UNC Senator knocks state of emergency 'by vaps'

A day after the Prime Minister announced a State of Emergency and a curfew, UNC Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial is asking what are the regulations, powers of armed forces and limitations on constitutional rights, and most of all, why does the country not already know.

“Almost an entire day later, we are still asking... Where are the regulations? What powers will the police and/or army have? What are the limitations on the constitutional rights of citizens?

"Should this not have been shared at yesterday’s press conference instead of the usual outpouring of crassness?” she asked in a post on her Facebook page.

Taking government to task for not already having regulations available when the SoE was announced on Saturday, Lutchmedial said Trinidad and Tobago was operating on “vaps thinly disguised as responding to change and being guided by science.”

“Coming together to fight the virus does not mean accepting criminal incompetence and dereliction of duty. Simple acts of proactivity on their part could have saved lives and livelihoods.”

She added that the cause for the state of emergency – TT’s parallel health care system being overwhelmed – was a result of the PNM’s “incompetence”

“The health system didn’t collapse on its own. It buckled under the weight of PNM incompetence, just like our economy, energy sector and education sector.

“The failure to secure the border, the failure to procure vaccines in a timely manner, the failure to heed the warnings of the CMO about a potential surge in cases and the failure to reinforce our health sector to withstand such an uptick, were it to come, has all brought us here.

“And where are we? Where do we stand?”

She said businesses did not know if the list of essential services will change, if the opening hours will change, or how to advise their employees "

"It is most irresponsible to announce a state of emergency as not give details 24 hours later."