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For some weeks this column had been focused on the good, the bad and the ugly of Carnival and its component parts.
Last week, I returned to commentary on the government charades that are passed off as effective governance—on that occasion, dealing with the haphazard situation in respect of the donation of blood and its distribution to critically ill patients, despite the Minister of Health’s vainglorious statements that the system would be “revolutionised”.
Today, this column is forced to turn readers’ attention again to the charade of deflecting the governance responsibility for violent crime, particularly with the spy, quadruple murder and Valsayn fatal child abuse reports dominating last week’s headlines. One overseas reader described the reports as “head spinning”.
It took a long time for the government to admit that there was a serious crime problem subsequent to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s notorious and shameful labelling of a murder as “collateral damage”.
The current Prime Minister has finally accepted that we have a serious and widespread crime problem. However, having made that admission, the Government is still wondering who or what has produced the murderers.
Such wonderment lacks credibility, especially as the Government attempts to answer its own question by beating the same bobolees or introducing new scapegoats for the prevalence of violent crime—usually accompanied by an excuse why the Government cannot act effectively.
Photo: OPM
What possessed Minister Donna Cox reportedly to rush to blame Valsayn neighbours for the undetected child abuse?
There is an established pattern of killing emanating from the respective turfs of state-funded projects and the business of a narco-state. In the face of that problem, the most destructive governance deficiency hurting us every day is the inability of our governments to contain the violence or even pay attention to or sincerely care about the socio-economic imbalance, which nourishes gang recruitment.
There is also concern about the complicity of elements in the wider society within an environment which does not regulate political campaign finance.
Photo: UNC
Responsible citizens are required to continue to hold the government to account. One difficulty in doing so by voting them out is the unattractive Opposition leadership, now made even less appealing by squabbling over who should get a pick on what the late great Lloyd Best would have probably called “a pick-up side”.
During a discourse last week, the Prime Minister reportedly referred to a new Government effort regarding campaign finance “to bring forward legislation in this calendar year for debate and passage”. See Trinidad Express, 7 March 2024.
That discourse contained a reprise of the theme of blaming the lack of stricter bail legislation, which, without Opposition support for its passage, he alleges leaves the criminals “out on the street”.
(via newsday.co.tt)
Notably, the blame game was taken dangerously further. The Express report begins by summarising that the Prime Minister said “law-abiding citizens feel wronged by some of the decisions made by the courts in favour of criminals”.
Despite nice words about not being critical of the Judiciary, the Prime Minister showed his true hand when he reportedly said: “But we believe that there are times when we see certain decisions that [make] the criminals smile.
“The general sentiment, I think, is that the criminals feel better off in the court than on the streets because sometimes one gets the impression that the care and attention of the rights of the criminal supersedes the trauma of the victim.”
But what is a court to do if a poorly presented prosecution case is presented?
On 13 March, the Express reported proceedings before a High Court judge, a former director of Public Prosecutions, who was quoted as saying that “maybe the reason why the state was failing to successfully prosecute many individuals was because of the low quality of evidence” and made mention of “five criminal cases”.
The judge was also quoted as saying: “When so many accused people are found not guilty, it also undermines the legitimacy of the court system in the eyes of the public.”
Seeking to undermine other persons and institutions may be a cheap thrill for the government, but how does government’s extension of the blame game save us from the ravages of rampant violent crime?
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Martin G Daly SC is a prominent attorney-at-law. He is a former Independent Senator and past president of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
He is chairman of the Pat Bishop Foundation and a steelpan music enthusiast.
