Sat says leadership crisis to be blamed for Harvey robbery

Shortly after 5 am on Monday, three bandits accosted Harvey at the St Martin de Porres RC Church in Gonzales, Belmont and tied him up before ransacking the presbytery. The thieves escaped with $1,000, a mobile phone and items from the church.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Maharaj said the nation’s leaders had to shoulder some of the blame as they were setting a poor example with their behaviour in and out of Parliament.

“This has to do with the message that the leadership is sending to the young community of Trinidad and Tobago,” Maharaj said.

“When you stand up in Parliament, because you have the votes in Parliament, you stand up and you say, ‘We are in charge now, and therefore we will ram this piece of legislation down your throats.’ To me what it is telling the young population is that it’s okay for you to take a gun and walk into a church as if to say, ‘Listen, Fr Harvey, I am in charge now, I have a gun, I am in charge.’ “Not because you have the power you must ram things down the throat of other people, because the young people are looking on. That power is strength and I believe the role models that are talking to our people and are talking to the population are partly responsible for what has transpired.

This arrogance is coming to haunt the whole national community now.”