The ultimate triumph
As is to be expected, the rumour mill has already begun grinding out various stories about who was responsible for Monday’s bomb in Port-of-Spain. But this kind of talk is largely pointless. We cannot know who committed this psychotic act until investigations are completed — and even then there is no guarantee that the investigation will yield any firm conclusions. In the meantime, citizens must "hold strain", and ignore certain agent provocateurs in our midst who, either because of loyalty to the Jamaat al Muslimeen or because they have been paid handsomely to do so, have been using their position as radio talks how hosts to imply that the bomb was a political plot to undermine the PNM government. This idea should be dismissed as the claptrap it is — yet there is no telling what people will believe when racial politics and gullibility collide. Still, we are sure that most citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are happy to hear that the United States Embassy and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are assisting the local authorities. This is not only because of the expertise the Americans bring, but because it sends a strong signal that the US government is taking very seriously a possible terrorist threat to its main trading partner in the Caribbean. That signal will, we hope, be heard loud and clear by the individual or the organisation who planted the explosive device in the rubbish bin with the intent, at the very least, of causing grievous bodily harm. The criminal elements in our society treat the local authorities with dismissive contempt, but we suspect they will not be so blase with the US agents. This is especially so given the efficiency with which the American authorities were able to locate, arrest, and convict Jamaat al Muslimeen member Lance Small earlier this year. Despite several bomb threats yesterday, it seems as if the Frederick Street bomb was an isolated incident. In a sense, this makes the act even more villainous, since there was no obvious purpose behind it save to cause mayhem and murder. And, even then, the perpetrator failed miserably. Such an act cannot have a political purpose, as most terrorist acts do - although history shows that terrorism is the most inefficient means possible for attaining political goals. It failed for the Irish Republican Army, the Basque separatists, the Muslimeen, and it is failing for al-Qaeda, except insofar as US President George W Bush is losing America friends far and wide because of the occupation of Iraq. In the meantime, Trinidadians have already begun going about their business as usual. This has been the case even in the capital city, to say nothing of the major urban centres in the rest of the country. This is exactly as it should be, because as DOMA president Gregory Aboud pointed out on Monday this is the best response to whoever planted the bomb. Such individuals, whether acting alone or as part of a criminal gang, get their sense of power from feeling that they can disrupt the lives of decent citizens. By showing them that their violent acts hold no real power over us, ours is the ultimate triumph.
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"The ultimate triumph"