Mr Joseph, please resign this year

The Editor: Since 2001 the nation has been steadily going further and further downhill into anarchy and chaos.  What has been the official response?  After the murder of President Robinson’s bodyguard early last year CoP Paul was exhorting the nation to be “patient.” In his Emancipation Day address the PM, having previously denied that a problem existed, advised that “we are breaking the shackles of crime” — how pray,  can this be, with the murder toll for 2005 to date at some 385, and few apprehended and before the courts? Diane Seukeran stood in Parliament and accused the Opposition of encouraging crime during their term in office, yet the murder toll was brought down dramatically under their stewardship, only to skyrocket with the return of the PNM.

We remain, on the eve of 2006, a nation wallowing in despair in the capable hands of a PNM government — (sending good money after bad with the lease of another blimp? and already being conditioned not to expect results from that source for at least five years, since that is how long it took to have effect in the UK!). The fight against crime has to come from efficient policing and effective law enforcement (which means removing unsavoury characters, even those in public office) from public life (ie jail terms) and by not penalising the innocent citizens. Eyes and balloons in the sky cannot be the answer.  Machinery is always only as good as the man who operates it — and the first imperative has to be initiative.  It is noses to the ground and sniff them out, therefore, I am afraid — which includes sniffing out what may be rotten in the force, or anywhere else. 

The present administration is yet to show that it has a clue how to set about dealing with a situation which has mushroomed under their stewardship.  Asking everyone else to do their job is not the answer. Until the nation faces that, we will surely get nowhere — except closer to hell.  If you are not afraid to lose your liberties, why are you afraid to give up your leadership, which has clearly shown that it is incapable of dealing effectively with the matter? That, to me, seems the only answer now. The Government is answerable to us.  In most civilised societies the Minister of National Security would long now have done the honourable thing and stepped down. Having failed so to do, an irate citizenry would have been calling for the heads of the whole Government, not cringing, crying for “help” and volunteering to give up their hard won civil liberties! 

We must face reality.  If this were the management team of your personal business, or even a housekeeper in your home, would you tolerate that level of inefficiency?  You would be a fool to do so! On this course, we are destined in 2006 for a continued nightmare. Determine that 2006 will be a constructive, not destructive, year. God helps them that help themselves and the longer we leave dirt, illness, corruption, or anything else to become entrenched the harder it becomes to remove it.  I pray for clarity of vision for everyone in the nation for the New Year.

Virginia Verity
PoS