Govt, Opposition head for more crime talks

Speaking with journalists following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Alutrint Ltd and the China National Machinery and Equipment Corporation (Cemec) at the Hilton Trinidad, the Prime Minister said: "When I go back in the office today, I will take steps to contact Mr Panday."

On November 18, Government and the Opposition made an historic agreement in the House of Representatives to move ahead on several key anti-crime legislative initiatives. These included the controversial Police Reform Bills (which the UNC had previously refused to support in the absence of constitutional reform in Trinidad and Tobago), amendments to the Bail Act, and the establishment of gun and kidnapping courts.

Earlier this month, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday said certain principles still had to be satisfied before the UNC supported the new anti-crime proposals advanced by Government.

He identified the method of selecting a police commissioner, and protection of human rights and civil liberties as some of those principles.

At a November 24 post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Manning said Government would give the Opposition a week to review the legislative package before meeting with them to forge a consensus before bringing the legislation back to Parliament. Government and Opposition have yet to meet since Manning returned from his overseas engagements in Israel, Malta and the United Kingdom.

During last Friday’s sitting of the Lower House, Junior National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds and Princes Town MP Subhas Panday blamed their respective, opposing political parties for the anti-crime legislation’s failure to get to Parliament. The Senate sits today at 1.30 pm to debate the National Lotteries Amendment Bill 2005, while the Lower House sits on Friday at 1.30 pm to open debate on the International Criminal Court Bill 2005.

Today there will be a public meeting of the parliamentary joint select committee (Government ministries, statutory authorities and State enterprises-I) with officials of the National Security Ministry at the Red House at 9.30 am.