PM shifting blame for crime

THE EDITOR: Trinidad and Tobago, under the current Government, is in the most deadly period of its history. The average number of murders per year between 2020 and 2023 is 506. The previous highest average was 484 murders per year between 2015 and 2019, under the same government. Our nation is in crisis and yet our Prime Minister’s biggest concern at the moment seems to be directed at the music we listen to.

Music, and art in general, has always stood as a reflection of the experiences of the makers. Calypso, for example, has a history of criticising the economics, social issues and government of the day. People have always and will always sing about what they see and what they have lived through.

The prevalence of Trinibad music, then, is not the problem. It is a result of the crime situation in the country. The state of crime is such that just last year there was a national conversation on whether or not people should invest in owning private firearms as a means of home and business protection.

Why has it been allowed to get to this point where innocent civilians, many of whom in that conversation were part of the older generations, are resorting to such extreme considerations? This, along with the growing distrust of the police and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds stating “My duty is not to ensure that people feel safe,” is an indictment of the Government’s failed attempt to quell the issue.

The fact of the matter is our taxes are already used by the Government to purchase firearms, put those tools in the possession of police officers, pay those officers, purchase the vehicles they drive, top-up the gas needed to run those vehicles, and pave the roads they drive on.

Taxpayers' dollars pay for every step and every stone in the process of getting an armed police officer to your location to protect you from break-ins, robberies, etc. Any ineffectiveness of this system, then, cannot be held against the public, but rather speaks against the management of the Government.

It is shameful that, instead of improving and using the already built and financed systems more effectively, the Prime Minister and his Government choose to accuse our music of being the cause of criminality in the country. More embarrassing is that this misguided step does not seem to be his own idea as it is just a parroting of Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali's sentiment during the 46th regular meeting of Caricom heads in Guyana.

Some 4,445 people have been murdered in Trinidad and Tobago (at the time of writing) since Dr Rowley became Prime Minister in 2015. We are in the bloodiest decade that our country has seen and instead of properly and effectively utilising the tools given to him, the Prime Minister decides to disrespect the voters of this country by shifting the blame and responsibility onto his own electorate.

STEVON JAGGASAR

via e-mail