Kamla says no to cashless Trinidad and Tobago, promises $$ to cops

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has promised a future UNC government will consider implementing monetary rewards to police officers as a strategy to incentivise them to work harder to reduce crime.

Persad-Bissessar also warned the creation of a cashless society would introduce a new level of dictatorship by the government.

She made this statement at a UNC cottage meeting in Chaguanas on August 26 as she offered party supporters a glimpse of the UNC's draft general-election manifesto.

While acknowledging there were rogue police officers, Persad-Bissessar believed there should be appropriate rewards for officers who did their jobs.

"There is a lot of demoralising in the police service, for many, many reasons."

Persad-Bissessar claimed some officers did not feel they were valued enough or treated as they should be.

"I think we should consider introducing a system of monetary rewards for police officers and divisions where crime is kept low and crime-fighting targets are met. We have to motivate them."

Persad-Bissessar added that all police officers, whether good or bad, received the same salary.

She told the Prime Minister that instead of seeking to remove Christopher Columbus's three ships from TT's coat of arms, he should focus instead on the "boats of arms and ammo coming into our country."

Persad-Bissessar reiterated that easier access to legal firearms, stand-your-ground legislation, raising the legal age to gamble and use marijuana from 18 to 25 and reintroducing a justice ministry were other features of the UNC's draft manifesto, which will soon be posted online.

Dr Rowley first announced a proposal to remove the ships from the coat of arms and replace them with the steelpan at a special PNM party convention at the National Academy for the Performing Arts  on August 18.

He said the new emblem would be phased in over six months.

Persad-Bissessar also promised free laptop computers and tablets for secondary- and primary-school students under an incoming UNC government.

After asking whether government would increase fuel prices in the upcoming 2024/2025 budget and condemning rising food prices under the PNM, Persad-Bissessar said the UNC was opposed to the creation of a cashless society.

At the launch of the National Financial Inclusion Survey Report (2023) on August 20, Finance Minister Colm Imbert welcomed the TT International Finance Centre's (TTIFC) efforts to push TT towards becoming a cashless society.

Persad-Bissessar said "We say no to removing cash."

She claimed a cashless society would create situations where banks could seize people's accounts, the government could seize money in the accounts of its political opponents and there would be "no privacy in a cashless society."

Persad-Bissessar said the UNC advocated the use of a hybrid system of cash and digital payments.

She said people had a right to spend and save their money in whatever way they wanted.

Persad-Bissessar raised questions about Tobago businessman Allan Warner, his son Aluko, and 11 other people charged with offences arising out of illegal quarrying in two separate police operations on December 2, 2023 at Vega de Oropouche, Sangre Grande and on May 2 at Moonan Road, Wallerfield.

They remain on bail pending the hearing of the criminal charges.

She told UNC supporters she has asked the party's attorneys to file freedom of information (FOI) requests with the relevant agencies to find out how the mining licences were obtained.

After recalling Warner was one of Rowley's best friends, Persad-Bissessar claimed Aluko was Rowley's godson. She said she would not be surprised if Rowley denied the claim.

Persad-Bissessar also said the UNC's attorneys would file an FOI request to find out whether recent dredging in the Sea Lots area was done to benefit one of Warner's companies which has a compound there.

Earlier in the meeting, Moruga/Tableland MP Michelle Benjamin condemned the government and the police for no arrests in the murder of mini-mart owner Enrico Guerra and his five-year-old daughter Anika on August 22.

"Nothing has been done. No action taken by the police. No arrest to date. How could it be business as normal for this government?"

Benjamin claimed that communities across TT had been turned into war zones under the PNM.

"They are playing games with our lives."

Benjamin scoffed at the recent appointment of Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland as Minister in the Ministry of National Security as a solution offered by government to deal with crime.

"We are dealing with coal-pot solutions."

In his contribution to the budget debate in the House of Representatives in October 2022, Scotland said he was prepared to use a coal pot for cooking and ride a bicycle to court, to save money on cooking gas and fuel respectively.

At the time, Scotland was defending policy measures outlined in the budget and rejecting claims from the opposition that government did not care about vulnerable people in the society.