Suruj: Judiciary must do more

“I think that justice is too slow in the country, and there are too many delays in the administration of justice,” he said. “I believe the Judiciary must take a long and hard look at itself and begin to examine where it has fallen short.

I think there are things the Judiciary can do to improve the speed of justice, but that must come from the desire to be self-critical and to accept criticism from the public. That is very important.” He said it is time to speak freely and honestly about the state of the Judiciary.

“What has been happening in my view is that every year we get the Judiciary, at the opening of the Law Term, the Chief Justice in particular, with all respect to him, making statements about marginal improvements and treating that as excellent, when in fact it is not.” Rambachan said the Judiciary must do more than merely blame the Government and the parliamentarians.

“The Judiciary has to accept that in the management of the Judiciary there are things that they can change and they must focus on where those changes can take place. People must not wait 20 years for justice.

That is wrong by all counts. So the Judiciary has to play a role.” He said the Magistrates court postpones too many cases, therefore leaving offenders who are awaiting their hearing to commit more crimes. Rambachan, in addition, called for better leadership of the TT Police Service, whose leader, he said, must display operational skills so as to get results and end the chaos now in the country. Rambachan was shocked at the brazenness of bandits who no longer bother to wear masks to hide their identities.

Further, he described Government’s current leadership as “uninspiring”, even as the citizenry is becoming more and more hopeless and is throwing up their collective arms in the air.

“The Government is not in touch with the feelings and the plight of the people,” he opined.

Rambachan said too many people are “romanticising” crime, by trying to find all kinds of explanations for criminality, but which in fact he said is just an excuse for inaction.

While borderline criminals might be redeemable, hardcore criminals can only be stopped by a Government that has decided to fight back aggressively.

However if the authorities fail to act, sooner or later the people will have to lead the fight back, he predicted. “Soon it will be the people versus the criminals. There is breakdown everywhere - the homes, school and street. A strong dose of discipline has to be injected into this country,” concluded Rambachan.

Newsday was unable to contact Minister of National Security, Edmund Dillon, for his views on stemming murder.