N Touch

UNC warns election violence; PNM says ‘paranoia’

THE OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) is warning of violence in future elections in TT if its supporters are intimidated in any way before the July 14 Local Government elections. However the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) dismissed the Opposition’s cries as nothing but “paranoia”.

Following a three-hour meeting at the Elections and Boundaries Commission’s (EBC) Frederick Street headquarters, UNC chairman Wade Mark alleged that UNC candidates were being offered hefty sums of cash by the PNM not to face the polls. Mark also claimed mock polling stations were being established to intimidate UNC supporters and these were illegal under the Representation of the People’s Act. He said the PNM was also using the “blue shirt army” of CEPEP to keep UNC voters away from the polls.

“This is a pattern which is emerging,” he said. “We have also discovered that there is a plot to steal these elections as the elections of 2002. We are concerned about the levels of intimidation, harassment and violence that could be unleashed on the voters of this country before and on the 14th. If the Police Commissioner and the police do not take action to protect the electorate on the 14th then we will have to take measures to ensure that our people are protected.”

The UNC chairman said the party would give its evidence to the police and had asked the EBC to arrange a meeting next week between the police and all parties contesting the elections on this matter. Mark said the UNC would also raise its concerns with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the international community. However PNM Deputy Leader (Policy) Nafeesa Mohammed said Mark’s allegations reflect “a high level of paranoia” within the UNC’s leadership.

ICC LOOKS FOR DEPUTY PROSECUTOR DESPITE US THREATS

APPLICATIONS ARE being invited for the position of Deputy Prosecutor, to head the Investigation Department of the International Criminal Court, even as the United States of America threatens to stop military aid to countries that support the international court, which was set up to prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes. A second post for Deputy Prosecutor of the Prosecution Division will be advertised sometime next year.

Prosecutor of the ICC yesterday announced that nominations or applications are being invited from interested persons to fill the post. Applications for this position must be filled by the applicant and do not need the sponsorship of any states or organisations. Deadline date is July 20. On July 1, the United States declared their intention to suspend more than 47 million dollars in military aid to 35 countries if  they failed or refused to give US citizens immunity from the tribunal. The suspension by the United States is expected to affect six CARICOM countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said, “our hope is to continue to work with governments to secure and ratify Article 98 agreements and protect American servicemen from arbitrary or political prosecution by the international court.”

The United States launched a worldwide campaign to get immunity deals signed, because it (the US) feared that the court would be used as a forum for politically motivated prosecutions against US citizens. Even as the US continues their campaign, the ICC yesterday continued its worldwide advertisements to invite applicants to fill the vacant position. The Prosecutor of the ICC stated that the position was being widely advertised because they wanted to attract applications from the best possible candidates representing many different nationalities, regions and legal systems. The release explained that relevant associations and organisations are also encouraged to cooperate in the search for a suitable candidate for the position. The candidate must have extensive experience in the investigation of crimes similar to those under the ICC’s jurisdiction or other types of organised crime such as terrorism or drug trafficking.

Applications sent to the ICC will be short listed by the Prosecutor and an advisory panel of prominent persons experienced in international criminal justice, to include the most suitable candidates in accordance with the Statute. The leading candidates will then be interviewed by the Chief Prosecutor. The final list of three candidates will then be sent to the Assembly of States Parties, who will select one person to fill the position. The successful candidate will be required to interact with national police and other relevant national authorities, inter-governmental bodies and other organisations at all stages of the preliminary examination and investigation, for which he is directly responsible. In addition the person will be required to provide strategic advice with relation to the investigation to the Chief Prosecutor.

DOMA: Thief and murderer, not bandit

The Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) wants the young criminal offender to be  referred to as a “thief” or “murderer.” 

In a statement yesteday,  DOMA said that the would-be criminal may be less inclined to start a career of lawlessness if he or she were referred to as a “thief” or “murderer.” “We in Trinidad and Tobago have developed a habit of reporting on criminals as ‘bandits’ and ‘gunmen’. It is our strong belief that the term ‘bandit’ and ‘gunman’ and does not connote all the negativity that may have been intended.” “Indeed, ‘bandit and gunman’ may have a somewhat glamorous connotation of ‘badman’ and ‘leader of the pack,’ which young minds may find attractive in the current context,” DOMA said.

