TACIT THREAT TO SECURITY

For Trinidad and Tobago to be flooded year after year during the Christmas season with illegal fireworks, either the items are passing through Customs unnoticed or they are being brought in as contraband and dropped off at the several virtually unprotected areas dotting Trinidad’s coastline. There are two other factors, both disquieting, the possibility that some Customs and Excise officers are turning a blind eye to the illegal trade, or there may be some measure of complicity by a few of these officers. All four factors represent potential threats to the security of the State, and should be treated with seriousness by the relevant authorities. Any drop in vigilance by the Customs and Excise Department and/or complicity in the flouting of the law by a few or the inability of the Coast Guard to effectively patrol Trinidad and Tobago’s coastline tacitly places the country’s security under threat.

It would be a serious mistake to dismiss what is happening as merely limited to fireworks and therefore relatively harmless. It is the overall picture that must concern us, particularly as it may be a pointer as to how illegal drugs and firearms continue to be landed in this country. July 27, 1990 is not so far away for us to forget that it was the landing of weapons which came in by containers and reportedly passed through Customs, that paved the way for the illegal near overthrow of the constitutionally elected Government of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the principle that matters, either of laxity or complicity, and not the particular shipment, whether it be one of fireworks, arms, drugs or other examples of contraband. A chink in the armour of security once discovered can be exploited, and generally is. What then are the Customs and Excise Department and the Coast Guard doing about this?

Commissioner of Police, Trevor Paul, has warned against the unlicensed sale of explosives, including fireworks, and has referred specifically to three relevant Acts — the Explosives Act, the Summary Offences Act and the Public Holiday and Festival Act, which forbid this. Implicit in the Police Commissioner’s statement is that there are persons in this country who may be in possession of unlicensed fireworks and because of this he has issued a clear warning to such persons. Commissioner of Police Paul in referring to the Summary Offences Act has emphasised also the misuse of fireworks in public places. It is a position with which Newsday fully agrees. Unthinking persons have used the Christmas season, year in year out, as an excuse to burst bamboo, explode carbide, discharge firecrackers and other fireworks much to the annoyance and discomfort of persons in rural and urban residential areas.

In addition, dogs are terrified and all too often run away from where they are kept, all in a desperate effort to escape the noise generated by the explosives. What is troubling is that despite the annual pious declarations by the Police the age-old custom continues. It is not enough, however, for the Police to issue warnings, but should act with some measure of dispatch when residents make reports to them of persons setting off fireworks in their neighbourhood in clear contravention of the Acts Commissioner Paul has quoted and, ipso facto, the law. In turn, many of the fireworks give out sharp and loud noises which sound very much like those made by firearms. This adds to the unease of concerned residents, particularly no doubt because of media reports of the illegal and criminal use of firearms. By all means persons should seek to enjoy their Christmas, but certainly demonstrate respect for the concern and well-being of others.