NAR: TT experiencing the sins of 1990 coup

Speaking at a press conference held after their National Council Meeting on Sunday, Raphael, who touched on the crime wave in the country, said, "the sins of the 1990 attempted coup are causing terrorist activity in the country today."

Deputy Political Leader, Dr Carson Charles, who also addressed a gathering of the party’s supporters, chastised the Minister of National Security’s handling of the crime situation, saying the minister’s subtle approach leaves the people of the country feeling powerless.

"When he is questioned about the crime situation, all he says is that he is not responsible. When we the citizens hear things like these, we feel powerless," Charles said.

Charles, who also noted that gang warfare was on the rise, blamed the PNM Government for that matter, insisting that the Government has put programmes in the hands of people pretending to be seeking the interest of communities.

Charles said, "People involved in these programmes call themselves community leaders. But when you put a programme such as this in the hands of these people, who are in fact, some of them gang leaders, then what do you think could happen? There is no limit to where a gang can go because where money is flowing it always causes a fight. The Government’s policies at the community level are what has resulted in gang violence being out of control. We cannot have a Government that is in bed with the criminal element. They are going to pay for it."

Insisting that the country was in no way prepared for a natural disaster, Charles called on the Government to put systems in place to give the citizens some peace of mind. With reference to Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in the United States, Charles compared the relief mechanisms in that country to that of Trinidad and Tobago’s, and told party supporters that the country is clearly not ready yet to handle a disaster situation of that nature.

"If there is a disaster situation here, who do you think will help? I don’t think Mr Manning is going to house us in the new stadium if there is a tsunami," Charles ended.