The statemement noted that “the idea of being thought of as a thief or murderer may discourage many young minds still undecided about what choices to make.” The current practice of referring to criminals as “bandits”or “gunmen” is not sufficiently negative, DOMA said, and indeed may add to the glamour and attractiveness of crime. Accompanying the letter was an altered Newsday article in which the term “thief” was substituted for the term “bandit”in illustration of the point being raised by DOMA. DOMA said its suggestion comes in light the “chaos and despair creeping across the nation.”

Trade Ministry to scrutinise used car dealers

In an effort to enhance its image, the Pre-owned Automobile Dealers Association (PADA),  will only accept into its fold, those dealers who have been recommend by the Ministry of  Trade, said Kvaan Marajh, PADA’s group secretary and executive member.

The Association held its  official launch on Wednesday  at Valpark Shopping Plaza. The PADA is made up of about 35 dealers authorised under the new Regulations Act of 2003, which is overseen by the Ministry of Trade. “The Government has set up a system where the customer is protected. They have to approve registered dealers.” said Marajh in an interview. Marahj also believes this new system will curtail the waiting period for cars normally experienced by customers after they pay their deposits, a wait which in the past might have been as much as five months. Dealers, he explained, are now being licensed to import vehicles for inventory, an initiative which Marajh maintains makes business “a lot more customer friendly and safer for the public to purchase.” He does concede, however, that since duties have gone up and dealers are only able to bring in cars which are four years old or newer, costs are, in fact, being passed on to the consumer.

At present the list of registered dealers is at 92, said Marajh, noting though that there are many businessmen calling themselves facilitators who aren’t registered, don’t pay NIS, are not VAT registered and are getting away with selling pre-owned vehicles. PADA, he said,  has legitimised the pre-owned automobile industry and stressed that by setting up a parts network customers can go on a website and find what they need. It is projected that this will be onstream in six months, and it is expected to have a positive impact on available insurance coverage for pre-owned cars. Currently, PADA is evaluating prospective members through close scrutiny of their applications. According to Marajh, they will only accept reputable business people who are authorised by the Ministry and whose business operations are scrutinised by PADA. He noted that PADA “did not  want people who are just going to be around for two years trying to make a quick buck.” At present, the group is lobbying to obtain an extension on new regulations implemented by the Bureau of Standards regarding label requirements for tires.

After the hearings

THE COMMISSION of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project brought its public sittings to an end on Friday and, it seems, just in time since a rising controversy threatened to distract attention from the central purpose of its marathon exercise. It is unfortunate that the smooth running of the Inquiry ran into some legal turbulence with concerns expressed both by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Law Association about the way the Inquiry was being conducted. The emotional reaction of Chairman Clinton Bernard to these concerns, particularly to a caution with regard to prejudice issued by the DPP, was also quite disappointing. The Law Association Council has written to the President about this matter but Secretary Hendrickson Seunath SC declined to say whether it had asked for the Inquiry to be ended.

What will be the ultimate consequence, if any, of this dispute is left to be seen, but, as far as we are concerned, we are pleased that a public inquiry into one of the biggest scandals in the country’s history has been held and we now look forward to having the Commission’s report which, according to Chairman Bernard, will include its findings and recommendations. After 170 days of public hearings — perhaps the longest sitting of any such inquiry in our history — the task of the five Commissioners of reviewing and collating the mass of evidence it has elicited from scores of witnesses must be a difficult one. We hope, however, they would be able to complete their assignment by the end of August. This Commission of Inquiry is the result of an appeal by a number of respectable organisations in the country including the media, the Joint Consultative Council of the construction industry and Transparency International who were concerned with the highly irregular manner in which this massive project was conceived and executed and the recurring revelations of gross misconduct in almost every phase of its construction.

The massive body of evidence given before the Inquiry, however, turned out to be far more shocking than anyone could have imagined, producing an unbelievable picture of mismanagement, a total disregard for proper procedure and controls, all motivated by a greedy desire to milk the project and the public purse for all they were worth. Almost every day of the Inquiry produced a new and demoralising scandal; if ever a State-sponsored project could be described as “a feeding frenzy” this was it. We have steadfastly held the view, and we repeat it now, that such an outrage, such a callous and cold-blooded plundering of public funds as this project has proven to be, cannot be satisfactorily laid to rest until those responsible for indecently enriching themselves from it are brought to justice. Our society dares not overlook this horrendous display of corruption if it has any pretentions to self respect and commitment to maintaining moral standards. We cannot agonise over the level of violent crime, robberies and kidnappings, and remain complacent over the billion dollar criminal complicity that this Inquiry has revealed.

