Killing of our women

THE EDITOR: In 1976, while I was a university student in Toronto, I would spend time in the library after classes to complete my daily assignments because of the traffic on evenings.

I would often take a break from school work by reading the Trinidad Guardian newspaper on evenings. The paper was sent to the library by the Trinidad consulate in Toronto. At that same time there were no internet or social media. As a matter of fact, even telephone communication was a challenge.

Those were the days of telex where the motorcyclist would deliver a paper message to my parents’ home almost a week after the message was sent from Toronto to Trinidad.

While the Guardian was a week old, or more, I would anxiously await its release from the library assistant, who coincidentally was from my village and who was also a university student.

What caught my interest then was the election of 1976 when the newly minted ULF, led by Basdeo Panday, got ten seats to form the Opposition.

The government was led by the late Dr Eric Williams.

One of the first sitting of the new Parliament was the debate on the runaway crime situation in general and, in particular, the disappearance of several schoolgirls.

Of the several cases of missing girls only one was able to be solved with the discovery of the body of a female student from the Couva Junior Secondary School. I recall that the school was a new creation of the government in its effort to increase school places. It was the neighbour to my alma mater, Couva Government Secondary.

The body of 14-year-old Joanne James, of California, was found in some bushes. She was one of several schoolgirls who had gone missing.

An arrest was made and a conviction was eventually obtained against the accused, a young pandit from Balmain, Couva. According to the police investigation, he would pretend to be a PH driver to lure his target to their untimely demise. He was caught by evidence from students from the school who testified in support of the police evidence.

The Opposition’s contribution to the debate in Parliament on the crime situation was interesting. The opening salvo was led by the new MP for St Augustine, Haffezar Khan, who could not help but cry for most of her maiden contribution. So too did opposition senator Dora Bridgemohan.

The convicted felon served his time in prison and was a beneficiary of a pardon, escaping the hangman. Today he is even a bigger pandit than before his conviction and sentence.

Then later on I recalled the disappearance of Omarie Nanan from Talparo, central Trinidad.

Again, the Opposition had a field day in highlighting the disappearance of another unfortunate student. The opposition charge with this incident was a trademark of senator Wade Mark, who made a mark with the disappearance of Nanan.

It is now more than 45 years that as a country we have had to deal with this scourge of kidnapping of our young daughters in particular and females in general. When are we going to get a handle on this frightening epic in our country’s history. Time is running out.

ROBERT RAMSAMOOJ

Chaguanas