MP Hinds deserves an Oscar

THE EDITOR: I have seen politicians spin issues of the day, but I have never seen a more artful job of “spinning” as the one that was done by MP Fitzgerald Hinds in your newspaper article headlined “Valley Puts Hinds on the Spot” in the April 6 edition of Newsday. MP Hinds should be given an Academy Award for his performance and his artful articulation of the “party line”. His “talking points” were well rehearsed and delivered right on cue, as well. He talked about all the things that the Government, police and army are doing to get a handle on the criminals and their illegal activities. None of which has borne any real fruit. How could he with a straight face look anyone in their face and say that TT had law and order and that people are safe, even for the most part?

He even denied that persons of a certain ethnicity were being targeted for kidnappings. All the minister had to do was read the dailies and the names of the kidnap victims to see that these utterances are ignorant at the least. When the victim’s names are Maharaj, Rampersad, Singh and the like, it is obvious who the targets are. There is no need to play ignorant to the fact that these victims are of East Indian decent. Call a spade a spade and not try to fool anyone with this garbage. The other fact is the sheer number of kidnappings in the month of March alone should give the government some indication that the problem is out of control.

Any other responsible Government would have been clued in to “the problem” and would be doing something more substantive about it. But instead, you have MP Hinds saying or trying to convince the country that “we have no problem” or “the government has the matter under control.” I know he was speaking to reporters and people who may be interested in investing in the country and as such was trying to put the best light on the situation. But what he said is not the reality of daily living for the average person. At the end of it all, the people of TT are still left with a crime rate that is out of control and threatening to envelop and destroy the country. It is time for the “spin to stop here” and for the Government to take responsibility for the out-of-control crime rate and the many “ills of society,” they themselves helped create.

KELVIN C JAMES SR
Port-of-Spain