Striving for peace and justice

THE EDITOR: The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) sincerely sends greetings and congratulations to all the people of Trinidad and Tobago on our 60th anniversary of independence.

We have much to celebrate in our country whereby we constantly strive to live a peaceful life with each other and thus make every effort to ensure within the context of the socioeconomic development of our nation that every creed and race finds an equal place and that there should be no discrimination against our people on the grounds of race, colour, gender, sex, religion or political affiliation.

The CBA notes that the preamble to our Constitution emphatically states that men and institutions remain free only when freedom is founded upon the respect for moral and spiritual values and the rule of law.

We embrace the sacrosanct principle of the presumption of innocence yet we have locked up in the filthy hellholes of our jails hundreds of people on the charge of murder awaiting a trial date for ten-12 years.

This is a national shame and disgrace that such undue delays have become the norm and there are no noticeable positive changes being made to reduce these delays.

Furthermore, it falls squarely at the feet of the Chief Justice and the judiciary who are mandated to deliver justice to the people that jury trials have not yet resumed, which has only added further undue delay.

In light of this injustice, there is a great need for a constitutional right for trials to be conducted within a reasonable time, thereby making it unconstitutional to have undue delay.

We also note that the same preamble to our Constitution states that we respect the principles of social justice, and therefore believe that the operation of the economic system should result in the material resources of the community being so distributed as to subserve the common good, that there should be adequate means of livelihood for all and that labour should not be exploited or forced by economic necessity to operate in inhumane conditions, but that there should be opportunity for advancement on the basis of recognition of merit, ability and integrity. Nevertheless, we carry on in a peaceful manner hoping and praying that things will get better.

We have no political prisoners in this country but the escalation of violent crimes for profit among the poor and dispossessed is pointing in a very frightening direction in which we can lose the entire country. The criminals are quite aware that they do not need guns and ammunition to bring this country to complete destruction. All they need is a box of matches and the twin symbols of our fragile democracy, the beautiful Red House and the Hall of Justice, will simply go up in flames.

Happy 60th independence anniversary, my people.

ISRAEL BR KHAN

president, CBA