No hangings under PNM

FORMER attorney-general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj yesterday accused his successor John Jeremie of misleading the population into believing that hangings will happen “sooner rather than later” in Trinidad and Tobago. Maharaj said Government will not be able to implement the death penalty in TT without a critical constitutional amendment bill that has been excluded from the anti-crime package it has been discussing with the Opposition over the last two months. Maharaj told Newsday that Jeremie was only fooling the population with rhetoric and has not said exactly how Government will ensure implementation of the death penalty. Maharaj said as AG in 2000, he brought a constitutional amendment bill which if passed would have allowed both the incumbent PNM government and its UNC predecessor to implement the death penalty in TT.

He explained that this bill outlined specific time lines for appeals and a speedy execution of sentence once the appeals are exhausted. However, the former AG lamented that in 2000, the then Opposition PNM refused to support passage of that legislation. Expressing doubt that Government and the Opposition would reach agreement on the Police Reform Bills anytime soon, Maharaj said all the  anti-crime legislation discussed between both sides over the last month (including the Bail Amendment Bill 2005 that was passed in both House of Parliament) were nothing more than an exercise in public relations by the Government and Government must stop hiding behind the Opposition if it was unable to deal with crime in TT.

The former AG also claimed it was hypocritical for Prime Minister Patrick Manning to say there was “too much lawlessness and recklessness” in TT when the blame lay squarely on the shoulders of the PNM. He reiterated that all of the anti-crime legislations being discussed by Government and the Opposition were long-term and would not have any impact on the nation’s crime problems if the authorities could not detect and apprehend the criminals. “You can’t deny a ghost bail,” Maharaj declared. He maintained that the UNC had done nothing wrong in supporting the Government’s anti-crime legislation package.

On Government’s plans to reform the Police Service in the absence of legislation and the hiring of US Professor Stephen Mastrofski and his team to assist in this exercise, Maharaj said this type of reform would not bear immediate results and Government must create an environment in which it serves as a facilitator of resources to the police in the war against crime. Maharaj further indicated that National Security Minister Martin Joseph must micro-manage the country’s national security apparatus and if he could not do so, Manning had a duty to remove him with dispatch and find someone more suitable to handling such a key ministerial portfolio. He also urged Government to get busy in the new year and ensure that deficiencies with the Equal Opportunities Act, DNA Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Integrity in Public Life Act (especially where the declaration of judges’ assets is concerned) are swiftly remedied.