Living behind bars while the criminals roam free

THE EDITOR: We have only just ended our celebration of Divali, the Festival of Lights — the triumph of Good over Evil, of Light over Darkness, but unfortunately for our nation, we remain in darkness — not a glimmer of hope, no light at the end of the tunnel, not even tunnel-vision of our esteemed leaders and yet 20/20 seems to be a “fingerprint” of someone’s imagination.

Remember what a man thought he did and what was the reality? Then, could it be that only a man without reason could think of tampering with the laws of treason? Maybe I just committed a treasonable offence? If this sort of thinking and statements “without intent” ever come to pass then might UNC not come to stand for Under Terrorist Command. Our nation is catapulting into the abyss and where are the voices — of the churches — priest, pundit, imam, where are you? — What are we, the citizens, doing? While our children set off scratch bombs, are we just bum-scratching? Is it not time for us to raise our voices in unison and force the powers that be to do something positive to stem the tide of the nation’s slide into the sewer? We need to come together as a nation to make a start to alleviate this crime situation while looking for its possible solutions.

It seems that trust is a big problem in our country, where “half” of the people do not trust a PNM government, and the other “half” of the people did not, and would not, trust a UNC government. Generally, there is a lack of trust between the two major ethnic groups. Almost half of the nation owes its allegiance to the balisier before the red, white and black. Almost all the other half of this nation owes its allegiance to the Rising Sun before the red, white and black. Just a few stand to rally around the red, white and black. One way to break the mistrust syndrome that exists between us, while at the same time giving us the moral authority to fight crime, would be by a national consultation among all the social partners, followed by a national referendum to discern the nation’s preferences on a course of action, for example (i) a full scale state of emergency, (ii) a limited state of emergency, curfew etc, or whatever it takes to stem the tide of crime from becoming a tidal wave that wipes us out totally, and we must do it now. We need to monitor the heavy crime “deportees” and habitual violent criminals in the nation, not fingerprint the entire national community or amend the treason laws. We need to reconstruct and retrain the police force, not to set-up “special crime units” that may become a law unto itself. Maybe Cuba and Canada can help us in this regard. We, the people, cannot let the recent “Chaguanas Incident” deter us from peaceful protests.

Our protests must be peaceful and passive whilst invoking the spirit of Love and Truth into our words and actions. If our inertia and apathy are in part due to the lingering effects of suffering from the Ma and Pa syndrome ie Ma nning and Pa trick, Oh Ma and Pa nday, then we must obtain the right prescription and have it dispensed  forthwith. How much longer must we allow the criminals to roam free while we live behind bars? How much longer can we allow the powers-that-be and ourselves the luxury of twiddling and fiddling? The malignancy is spreading. It is an emergency to be treated with urgency, radically. We must not continue to fiddle like Nero while Rome burns, but be like Pundit Nehru who kept the following words of Robert Frost, the poet, at this bedside table:
“The woods are lonely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
We, and our leaders, would do well to learn these lines and act on them if we truly care about the children of the 21st century.
In this nation no Indian or African, no Syrian or European, no Chinese or Nowarian, only Trinbagonians must there be. Only then as Stalin says “We can make it if we try,” together.

ASHFORD S R SINANAN Jnr
32 Hobson Street
San Fernando