Talk yuh talk, you ‘mocking pretender’

THE EDITOR: On Thursday UWI’s Political Department hosts a symposium on crime. Crime is totally out of control in TT and murders are taking place left, right and centre.

The criminals are of the view they are not likely to be caught and prosecuted for their heinous crimes.

And if no concrete solutions are devised and implemented by the Government, life in our country will soon become, for the great majority of people, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

And it goes without saying that the proposed solutions to abate and control the unprecedented scourge of crimes must be accepted and endorsed by the population at large.

Recently, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds told his colleagues in Parliament that they must not make the Harpe Place murders a political issue. But crime is a political issue. So I say to Hinds, “Talk yuh talk, you ‘mocking pretender.’”

Hinds had told the country that it was not his responsibility to devise or formulate a crime plan to assist the police in abating the escalation of the crime scourge.

My criticism of Hinds for this boldface and shameless assertion were published in the news media. I hereby wish to review same for public awareness. I stated: “The recent boldface and shameless revelation of Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister of National Security, that for the past seven years he has not devised or formulated a crime plan to assist the police in abating the escalation of the crime scourge in our country is scandalous. It is an abdication of his constitutional duty to the citizens of this country. And it is now incumbent upon the Prime Minister, Dr Rowley, to remove him from his Cabinet as Minister of National Security. He is an embarrassment to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues.”

Sections 75 and 85 of the Constitution are the legal basis of mandating the National Security Minister to devise a crime plan. Specifically, section 85 grants to him the constitutional authority to develop relevant policies and plans for the Commissioner of Police to implement. And section 75 makes the Cabinet and the National Security Minister directly accountable to Parliament for crime and national security.

The Ministry of National Security is the arm of government that has primary responsibility for ensuring and maintaining the safety and security of the people of TT. It is of interest to note that the news media recently raised the issue whether the Prime Minister still reposes confidence in Hinds or does he think it may be time to find somebody with better management skills, who, unlike Hinds, believes their duty as National Security Minister is to ensure that “people feel safe and secure.”

I note that Hinds had emphatically stated in the recent past that it was not his duty to ensure that people feel safe and secure – he said it was the duty of the police to do this and not the National Security Minister.

So, Fitzgerald Hinds, in the wake of the recent murders in our country, you are still talking yuh talk, you “mocking pretender.”

ISRAEL B RAJAH-KHAN SC

president

Criminal Bar Association