Put country before politics

Newsday spoke with Griffith yesterday, who said he was optimistic that a recent meeting between Rowley and Persad-Bissessar would yield long-term results for national security but stressed that the success of any initiative would hinge on both parties putting aside their differences and uniting for the common good.

“I do believe both of them have the country at heart, unfortunately, sometimes they have lieutenants that will only be thinking about politics.It is hoped that in that meeting they forget about politics and just do what is right for the country.

The Prime Minister has serious concerns that he needs the support of the opposition to push certain bills to reduce crime. There should be no reason why the Opposition Leader should disregard those things because those are the same things that we had when we were in government and it helped us in reducing crime drastically.” Griffith added that the Opposition leader should also make every effort in cooperating with the Prime Minister in the policy- making process, citing a drasatic decrease in violent crime during his tenure as National Security Minister, he said that the Opposition leader had a lot to offer the Prime Minister, by way of implementing crime plans.

“On the other hand, the Opposition leader has shown there were dozens of policies that she implemented as prime minister that played a part towards the year 2014 having the lowest number of serious crimes in 31 years. Every crime was reduced from 23 per cent-35 per cent it was the highest visibility of law enforcement ever seen in the country.” Griffith said that unless both parties are able to find common ground, the meeting would have been an effort in futility.