Governance before gangster lyrics

WAYNE KUBLALSINGH

AN UNIMAGINABLY powerful, consistent and solid approach is needed to knock out criminals in TT. Criminals reign in all the percentages, including among the political classes. Pity the poor house, business or land owner whose very being, essence, existence is being extorted by the daily fear of death. However, since only a tiny minority of citizens of the republic own licensed firearms, emptying the barrels, chambers or magazines on home or business invaders cannot be a conclusive challenge to criminals.

In the US the constitution grants the ordinary citizen the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment of this constitution declares: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Firearm ownership is plentiful, ubiquitous. Men and women are constitutionally allowed to carry firearms on the streets, public events, rallies, marches and in homes, farms, other businesses.

The "stand your ground" and "empty the clip" principles are of relevance and impact to that society. Whisking dicta and precepts out of the air, from jurisdictions with other histories, for short-term political gain will not carry us very far.

Three years ago, I began, along with Nazma Muller and other activists, a campaign for criminal justice reform. For six months we stood on selected days outside the offices of the Minister of National Security, the Attorney General, the Chief Justice, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Prisons highlighting the cause.

The administration of criminal justice is the nation’s key instrument, weapon, for attacking criminals. For combatting felons, high and low. It comprises the police, judiciary, the Offices of the Attorney General, the Minister of National Security, the DPP, the Prisons Commissioner, among others. If these components are slow, not working adeptly and synchronously, not locked in steps, or badly administered, justice suffers. Victims suffer, unimaginably. And criminals, sensing weakness, as pupils sensing weak teachers and principals do, pounce.

We sent letters and a dossier of cases and information to all of the above components of the system. We lobbied leaders, from both sides of the parliamentary divide, in front of the Red House. We met with the DPP, the Commissioner of Prisons, and I held virtual meetings (as covid19 had set in by them) by a representative of the Office of the Attorney General, Faris al-Rawi.

The Minister of National Security, outside whose office we lobbied most, refused to meet. The parliamentarians refused to raise the matter in Parliament as we had lobbied. We had held a press conference outside the Port of Spain office of the Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. We delivered our letter and dossier. She did not respond.

Our meetings with the DPP and the Prisons Commissioner were informative and progressive. Both offices showed real ambition for reform. It did not seem to us that any of the elected officers, all ministers, were interested in concerted criminal justice reform. After two meetings and much correspondence with the officer from the AG’s office, I learnt that the AG was pursuing incremental reforms. Not major or concerted reforms. This brought our liaison to an end.

I have ever found it puzzling that neither the PM nor the Opposition Leader was interested to take cogent, comprehensive and urgent action on criminal justice reform. Dr Rowley gets more outraged, it appears, by outrageous cricket than by outrageous crime. And emptying the chamber or clip cannot be a comprehensive, cogent or solid approach to suppressing and destroying the crooks and criminals, aplenty, in our midst.

I have just complete five years of work on a manifesto, A Promise to Fight, Manifesto 2025-2040. There are sections on crime and criminal justice reform. The fundamental premise of this manifesto is that the Government is no longer in a position, due to income shortfalls and an outdated governance model, to provide basic services at an affordable rate to citizens, or to defend them against inflation, or raging threats like crime.

The people are defenceless, the social contract broken, their powers usurped, unable to manage or combat the oncoming challenges. Criminals cannot be quashed unless the people are involved. All the people!

The manifesto proposes that constituency by constituency civilian-led units are built: [1] Form a small group of friends or colleagues, a handful, six or seven. [2] Get copies of your constituency’s polling division (PD) map and electors list. [3] Study constituency and PD boundaries, and electors list. [4] Walk the constituency. From each PD enlist a volunteer PD captain. [5] Study the PD map and electors list with each PD captain, leave copies. [6] Invite all the PD captains to a congress. Instruct the captains on their roles. [7] At the congress, elect a civilian constituency leader or chief. [8] Formalise a congress of CSUs. Each PD is one CSU headed by a PD captain. [9] Instruct PD captains on protocols for working with police and citizens. Establish a CSU. [10] What’sApp/Facebook/Instagram group in each PD. [11] Establish procedures for 24/7 monitoring and swift alerts to police and citizens.

We require a new government, entirely, to establish proper constituency government, a board, constituency chief, a secretariat and PD captains, with a proper chain of command to Cabinet and the PM. To re-establish law and order and give full authority to the above measures against criminals.