Big Brother creeping up?

MAYBE it is time to inform the Government that the people of Trinidad and Tobago would prefer not to be caught up in anxious and annoying guessing games about some of its measures and motives. Even before anguished speculation over the idea of merging the UTC with the FCB had died down, the population was zapped with the establishment of another anti-crime body, this time a Special Crime Fighting Unit to be headed not by a senior police officer but by the country’s top soldier, Col Peter Joseph who has been relieved of his command of the Regiment and promoted to the rank of Brigadier to undertake this novel assignment. In announcing in his Budget speech the setting up of this unconventional  “unit of professionals”, the Finance Minister clearly preferred to say nothing about its purpose and its modus operandi, thus inviting widespread doubt and speculation.

There has been some suggestion that Brig Joseph’s team will be engaged in intelligence gathering, but nobody has seen fit to inform the public precisely what this Unit will be doing to assist in the fight against crime. Exactly what purpose will it serve that is not now being undertaken by the Police Service?  And to whom will the Brigadier be responsible, the Police Commissioner, the Minister of National Security or the Prime Minister? In any case, should the political directorate have such direct control over those engaged in catching criminals? Indeed, what relationship or influence will this Unit have with members of the Police Service? We need hardly tell the Government that public guessing games about the real objective of this controversial unit is tinged with all kinds of doubts and dark suspicions, apart from widespread pessimism over its capacity to help in any conventional way the fight against crime. But as if these concerns were not enough, the Government has now come up with a plan to fingerprint the entire population and to give every citizen a personal identification number. And as before the reasons offered for this unusual and elaborate plan are not really convincing, giving rise once again to all kinds of guessing games among members of the public. If, as the Legal Affairs Minister said, this plan is still in its infancy and, therefore, not thoroughly explored, why did she declare it publicly; was she also floating the idea for public comment?

In any case, her contention that having the fingerprints of every TT citizen in a data base at the Ministry of National Security will assist in dealing with the current crime wave is really difficult to comprehend. The Minister also needs to explain how the mass collection of fingerprints will help the authorities to keep track of criminal deportees recently returned to the country. And what is the purpose or use in adding citizens’ fingerprints to the Ministry’s population registration system which she says already records such events as births, deaths, marriages and Muslim divorces? The fact is that many citizens may consider giving their fingerprint to the Ministry of National Security as an invasion of their privacy, but they may even be willing to do so if they could see or be convinced of the useful purpose it would serve or the benefits, personal or otherwise, to be gained from such a measure. In the absence of such persuasion and unsure of the government motive, many citizens would not only be reluctant to cooperate with such a scheme but may even regard it with suspicion. In every civilised society there is the need for citizens to surrender a measure of their privacy to serve the common good, the orderly organisation of the community, but the limit or balance has to be struck somewhere. Is the government going too far with these measures, is Big Brother creeping up on us? Will this proposed fingerprinting exercise be compulsory? The Minister must be more convincing if she wants cooperation and an end to suspicious guessing games.