­da­tions of those who they ap­point­ed to in­ves­ti­gate the events. They have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty not on­ly to those of us who were held cap­tive, but they have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to all cit­i­zens be­cause the whole coun­try was trau­ma­tised by those events,” Wil­son said. 

“I would like to make a plea to the Prime Min­is­ter, the Pres­i­dent and all par­lia­men­tar­i­ans that it is time they wake up and smell the cof­fee. It is time they take ac­tion on the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry re­port in­to the events of the 27th of Ju­ly 1990,” he added. 

Wil­son said that suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments since 1990 had failed to recog­nise the im­por­tance of the event and the con­tri­bu­tions of cit­i­zens, who sought to de­fend democ­ra­cy through­out it. 

“They have failed to recog­nise some of us who are still alive. To even com­mem­o­rate the re­open­ing of the Red House, there are no in­vi­ta­tions to guys like my­self,” he said. 

Wil­son al­so sought to de­fend strin­gent aus­ter­i­ty mea­sures that were im­ple­ment­ed by him and his col­leagues in the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) gov­ern­ment, which were cit­ed by the Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen and its for­mer leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, as jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the coup. 

“In that pe­ri­od of ser­vice, I sin­cere­ly be­lieve that the gov­ern­ment of the day did what was re­quired to save this coun­try as hard as it might have been,” Wil­son said. 

“These things are nev­er easy. They are nev­er done wil­ful­ly or with any sort of spite or mal­ice. They are done to pro­tect the cit­i­zens of the coun­try and to sus­tain the re­spect of the coun­try both lo­cal­ly or in­ter­na­tion­al­ly,” he added. 

In his speech, for­mer may­or of Port-of-Spain Louis Lee Sing al­so took is­sue with the seem­ing dis­re­gard for the com­mis­sion’s rec­om­men­da­tions. 

“If we see 35 years lat­er, a so­ci­ety that is cow­er­ing in fear and con­cerned about their lives and the lives of their chil­dren, it has to do with the fact that as a so­ci­ety and a coun­try, our gov­ern­ments have failed to recog­nise what hap­pened in 1990 and to lis­ten to cries and com­plaints reg­is­tered in the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry,” he said.

He al­so sug­gest­ed that the cur­rent crim­i­nal­i­ty af­fect­ing the coun­try was spawned in the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup. 

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith blamed pet­ty pol­i­tics for the lack of im­ple­men­ta­tion of the rec­om­men­da­tions. 

He claimed that while serv­ing as min­is­ter of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in 2014, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had in­struct­ed him to im­ple­ment as many of the 33 rec­om­men­da­tions as pos­si­ble. 

“With­in months, we had ful­ly op­er­a­tionalised sev­en and were close to com­plet­ing an­oth­er six, while re­view­ing the re­main­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for stage im­ple­men­ta­tion. Then, the gov­ern­ment changed,” Grif­fith said. 

“Since then, out of pet­ti­ness, mal­ice, or ig­no­rance, the gov­ern­ment from 2015 to 2025 failed to act,” he added. 

In his speech at the cer­e­mo­ny, Ever­s­ley com­plained about the lack of ac­knowl­edge­ment of sur­vivors such as him­self. 

“Prob­a­bly the wreath I am go­ing to lay, they would re­move it and make room for the House Speak­er to lay a wreath with­out any ac­knowl­edge­ment of invit­ing the fam­i­lies who lost their loved ones,” he said. 

He al­so to go to schools to teach chil­dren, who were born decades af­ter 1990, of the sig­nif­i­cance of what tran­spired. 

“No­body ain’t know when they see me walk­ing the streets on Ju­ly 27, that is be­cause our coun­try was un­der at­tack. Our in­sti­tu­tions were un­der at­tack,” he said.