PM’s facetious warning

But we cannot under any circumstances condone the facetious warning issued by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to the nation’s women on the matter of crime.

“You call on the Prime Minister to do something about crime, I’m not in your bedroom, I’m not in your choice of men, you have a responsibility to determine who you associate with and know when to get out and the State will try to help,” Rowley said. “But then when the tragedy occurs and it becomes known to the police, the police must now go the extra mile to ensure that there is detection.” He said one-third of the murders in the last month were domestic- violence related.

The only person who is to blame for a murder is the murderer. If a man kills a woman out of tabanca, he does so in part because this society has told him that course of conduct is permissible. Rowley should not repeat this message. He is completely wrong to imply that women victims “look for that” through sexual or relationship choices while leaving the role of the man unaddressed.

This is not the kind of stance we expect from a prime minister, particularly in these times when violence against women has alarmed the nation.

Most of the recent high-profile cases involving women have not been due to domestic violence but appeared to be instances of entrapment.

Rowley has come perilously close to the infamous victim-shaming remarks of his former Port-of-Spain mayor Raymond Tim Kee. In that case, Tim Kee shamed one woman, murdered Japanese pannist Asami Nagakiya. Rowley has tarnished women at large.

The timing could not be worse, coming close to the one-year anniversary of the murder of Nagakiya.

Ironically, that murder is one of the many unsolved crimes the nation is today calling on the State to resolve.

Tim Kee resigned for his blunder.

At the very least, Rowley must now apologise.

Meanwhile, we want these prime ministerial conversations to continue.

Going forward the organisers would do well to take a hard look at the format for the exercise.

Monday night’s event appeared to be well attended. However, many people simply used the microphone to deliver soliloquies. Some compromises to the format can easily allow the widest possible participation. It would also be good if the PM could be allowed an opportunity to engage more, rather than there being a topdown kind of set-up.

Another major talking point from Monday’s exercise was the question of crime and the Police Service’s ability to tackle it. Saying this country’s ratio of citizens to police exceeded global standards, Rowley expressed the view that there are enough police officers. Such a view came as the president of the Police Social and Welfare Association, Insp Michael Seales, said police feel tired.

Instead of this back and forth, it would be better to allow the manpower audit of the Police Service, which is being overseen by a committee led by criminologist Prof Ramesh Deosaran, to do its work. An audit might recommend a more efficient allocation of resources or it may come up with a number representing a shortfall between current skills and the needs of our society. In the end the issue of crime is not a numbers game.

We may devote above-average resources to fighting criminals.

The fact remains that we have an above-average crime situation.

All in all, Monday’s exercise was a welcome exercise but with a showing left wanting. Still, we look to these conversations continuing without the distractions that a careless thought from the stage could create.