The authorities are not helping us

THE EDITOR: I totally agree with your editorial of April 19 2005, entitled, Mr Joseph’s Authority. I have followed the rise in the crime levels since the PNM came into office in late 2001 and over this time, the government has seen it fit to change the leadership of the National Security Ministry from Mr Chin Lee to the present Mr Joseph as the man in charge. Personally, I think he is a total failure at the job and should be replaced. He is not only a failure at his portfolio with regard to his crime fighting strategies, but also with his neglect of the Fire Services part of his ministry. His political skills at “spinning” the truth about the crime statistics and especially the astronomical number of murders and kidnappings are atrocious.

His belief that everything is okay and we are all safe is so full of it, he should be ashamed to even utter the word for the fear that sensible people will laugh him out of town. I realise that a part of his job is to try and put the best face on bad situations. But you can only do that for so long and on only so many issues, before it starts getting totally ridiculous, which it has become. Now with the latest fiasco of the Fire Service and its lack of operating water hydrants and other fire fighting equipment to manage a relatively small fire in downtown Port-of-Spain that became a towering inferno that almost burned down half the city. How does he explain the failures of the fire service? How does he sweep this one under the rug?

How does he “spin” his way out of this one? Where are the fire hydrant inspection reports, the requisitions to replace the salt water pumps and other paperwork to back up the CFO’s contentions that it is not his fault that things were not in place as they should be? The minister should be demanding to see these. The answers are in his remarks at the post-cabinet news conference last Thursday. He sought to blame the media and “the people” for not giving him the authority to do things the way he wants to. He felt he was being held accountable for the failures within his ministry but he was not being given the authority to go along with the job. All he had to do was look over to the PM and see where the problem is.

The PM is his boss and if he felt he did not have the authority to “fire up” the “slacker” civil servants, then talk to the PM and write the appropriate legislation and pass it in Parliament to give you the authority you seek. I guess he is talking about the way the laws are set up that do not allow him to “fire” a civil servant for not doing their job. These workers have so many rights and protections under their contracts through the PSA that it is damn near impossible to get rid of anyone for their incompetence.

Well, I feel that his government, since it was in power and running the country for most of the last 40 plus years, since our independence, has helped to create the “monster” we have with the kind of dependency syndrome mentality that has fostered to get votes and will allegiances. We are now reaping the fruits of all that nepotism and cronyism, with no one being held accountable or responsible for not doing what they are being paid to do. The government knows what they need to do to fix the problems, but they are afraid to do anything to affect their “base,” thus giving an edge to the Opposition. So, it is very unlikely that anything will ever change. Why? Because we like it so!

KELVIN C JAMES
Port-of-Spain