Kidnappers should be shown no mercy

THE EDITOR: Has Trinidad and Tobago — or, more strictly speaking, Trinidad — become “Kidnap Central?” This new crime fad has reached utterly preposterous proportions. While commendations must go to the police for their apprehensions in the number of kidnappings that have taken place, the frequency and brazenness with which this crime continues to be perpetrated demands that very severe punishment be accorded to such persons who seem bent on believing this is a new lucrative industry in the making.

The current proposal to declare kidnapping as a non-bailable offence seems appropriate. This measure however should be applied with the availability of hard evidence so as not to unjustly withhold freedoms from any innocent persons so apprehended. Upon conviction however, I suggest that sentences handed down be a minimum of 15 years. Maximum sentences should be as many as 25 years, with life imprisonment given in the instance if a kidnapping were to result in the death of the kidnapped person or persons succumbing to some ailment as a result of their capture, or capital punishment, in the instance if the kidnapped person’s demise was by direct means, ie by murder.

I hold no brief for any political party whose leaders, for the most part, seem more interested in their own rather than their often professed concern for the country’s interests. Yet I must state that Mr Panday’s latest decision of not supporting the government to move for harsher measures against this kidnapping scourge, again shows the base levels on which our political leaders, at times, do operate: or should I say crawl or slither? Mr Panday’s reasoning of not giving any support to government motions unless there is constitutional reform rings deafeningly hollow. I too like many others an for constitutional reform. But the former Prime Minister, the silver fox with sour grapes, who had ample time to address this issue, now out of office, is now seeking to use constitutional reform as part of his everyready arsenal of political chicanery.

Unfortunately, the many who support Mr Panday regardless of whatever position he takes on national issues, will of course agree with him until unfortunately maybe they or someone in their own family or close friend is kidnapped. And lest we forget, such support applies not only to Mr Panday but to Mr Manning as well. Perhaps such prevailing hollowness should allow our political leaders to perform in the lead of their diehard supporters, in forming human toc-toc orchestras — given this instrument’s form and resonance — to compete with those of our steel pans. In closing, let me reiterate: on the punitive side of the kidnapping issue, the harshest consequences must be meted out to those involved. We must not allow ourselves and our country to be held to ransom by the sheer foolishness of our political leaders. Theirs and the foolishness of these dreadful kidnappings must be stopped.

GEDDES DAVIS
Trini in Bellingham WA,
USA