We expect then that the prima facie evidence elicited by the Commission, which will be detailed in its report, will form the basis for immediate investigations and indictments. This is the ultimate purpose of the Inquiry and we hope that the problems that arose during its hearing would not result in hampering this consummation in any serious way. It may be a painstaking legal process, but the Government must discharge its responsibility for dealing with corruption wherever and whenever it occurs in the State sector. It must move on to tackle other highly questionable projects and transactions such as the InnCogen and desalination plants and the WASA-Water Farms matter. Our country must have a zero-tolerance for all forms of criminal activity, not only those of the violent kind but also those by which public office is used for private and personal enrichment.

Caricom’s dream


After a period of 30 years, a new generation of Caricom leaders are of the view that they are getting somewhere in their chase for what, to them over the years, they had viewed as an elusive dream. The feeling is that they have at last hit the nail on the head, and unlike over the years at previous meetings, this new generation seems fired up with hope that the goal of Caribbean unity can be achieved. The leaders meeting here in Montego Bay at their 24th Caricom Summit seem convinced that a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is the answer to their hopes. At least one man, Barbados’ Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, is convinced. He should know because he is the Chairman of the CSME which was established in 1989.

Amidst the glitz and glamour of Wednesday’s opening of the 30th anniversary of Caricom, Arthur dished out a list of ingredients which he felt was the right recipe to catch that elusive dream. Arthur told his Caricom counterparts that he felt Trinidadian author CLR James in his book The Birth of a Nation” had got it right when he wrote, “Nobody knows what the Caribbean population is capable of…….nobody has even attempted to find out.” Arthur feels the creation of the CSME is the ultimate test to find out what Caribbean people are capable of achieving. This latest find he said had come in the wake of three centuries of a fragmented regional existence in which 14 societies  had evolved with 14 separate markets, divided by the most formidable barriers, and 14 separate economies governed by their own economic rules, laws, policies and institutions. Now these same 14 separate societies and economies were seeking to become one single market, free of economic and financial barriers, and one single economy governed by a common set of policies, rules and institutions. In his view, CSME, as a form of economic integration, had exceeded in its scope, among regional groupings, only by the European Union, which had taken over 30 years to carry out a similar exercise.

At the outset Arthur assured that the CSME belonged to the future, not the past, and it was in this vein he sought to pour in his ingredients. He said the CSME was for the young Caribbean entrepreneur with the right to set up his enterprise anywhere he wishes in the region. CSME, said Arthur, also belonged to the ordinary working man and woman in agriculture, industrial and tourism sectors — people who have long yearned in how to use the resources and develop their respective fields in order to provide sustainable livelihoods. Now this is where Arthur’s ingredients kicked in as to what CSME means. He said it belongs to the Barbadian fisherman who believes that he has an entitlement to catch what he regards as wayward Barbadian flying fish that have ventured into Trinidad and Tobago waters: Every Caribbean patriot who believes they should extend equal economic terms to each other as the same, no less favourable, as those granted to others outside the region: Also, the Guyanese artisan who yearns to showcase his tremendous talent to people in the entire region, and in doing so be treated with respect — same as any transnational corporation.

Arthur says CSME also belongs to the Jamaican higgler who seeks to make a living through hassle free travel; sports people and artists as well as media people and others whose existence depends on their having at their disposal a common economic space within which to ply their trade. It also belonged to those who have confidence to believe that they can create Caribbean companies with their own brands and transnational enterprises; and that they operate in a regional environment, for the first time, made fair for all. According to Arthur, it also belonged to those who accept that by granting themselves faster, deeper and broader liberalisation than granted to others, that they can integrate themselves into a new global economy as free men, living in a free state, on terms of their own making. While dishing out his ingredients Arthur warned that no one ought to be mistaken into believing they can achieve excellence without difficulty. Quite to the contrary. According to the Barbadian PM there was also need for a new intellectual ferment about the course of Caribbean development — a ferment that was rich between the 1940s and 1970s which inspired the movement to gain its first independence. Hence, it was his feeling that the creation of a single market and economy would be akin to assertion of a second independence by the Caribbean people. To achieve CSME he advised, there must in addition, be a new spirit of constructive engagement between the State and all stakeholders in civil society. But above all, he warned his Caribbean counterparts, “We must trust and engage the people.” Arthur insisted that it was these fundamental things in these unprecedented times that the leaders of the Caribbean “must set out to change.”

TV 6 in poor taste

THE EDITOR: It is normal to expect that on a religious holiday we would see programmes on television relating to that particular holiday.

