‘We are sensitive towards upsurge in crime’

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning made it clear yesterday that his Government was in fact sensitive towards the upsurge in crime and he urged everyone to unite as one in order to combat it. He was delivering the feature address at the 159th Indian Arrival Day Celebrations, which was held at the Parvati Girls’ Hindu College in Debe yesterday. Manning noted that it is unity that governs the approach to the issues and challenges before the country’s multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society.

He added also that it is unity that governs the approach to the challenges of crime that confront the nation currently. “All in this country are painfully aware that this is the most urgent and pressing problem. Crime knows no race and the perpetration of crime knows no special affinity,” he said. The Prime Minister continued, “No one is immune to its atrocities, there are all kinds of people involved for various reasons, none of which makes it either acceptable or tolerable and as a country and nation, we need to come together to fight crime,” he added. Manning stated that contrary to the view that some people seek to make current, his Government has been listening to the people and is mindful of their pain and suffering at this time.

“It is not true that the Government is insensitive to the fact that the country is hurting over crime, what is evident is that some persons are ignoring their responsibility to come together with the Government to fight crime at every level.” Manning, however, did not hesitate to mention that the country has in fact come a long way, and that people rallied together on many occasions in the past to fight division in the society at large. He made reference to the Marlborough Conference saying, “that is how we acquired our Independence — with the leaders of the people of our country coming together when it mattered the most.” On the subject of the media, Manning said that it has now become fashionable for various talk show hosts to transform their programmes into the latest politics or race platform, and bullying the public to take sides, aided and abetted by the same regular callers. He said, “similarly, there are some in this country who are given to seeing ‘red’ and to encouraging others to see red, and to see race and politics in everything — and to see things from a skewed  perspective.”

“In this regard, we in this country should do well, as I am convinced we would, to turn our backs on the kind of race and other levels of conflagration some seem determined to encourage,” he added. Manning said when the Government pursues the economic development of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, it is done for all its citizens, not any segregated sector of the population. “When the Government seeks to open access to the international markets in the North Atlantic, Latin America and the Caribbean, seeks to set up another industrial estate and seeks to set up another university — The University of Trinidad and Tobago — we do so for all in the land,” he said.