Panday: Let Judges stop Terror Bill

Leader of the Opposition, Basdeo Panday, Friday vowed to ask the judiciary to strike down the Government Anti-Terrorism Bill 2004 as unconstitutional. He told the House of Representatives the Bill imposed a 20-year jail sentence for various offences which it vaguely defined. While conceding there may be a need for an Anti Terrorism Bill, he said it needed to be properly done, in accordance with the law. “We shall not support this Bill. We ask that the Bill goes for public comment. If you rush the Bill through the House, at the first opportunity we have, we will apply to the court to strike it down because it breaches the Constitution,”  Panday said.

Panday dissected the Bill to show how it might breach the civil liberties laid out in the National Constitution sections three and four.  The Bill, charged Panday, threatens journalists, trade unionists and protestors. Saying the Bill defined a “terrorist act” as one intended to advance a “political, ideological or religious cause,” Panday remarked, “So you can’t define terrorism in the Act without dealing with people’s religion, politics and such things.”

Panday quoted Clause 4 which imposes a 20-year jail sentence to anyone who directly or indirectly provides financial or other related services. He pondered, “What does ‘indirectly’ providing ‘other services’, mean?. These are extremely wide terms and one can be imprisoned for 20 years.” He read out the Bill’s definition of a “terrorist act.” This included not just damage to life, property, or national security, he said, but also a very broadly defined “disruption of public safety.”

The latter, read Panday, included disruption to “services directly related to banking, communications, infrastructure, financial services, public utilities, transportation or other essential infrastructure” which were intended to compel a government or international organisation to do or refrain from an action.  He was exasperated. “So what are protests about?! Peaceful protests?!” The Bill, he said, might also outlaw labour strikes. “So, every act which challenges the government becomes a terrorist act.”