Is­rael B. Ra­jah-Khan SC, LL.D. (Hon­oris Causa)

Pres­i­dent, Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion

Five decades ago, this na­tion took its fi­nal step in­to full sov­er­eign­ty when we be­came a Re­pub­lic. The na­tion moved be­yond the sym­bol­ism of in­de­pen­dence to the sub­stance of self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. We gave our­selves our own Head of State and our own Con­sti­tu­tion as the supreme law. For 50 years, we have been the au­thors of our own des­tiny. Re­pub­lic Day is there­fore not mere­ly a cel­e­bra­tion of a date in his­to­ry; it is a cel­e­bra­tion of our col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for what this na­tion can be­come.

On this his­toric 50th an­niver­sary, the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion (CBA) calls up­on all par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, sit­ting on both sides of the aisle in both Hous­es, to re­flect deeply on the solemn priv­i­lege and the bur­den­some re­spon­si­bil­i­ty they hold to shape the leg­isla­tive land­scape of our own Re­pub­lic.

To shape the leg­isla­tive land­scape is to wield a dou­ble-edged sword.

To vote on bills is to be bur­dened with the weight of ac­cept­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for what can lat­er be a ter­ri­ble out­come.

On the oth­er hand, it of­fers the op­por­tu­ni­ty of be­ing part of the larg­er goal of achiev­ing safer and more se­cure com­mu­ni­ties. No par­lia­men­tar­i­an should un­der­es­ti­mate how solemn and pro­found that priv­i­lege is.

For the en­tire­ty of our ex­is­tence as a Re­pub­lic, mur­der rates and vi­o­lent crimes have been on the rise. From the 1970s to 2026, our Re­pub­lic has grown in many ways, but we have failed to con­tain the vi­o­lence that stalks our com­mu­ni­ties. Suc­ces­sive ad­min­is­tra­tions, of every po­lit­i­cal hue, have at­tempt­ed var­i­ous leg­isla­tive in­ter­ven­tions. The ef­forts of pre­vi­ous par­lia­ments have failed to suf­fi­cient­ly ad­dress the re­lent­less in­crease in vi­o­lent crime. To state this is not to as­sign blame to any one par­ty; it is to ac­knowl­edge a col­lec­tive na­tion­al fail­ure.

While the CBA does not wish to en­ter in­to the po­lit­i­cal are­na on any and every is­sue, and we jeal­ous­ly guard our in­de­pen­dence from par­ti­san pol­i­tics, we can­not re­main silent when the de­bate cen­tres around crime and crim­i­nal law.

With re­gard to any pro­posed leg­is­la­tion which ex­tends the po­lice pow­ers with the re­sult of cur­tail­ing or in­fring­ing the rights of the cit­i­zen, the CBA wish­es to re­mind any per­son pri­vate­ly or pub­licly de­bat­ing the is­sue that our Re­pub­lic in­cludes a Ju­di­cia­ry which ul­ti­mate­ly can strike down any leg­is­la­tion on the grounds that it is in­con­sis­tent with the Con­sti­tu­tion.

The su­prema­cy of our Con­sti­tu­tion pro­tects our Re­pub­lic from the var­i­ous fear-mon­ger­ing buzz­words such as “po­lice state.” Even to re­duce the de­bate to “Ban­dit State vs Po­lice State” is to un­know­ing­ly ig­nore the over­sight role the Ju­di­cia­ry plays in de­ter­min­ing the le­gal­i­ty of the laws passed.

Trinidad and To­ba­go is not a Po­lice State, and will not be­come one by an act of Par­lia­ment, be­cause we have an in­de­pen­dent Ju­di­cia­ry that stands as guardian of the Con­sti­tu­tion. Sec­tions 4 and 5 of our Con­sti­tu­tion en­shrine fun­da­men­tal rights, and Sec­tion 54 pro­vides the mech­a­nism for con­sti­tu­tion­al re­view. Any ex­cess, any abuse, any over­reach can and will be test­ed be­fore our courts. This has been so for the past 50 years and this will not change.

It is on­ly nat­ur­al that there is pub­lic de­bate about whether cer­tain mea­sures pro­posed are dras­tic or “too dras­tic.” But, on the oc­ca­sion of Re­pub­lic Day, we must be bru­tal­ly hon­est when re­flect­ing on the crime sit­u­a­tion in our Re­pub­lic. The crime sit­u­a­tion is so dras­tic that on­ly dras­tic mea­sures can ad­dress it. We are no longer deal­ing with sim­ple iso­lat­ed vi­o­lent crimes; we are deal­ing with so­phis­ti­cat­ed, well-armed and ruth­less crim­i­nal en­ter­pris­es that use vi­o­lence, chaos and threats to main­tain their il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties.

On this oc­ca­sion, all par­lia­men­tar­i­ans are urged to weigh the con­se­quences, the dan­gers and the risks of NOT seiz­ing this op­por­tu­ni­ty to use their priv­i­lege in par­lia­ment to put our Re­pub­lic on a path of achiev­ing a sus­tain­able, peace­ful so­ci­ety by al­low­ing the po­lice greater (and bal­anced) pow­ers to in­ves­ti­gate per­sons sus­pect­ed of crim­i­nal of­fences.

Any risk of abuse can be ad­dressed by cas­es filed in the Ju­di­cia­ry. That is what the Ju­di­cia­ry is for.

This is how a ma­ture Re­pub­lic func­tions. Par­lia­ment acts de­ci­sive­ly. The Ju­di­cia­ry pro­vides over­sight. The Con­sti­tu­tion pre­vails.

All cit­i­zens of our Re­pub­lic should wish for a more peace­ful so­ci­ety. Any cit­i­zen, ei­ther in Par­lia­ment or oth­er­wise, should re­flect on them­selves and their own na­ture if they choose to op­pose a chance to bet­ter our Re­pub­lic sim­ply be­cause “the oth­er side” has more seats in Par­lia­ment at this cur­rent time. To play pol­i­tics with the se­cu­ri­ty of the Re­pub­lic would be a be­tray­al of the very oath every par­lia­men­tar­i­an has tak­en. Throw­ing snakes in your neigh­bour’s yard is nev­er a good idea.

The CBA re­mains com­mit­ted to the pro­tec­tion of con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, to due process and to the rule of law. We al­so re­main com­mit­ted to a Trinidad and To­ba­go where the cit­i­zens ex­pe­ri­ence sus­tained peace and are free to live in safe and se­cure com­mu­ni­ties.

Hap­py Re­pub­lic Day 2026.