PM hits ‘recalcitrant’ few

The Prime Minister on Wednesday warned the “recalcitrant minority” who continue to flout regulations to stay home as the country tries to control the covid19 pandemic. He said the force of law is with the State. “I trust that by now the population will understand that exercising outdoors and in public is not an essential activity,” Dr Rowley said. “I want to say that if it turns out that biology is against us, we will take further measures.” He spoke at a press briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

It wasn’t a matter of “somebody watching to see if you are behaving well,” he stressed, but rather, people must take it as a responsibility not to be recalcitrant, unco-operative, unreasonable or irresponsible, especially towards those who are senior citizens or who have a greater vulnerability.

For the most part, Rowley said, the general impression in TT is that the majority of people are co-operating with the stay-at-home requirements – and that’s a good thing – but it would not be TT if there were not a minority who feel they must go off in a different direction.

“I simply want to say to those people, it is not a question about numbers with this problem with this virus and its effect on the population. One person could be the difference between success and failure. And if you believe that, as you should, don’t be that person whose lack of consideration, irresponsibility or just total ignorance could cause other people to be in danger.”

This call for personal responsibility is not just because the government wants to push anyone around but because it is the only way to get out of the situation, he said. “We set off (not) using the law as a hammer to force people to follow and obey, because if we had any guarantee that obeying the law was the end of the process, then we would have gone that way from the beginning and said that the law says stay home and leave it at that and hope that nobody does anything wrong.

“But we know it doesn’t go like that,” the Prime Minister said. From the beginning, the Government has called for personal responsibility and make adjustments as circumstances demand. He said the focus was on two things – the rate and level of infection as a population, and dealing with those people who are still thinking “this thing is a joke.