A coloured herring

FORMER Senator Surendranath Capildeo said yesterday that any talk of police and constitutional reform was just a “coloured herring.” “Reform what the hell you want. How do you deal with a nation of juvenile criminal cuss bud dunces?” he asked. Capildeo pointed out that there were more criminals on the outside than inside the nation’s prisons. “Not only are we breeding a nation of illiterates, we want to set the world record in obscenity. Of the 32,174 students in urban Junior Secondary, 23,487 cuss and swear at will,” Capildeo added. The former UNC Senator was the feature speaker at the graduation ceremony at the Simbhoonath Capildeo Tunapuna Hindu School yesterday. He advised the students of the Tunapuna Hindu School not to feel unaffected by what was happening around them. He went back to 1999 and spoke of the crime statistics.

“There were 92 murders, three were convicted; 476 sexual offences, 47 convicted; 5,457 break-ins, 513 convicted; 2,882 larceny, 191 convicted; 176 kidnappings, three convicted; 1,334 dangerous drug offences, 559 convicted and 3,629 robberies, 161 convicted.” Capildeo continued, “You do not have to be a genius to work out the correlation between our education system and what has been taking place and what is happening to us today. This country has been betrayed in an unashamedly, scandalous and obscene manner by the Ministry of Education. This criminality has been going on unbroken, undisturbed and seemingly protected for 48 uninterrupted years.” Capildeo feels if a Lindquist-type forensic investigation is done in education and “we demand value for money, dollar for dollar, Minister after Minister of Education will be looking for Ramsahoye (Fenton) to plead before the Privy Council and they better hope it’s the Privy Council, God help us all if it’s the CCJ.”

The Port-of-Spain attorney asked, “who in God’s name is going to beg forgiveness for the wanton criminal destruction of so many thousands and thousands of lives of the young men and women in Trinidad and Tobago? “This is a crime which makes all criminal activity today pale into insignificance because not only can we not replace lost generations, but we are doomed to suffer the consequences of the present generations. “This country had better wake up and see what has happened, and what is happening and understand the rainbow coloured herring of all the talk on police and constitution reform. Capildeo also spoke of the recent study carried out by Independent Senator Professor Ramesh Deosaran. “The figures are a national disgrace,” he declared. The former Senator said there was a high percentage of students who use illegal drugs and drink alcohol.