Moonilal, Khan disagree on SoE

OROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has called on the police to ignore any orders from government to harass its political opponents during the state of emergency (SoE) that was declared on December 30.

Moonilal also agreed with Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar that the SoE was a political gimmick by the government.

But his former parliamentary colleague Dr Fuad Khan disagreed with Moonilal that the SoE would not be effective in treating with the specific security situation it is supposed to deal with.

They were commenting on a signed proclamation by President Christine Kangaloo to declare an SoE and comments about it by acting Attorney General Stuart Young and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds at a subsequent news conference.

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said Kangaloo declared the SoE, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister in accordance with Section 8(2)(c) of the Constitution.

At their briefing, Young and Hinds said the SoE was called to deal with intelligence from the police about reprisal killings by gangs on a large scale, using illegal high-powered firearms.

In a statement, Moonilal said, "I call on the police to resist the temptation to abuse their powers under the SoE and to flatly refuse to take instructions from this departing administration to harass, hound down and victimise political opponents of the PNM."

Moonilal, a UNC deputy leader and shadow national security minister, added, "An incoming UNC administration will hold the TTPS (TT Police Service) to account for all and any acts of abuse of innocent citizens under the guise of a SoE."

He supported Persad-Bissessar's view that had a SoE been implemented in January, 2024, it "would have led to saving hundreds of lives, if the government took heed."

Moonilal said, "All the anti-gang laws and crime-fighting legislation supported by the UNC have come to naught as a result of incompetence and cluelessness."

He claimed, "While millions have been spent on political witch hunts, the police have been emasculated without equipment, resources and crime-fighting technology."

Moonilal described the declaration of the SoE as impulsive and further evidence that government "has surrendered national security to vicious criminals with a stockpile of arms and ammunition in an environment of a low detection rate."

He said, "The makeshift plan (SoE) is another utterly confused reaction to an alarming crisis that has turned all of TT into a bloodstained hot spot."

In a video posted on Facebook, former UNC MP Dr Fuad Khan claimed the high crime rate was linked to Venezuelan nationals who were entering TT illegally.

"Our police are not ready and equipped to deal with people who have had two or more years of army training as a result of national service in Venezuela."

Khan said the problem had been worsened by the rash of illegal firearms entering TT.

"If we need to beat this problem. We have to use our army who are trained, to search and destroy an invasion."

While this may require special majority legislation to give the army powers of arrest similar to the police, he continued, government will not get opposition support to pass it.

Khan, a former deputy speaker in the House of Representatives, had no objection to the SoE.

"So I don't fault the government for using a hybrid SoE with no curfew and no disruption, other than the ability of the army to be utilised to go into specific places and (after) specific people and deal with the problem that we have right now."

Khan said police were "not really trained and capable of doing that."

He added that in treating with situations like crime, there was a need to be "objective and not political."

While he had no problem with political people criticising government about the SoE, Khan said he chose to be the former.

"I want to make sure that our country comes first."