Moonilal, Hinds butt heads in crime debate

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal and Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Fitzgerald Hinds went head to head in Parliament on Friday during a private motion brought to condemn the Government for its failure to deal with rampant crime.

Moonilal said the growing crime situation was creating a destructive culture among the country's youth.

"The conduct of children don't happen overnight, it happens over a period of time and, therefore, we all as parents must take responsibility for children. That is something that is missing in this crime debate, the importance of parenting and taking responsibility for children.

"She is a nice girl, he is a nice boy, don't bring them in the court. Take responsibility. Your child not supposed to be in the court with guns on the table, 'exhibit A.' Take responsibility instead of buffing up people."

He said in 2017 there was a spate of murders on Duncan Street and surrounding areas in Port of Spain. He said there were four murders a day and eight in one week.

"That was too much. We came up with a plan in collaboration with the police service to use the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) to fight crime. We constructed a Duncan Street police post and homework centre so the children from the area could go there and do their homework with professional help.

"It was also supposed to be the first solar-powered police station in the country. We had the latest state-of-the-art technology. When we opened, the MP for Port of Spain South was in high praise of the facility. Crime went down in that area."

Moonilal said the PNM accused the Partnership government of giving contracts to gang leaders. However, he claimed that Caribbean Facilities Corporation Ltd was a company they met working for the HDC under the Patrick Manning administration.

"They got the contract... Nobody got a contract except that company. They took away the purpose of the building. We supported those communities and continue to do so. In the Beetham, women under the Rose Foundation and a community group in Oropouche East were learning in the last six months to make Indian delicacies, including roti, for sale, to earn a living. We help more people in the Beetham than the PNM. Sometimes they don't see their MP, their MP don't help them."

Hinds, who spoke directly after Moonilal in the debate, agreed parents had a responsibility in dealing with crime and their children.

"Police have a responsibility that parents don't have. Parents have a responsibility that parents don't have. Teachers have a responsibility that parents don't have. The churches, the mosques, the mandirs, these are the people who have the responsibility for dealing with this social phenomenon of crime which is behavioural and because of a certain kind of socialisation. The Parliament has a responsibility, the Government."

Hinds claimed that when leaving office, the former administration awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Super Industrial Services (SIS) and one Krishna Lalla, however, he was never named.

"Not once you will hear his name called. So when the Commissioner of Police and Minister of National Security come before a joint select committee and speak in the way they do, they don't have to work very hard to convince me that the UNC has demonstrated it is possessed of criminogenic tendencies and associate with criminals.

"They do not like law and order. They function better in an atmosphere of disorder and feel they could fool us. They say the PNM did not do for black people. If the PNM did not do for black people, who did?"