The UK’s visa ban: A condemnation of crime failure

JASON BROOKS

WE HAVE bought fuel from Jamaica, and now in another move that has plunged our nation into a state of regional if not international ignominy, the UK has, with immediate effect, imposed a visa requirement on TT nationals.

We need to be clear about what this is: a draconian measure that is not a mere administrative tweak but an acknowledgement of an exhaustion of diplomatic options and an unequivocal condemnation of our government’s abject failure to address the rampant crime epidemic that is corroding our society.

During the period of the PNM stewardship, our newly installed prime minister has been back and forth across the pond parading energy diplomacy as national triumphs in a congratulatory rhetoric a far cry from the grim reality experienced on our streets. Beneath this veneer of economic bravado and success, communities are besieged by relentless home invasions and larceny. Ordinary citizens are terrorised by criminals who operate with increased impunity.

Unfortunate is a kind word to describe what has occurred. Yet it remains an unforgivable indictment of national leadership that we have been forced to witness this new debacle unfold.

For over a decade, the Rowley administration shirked responsibility for crime by passing the buck to the police, the judiciary, and even faulting beleaguered families while the crime wave has swollen unabated.

In this regard, the former minister of national security stands as a monument to ineptitude, epitomising the lunacy of repeating the same feckless strategies and expecting a different outcome.

We also need to be certain of the following: the UK’s visa imposition is not an isolated punitive act; it is a harbinger of further radical measures from global powers currently demonstrating, as evident in the current global trade tariff chess game, clear tactics in defence of individual country specific interests.

These nations could soon escalate their isolation tactics by imposing targeted travel bans on individuals with criminal associations, levying crippling trade sanctions, or even freezing critical state assets. We must assume by the UK’s unilateral action that all cards are on the table.

Our small nation, bereft of the wherewithal to engage in a tit-for-tat diplomatic war due to a lack of oil and gas to use as trump (pun intended), now finds itself at the mercy of a world that is no longer willing to tolerate our domestic chaos.

Yet, it is patently clear that for crime to be substantially reduced, our struggling economy must also be revitalised, offering more opportunities for all. A thriving economy is the bedrock of social stability and without it the vicious cycle of crime will persist.

I use this word cautionary, but revolutionary and certainly out-of-the-box measures to revitalise the economy and for citizen safety are now imperative to rebuild public confidence.

We can only wait to see what initiative, if any, the new Prime Minister will implement this week before he calls a general election. We have had a full-blown Carnival, with a murder in the heart of St James on Carnival Tuesday following two of the largest bands on the road, rendering the current state of emergency a feckless crime-fighting manoeuvre.

Is it therefore safe to assume that the government’s myopic belief that escalating crime would never provoke drastic international measures has now been brutally exposed.

Now we know without a doubt that our failure to act decisively as it relates to crime can invite further punitive actions from the global stage, and, let us make no mistake about this, rampant crime within our borders can condemn our nation to perpetual isolation.

Even as we tremble at the brink of what most citizens feel as ostracism from the UK, we await the manifestos of the parties vying to carry us forward in the forthcoming 2025 general election.

Yet, with a heavy heart, we are all too aware that the front runners, supported by those willing to cast their ballot, who will largely vote between the two, are likely to offer nothing new. We may well be resigned to accepting our fate as a country that once was doomed to remain trapped in a vicious cycle of ineptitude and despair.

It is high time for a, and I again use this word cautionary, revolutionary overhaul. I await with bated breath manifestoes of radical and innovative crime-fighting strategies paired with aggressive economic revitalisation programmes. Only through such bold, transformative policies can TT hope to restore safety, reclaim its international standing, and provide a future where every citizen can prosper without fear.

The UK playing its hand by this visa imposition is a stark reminder that the international community is clearly watching what we are allowing to occur within our borders. If we do not act now with unprecedented urgency and resolve, we risk being relegated to the annals of nations that fell from grace, forever mocked as a country that could not protect its people, and from which other countries need to be protected.

The time for half-measures, incrementalism, business as usual, and complacency is over. My children and our nation’s survival depend on it.