I was therefore shocked when watching TV 6 Morning Edition on Corpus Christi to see a programme on another religion, not that I have anything against that religion. In our multi-religious country every creed and race should find an equal place. But surely that programme could have been aired on another day. Corpus Christi means Body of Christ and that is exactly what our Archbishop carries around the Brian Lara Promenade. It is not a picture or a symbol or an imitation but the real 100 percent body of Jesus Christ in the Host. To put a programme on another religion on that day is in poor taste.


DR RICHARD CLERK
Carenage

Unacceptable conduct

THE EDITOR: “ The evil that men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their bones.” My Clinton Bernard, a former Chief Justice and holder of the Trinity Cross, has derided and attacked the character of a former senior judge and Chief Parliamentary Counsel. He referred to him as a (I cannot write the word) and went on to say “sue me if you dare” knowing full well that Mr Justice Crane has died and in Trinidad and Tobago Mr Crane’s estate cannot sue.

Mr Bernard TC held high office in this country. Is this type of behaviour to be accepted? Mr Crane was a former colleague in the Supreme Court and prior to that in the then Legal Department of the Attorney General’s office (later the DPP and Solicitor General and Parliamentary Counsel). I have to say Mr Bernard’s conduct and utterances are unacceptable. I am of the view that His Excellency the President should order that the Commission of Inquiry immediately be discontinued.


MICHAEL JOHNSTON
Port-of-Spain

Free birth certificate?

THE EDITOR: This morning, Friday July 4, I visited the Registrar General’s Department to apply for the free birth certificate at the request of friends in the Rio Claro area.

I found out that one of the parents must apply in person. Any other person applying must pay the regular fee. This is a great hardship for parents from these far areas; it costs at lest $40 from Rio Claro to Port-of-Spain, added to the loss of a day’s work. So that it will cost more than $100 to obtain the free birth certificate. I wonder if this is really the intention of the project as announced.


ESAHACK MOHAMMED
Belmont

Post-Caroni jitters in Central

THE EDITOR: A quiet shudder is running through Couva and other sugar cane growing areas. This trepidation is largely linked to the fate of Caroni Ltd and what the proposed development is to bring. Most of us in Couva are glad to be rid of the low flying crop dusting aircraft which doused our homes with foul smelling pesticides aimed at froghoppers chomping the canefields away.

No one knows how many of us would be saved from respiratory ailments and cancers, now the dusters are gone. The real tragedy is the loss of the picturesque green fields stretching to the horizon and the spectacular glow of cane fires in the night. Mnay of us have caught birds and fishes, hiked, sucked canes, tethered animals. Heck, some even made love and conceived their children in the green fields (a dangerous practice now). A bigger threat may be looming on the horizon. The State, through its agent Mr Rao, stated that it intends to build houses and factories on Caroni’s lands in Couva and other areas. This is what is worrisome. The Point Lisas Industrial Estate cost us all our beaches. There once was Goodrich Bay, Monkey Point Bay, Point Lisas Bay and Carli Bay. Carli Bay is the only one which was not gobbled up by the industry.

Today it is plagued by a dump which is on its precincts. Point Lisas is bursting at the seams and the planners may be tempted to put some of these factories to the east as was done with Inncogen. East of Couva is upwind and spells trouble for all of us depending on what type of industry is placed here. In the late 1970s the State established a baggasse plant east of Dow Village, California. Over the years, when the plant was active, baggasse particles caused thousands of cases of respiratory ailments and a few suspected deaths. Most were glad when this plant shut its doors. We must at all cost not be hemmed in by plants in the east and in the west. Housing too brings its own share of perils. Several thousand new residents have moved into the Couva area over the years. With them came all day traffic jams and an increase in crime, especially burglaries and lately robberies in the business area. Most of these newcomers are indeed decent hard working people; however among them are a few well qualified rogues.

Minister Rahael stated that the East West Corridor is bursting at the seams and Central has the room for expansion. Herein is where the fears lie. Everyone hopes that Mr Rahael’s East-West expansion into Central does not mean a transplanting of the crime and shootings which have become a common part of the East-West landscape. One hysterical Indo-Trinidadian woman wrote me expressing her community’s fear of Minister Rahael and the PNM unleashing hordes of “big baigan” (she was not so modest) EW Corridor African men to rape and molest them. No double the lifestyles, landscape and social fabric of Couva would be altered drastically with these plans. Whether this would be progress remains to be seen. What is still a mystery is how an Indian national (Mr Rao of the Land Management Agency) is dividing up State lands in our Independent Trinidad and Tobago.


MC DONALD JAMES
Couva