Persad-Bissessar has low expectations of crime conference

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Monday said she had low expectations of the Caricom conference on crime, Violence as a public health issue – the crime challenge, but out of respect for other Caricom leaders present, she would await the conference's outcome before commenting further.

Unlike previous cases of opposition absence from government-run events, she led a team of her MPs and senators at the event at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain.

Speaking to reporters early on Monday after the Prime Minister's presentation, she said so far she was unimpressed.

"I don't see anything going forward for action."

She said Rowley's remarks that murders were bad last year and could get worse was "an expression of hopelessness."

Persad-Bissessar said she would like to see the conference generate an action plan against crime, not just talk about things everyone already knew.

"The Prime Minister should have given us some indication, 'We know this is it, this is what it is, but we want to consider today: one, two, three, four, five.'

"What we'd like to see today is an action plan. At the end of the day you analyse and come up with an action plan, and then of course implement the action plan."

She disagreed with Rowley's criticism of her plan to split the Ministry of National Security into two units (ministries of defence and home affairs), as she said the current ministry was clearly overburdened. Persad-Bissessar accused the Government of ignoring the Opposition's suggestions on crime.

Urging real action, she said, "People are mortally afraid. The country is in dire straits."

"Yes, Caricom can help us, but we have unique issues. How can it help us with our porous borders? How can it help us with the under-resourcing and under-staffing of the Office of the DPP? (And) all the other things – the TTPS." She also named the judiciary and fire service as national issues.

She scoffed at TT (alongside other Caricom nations) joining Mexico's lawsuit against US gun manufacturers, asking if TT would also sign on to an anti-knife or anti-cutlass lawsuit. "It is total nonsense. That case was already lost. What is TT doing there?"

Persad-Bissessar did not view crime as a public health issue, but as national security and socioeconomic issues.

"We have to deal with the economy, we have to deal with education and with youth. We have to give opportunities for all. If we don't deal with that, calling it a public health issue will give us what? Will you take a valium?

"It is not a public heath issue but it causes public health issues.

"The whole premise of this symposium, in my respectful view, is misguided."

Asked about a possible state of emergency, she said she would await the conference outcome, but reiterated the need for an action plan.

Persad-Bissessar said after a Caricom agricultural symposium held in TT, this country had not yet submitted its report, as she wondered if the current event would end similarly.