Don’t fail TT, back Police Bills

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning warned the Opposition UNC that its failure to support the Police Reform Bills in Parliament on June 29 would betray the hope that four-year-old former kidnap victim Saada Singh and thousands of other citizens have pinned on the Government and Opposition joining forces to deal with crime in Trinidad and Tobago. Addressing a public forum at the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha’s St Augustine headquarters on Wednesday night, the Prime Minister chronicled the history of the legislation from August 1999 when he (as the then Opposition Leader) initiated anti-crime discussions with then PM Panday to November 15, 2003, when Panday (as Opposition Leader) declared the UNC would not support the Bills without constitutional reform. Manning said this entire process was bipartisan because “Panday was fully aware that numerous consultations were held with the principal stakeholders before and after the Bills were laid in Parliament by Panday on July 13, 2001, and Hansard would show that the UNC originally supported the Bills’ passage without caveat.”

Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Joan Messiah, identified outgoing Police Service Commission chairman Kenneth Lalla, Independent Senator Prof Ramesh Deosaran and former Police Commissioner Jules Bernard as some of these stakeholders. Disclosing that he was deeply touched after meeting privately with Saada Singh, the Prime Minister said an important element of TT becoming a developed nation “is the maturing of our people and the maturing of our politicians. When we go into the Parliament on Tuesday, we will see whether the politicians of TT are mature enough, or whether they are not. We will see whether the politicians can rise above the cut and thrust of politics — whether we can come to an agreement on matters that are of importance to the national community, in the national interest. We shall see. No self-respecting politician could see this situation as it exists in the country today and do nothing about it,” Manning declared.

Describing the bipartisan efforts (to address police reform) between himself, Panday, former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, former national security minister Joe Theodore and Arouca South MP Camille Robinson-Regis as “the most rewarding” of his political career, Manning urged Panday to join with him once again. “Whatever our political differences, and we have plenty, we put them aside (in 1999),” he said. The Prime Minister lamented that Panday’s obssession with returning to power had clouded his judgment and caused him to believe that crime was “the Achilles heel of the Government.” Manning disclosed that contrary to UNC claims, “which bear no relation to the truth,” the cost of Government’s public advertising campaign was only $2 million and there were no cost overruns. The Prime Minister said the legislation’s non-passage would not “sink TT” but would make it more difficult for Government to deal with crime. Manning announced that June 27 will be a nationwide day of prayer and he hoped that TT’s politicians became enlightened in their thinking ahead of next week’s sitting of Parliament.