Kamla doubts Trinity Cross removal

“My concern with this Government has always been the issue of implementation,” she told reporters, during the tea-break of the sitting of the House of Representatives.

During her years in Parliament, Persad-Bissessar said, she had heard many promises made but never carried out, such as the Police Reform Bills which have been approved by Parliament but not yet implemented by Government.

“So much pressure was put on us and the national community to pass the police legislation, but up to now it’s not been implemented.”

With respect to the Trinity Cross, she said the Government has a general pattern of non-implementation. “I will believe it when I see it happen.”

Persad-Bissessar said the Government should have been guided by the 1997 report of the previous committee under Justice Michael de la Bastide which had investigated the Trinity Cross issue.

“Related to implementation is the question of whether this committee is just another delaying tactic.

“The Prime Minister has said they will not go into the August awards this year without the new scheme, so I say I will wait for implementation and believe it when I see it.”

Persad-Bissessar repeated the concerns she had earlier told the House about the composition of the investigating committee. “I would have thought that the sensitivities would have mandated that a person of Muslim origin should have been included.”

Recalling that one of the petitioners in the court case was representing the Muslim community, she urged that the Government reconsider this omission.

Persad-Bissessar said that the Trinity Cross issue was not an anti-Christian act. She noted that both the Government and Opposition agreed that this is a secular State albeit one where many people believe in God. “So being a secular Sate, the highest award should be one that reflects everyone rather than one religious group in this society. But ‘anti-Christian’? No.”