Ameen: PM should not be part of crime talks

UNC vice-chairman Khadijah Ameen does not believe the Prime Minister should be part of Government-Opposition crime talks because he is not serious about dealing with crime. Opposition David Nahkid reiterated the UNC's claim that Dr Rowley is not interested in dealing with crime but only staying in office.

He claimed that Rowley has failed TT by his inactions on crime.

Ameen and Nahkid made their comments at a news conference at the Opposition Leader' s office in Port of Spain on Friday.

During the briefing which was broadcast live online, Ameen and Nakhid were erroneously identified as UNC Senators Anil Roberts and Damian Lyder respectively while they were speaking. The error was only corrected in Nahkid's case.

Reiterating that the Opposition still wants to have crime talks with the Government, Ameen doubted whether Rowley's attendance at such discussions was warranted.

Expressing a personal opinion, Ameen said, "Sometimes I wonder if Keith Rowley being there will make a difference."

In a signed letter to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on October 12, Rowley proposed that Government and the Opposition hold talks about crime immediately after the budget debate in Parliament.

He proposed a five-member government team led by Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, to meet with a four member opposition team to discuss several pieces of anti-crime legislation for passage in Parliament.

Rowley said the Government-Opposition teams will have the ability by majority vote "to co-opt the input of citizens by way of memoranda and/or consultation."

Persad-Bissessar has criticised Rowley for not leading the government's team at the proposed talks.

The Opposition has not yet selected its team. No date has been set for the talks.

Nakhid claimed that Rowley has only one concern.

"That is for the PNM to stay in power."

He claimed this is why Rowley has referred the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension project to the Parliament's Land and Physical Infrastructure joint select committee (JSC).

In a statement in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Rowley said this was necessary because the public needs answers to what happened under this project while the UNC-led People's Partnership (PP) coalition was in office from May 24, 2010 to September 7, 2015.

Former UNC government ministers Dr Roodal Moonilal and Jack Warner dismissed Rowley for sending the project to a JSC. Their former Cabinet colleague Stephen Cadiz said Rowley was within his rights to do this.

Moonilal, Warner and Cadiz were members of a ministerial oversight committee for the project that was chaired by Persad-Bissessar. Cadiz was unaware that this committee ever held any meetings.

Nakhid claimed the recent unsuccessful cyber attack on the Telecommunications Services of TT (TSTT). showed that "this government does not know how to keep us safe."

He also claimed that Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales was misleading the population that neither TSTT's data nor that data of its customers were compromised in that incident.

"These people (the alleged hackers) are professional crooks.Something went wrong and then they dumped it into the road. Everybody's bottom in the road."

Ameen reiterated the UNC's claims that the Government was not serious about local government reform and starving local government corporations of funding to justify the implementation of property tax.

Ameen said local government reform can help address crime through increasing the number of municipal police officers in each corporation to take the burden off of regular police officers.

On a recent statement by Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher about an initiative to allow police officers to take their leave on a phased and controlled basis, Ameen said, "Sending them on leave is a very short term solution."

She added that Christopher needed to outline what would be the longer term strategies to prevent police officers from burn out and protect their mental health.