Panday: Giuliani wants TT crime work

RUDOLPH GIULIANI’s reported offer to help Government and the local business community deal with crime is a straight case of the former New York mayor looking for work in Trinidad and Tobago. This was the analysis offered yesterday by Opposition leader Basdeo Panday who said the alleged proposal by Rudy Giuliani and Partners will fail and Giuliani himself is aware of that reality. “Rudolph Giuliani is in business and he is looking for business,” Panday told Newsday. The UNC leader said while as a businessman Giuliani was within his rights to seek out business opportunities wherever they exist, the former NY mayor is painfully aware that his proposal to the Government will not have the desired effect either he or the Government would like it to.

Panday explained that any crime plan advanced now will have the effect of a pinprick on an elephant’s hide because “the present Constitution (of TT) debilitates” any effort to effectively deal with the root causes of crime in the country. The UNC leader recalled that a major part of Giuliani’s efforts to curb crime in New York was the establishment of a system where the City’s Police Commissioner was accountable to those in authority. Panday added that in recent private discussions between Giuliani and himself, the former NY mayor agreed with him that constitutional reform was crucial to fighting the root causes of crime in TT and ensuring accountability on the part of the Police Service. “Then (when constitutional reform takes place) I think will Mr Giuliani’s contribution be meaningful,” the UNC leader said. Panday recently charged that former President Arthur NR Robinson was responsible for the UNC not being able to ensure that the Police Reform Bills had their intended effect of weeding out corrupt elements within the Police Service and ensuring greater accountability on the Service’s part.

He said prior to the 2000 General Election, the UNC knew the Bills needed constitutional reform in order to work but Robinson removed that party from office before that reform could have been initiated. Panday said there was no truth to the longstanding public perception that the UNC reneged on a deal with the PNM before the 2000 elections to pass the Bills, regardless of who won those polls. Panday, who has been calling for a meeting of Government and Opposition minds on crime, leaves TT tomorrow with his wife Oma to spend Christmas in England with their daughters. The UNC leader is scheduled to attend an Indian Diaspora conference in New Delhi, India from January 9 to 11, 2004.