"Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.''
-Benjamin Franklin
Now that Parliament has begun to debate whether to extend the state of emergency, it is fair to say that Trinidad & Tobago remains bitterly divided over the issue. In the ''No SoE'' corner, there are those like me who oppose the state of emergency for a host of reasons. Among other things, we have cited what we believe to be an unprecedented attack on our civil liberties; an attack that we surely feel has no place in any democratic society. We have looked at the large number of wabine being dressed up in sharks' clothing, the pittance of drugs, guns and ammunition seized, the criminalisation of entire communities, and have felt ever more justified in our stance as the days go by.
Since this thing began, we have been at pains to point out that a state of emergency is just that; a short-term emergency measure that can never be a permanent solution to a crime problem that has been allowed to run rampant for decades. If we were really to believe the hype, and buy into the fact that without this state of emergency, the authorities wouldn't have apprehended two alleged gang-members from Sea Lots-who in supposedly running from the long arm of the law, drove all of five minutes down Wrightson Road, checked into the most high-profile hotel in the country, and, instead of lying low and biding their time, threw lavish pool parties and ran a bevy of ''hoes'' in that well-to-do establishment-then the proverbial crapaud has well and truly smoked our collective pipes.
We have also expressed serious concern that many small businesses and self-employed people will suffer needless economic harm as a result of this decision. It is one thing for a businessmen to be quoted as saying that they are in favour of the state of emergency. Their wealth, added to the fact that their ventures are probably all insured to cater for situations like these anyway, ensures that the financial pitfalls are not that significant for him. But the doubles vendor on Brian Lara Promenade who must pack up his wares by the latest 8 pm in order to beat the curfew, or the single-mother working in KFC who has had her hours cut just as the new school term beckons, may well see things differently.
Opposing us in the ''Yes SoE'' corner, are those who look at the relative calm on the streets-only three murder in two weeks, arrests of alleged gang members, a smattering of drugs, guns and ammunition seized-and have come to the conclusion that they now live in a version of Greek Utopia. They berate journalists like myself for being serial complainers. We are the same ones who had been complaining for years about consecutive administrations doing nothing about crime, and now that this government has taken the bold and courageous step of calling a state of emergency to deal with the criminal element, we complain about that too.
By their logic, anyone suffering from a persistent cold that has yet to yield to conventional medicine, shouldn't be too alarmed if the doctor decides to cut off their nose. I mean, you had been complaining about your runny nose for weeks now, and now that something has been done about it... In the 2006 film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Djimon Hounsou, the rebel warlord General Poison, played by the smarmy David Harewood, was notorious for offering captured prisoners a choice between a ''short-sleeved'' option and a ''long-sleeved'' one. The ''short-sleeved'' option entailed General Poison hacking off the arm at the elbow, while the ''long-sleeved'' one offered a slight respite and rendered the arm chopped off nearer the wrist. Either way, the arm was doomed.
For Trinbagonians then, is there any real distinction between living under a de facto curfew that the bandits had long since imposed, and one which now has government ratification? Those in favour of the state of emergency have taken to painting anybody who doesn't agree with it as somehow complicit in the criminality that has plagued our country. They say that it is high-time that we decide what is important to us: Either we want to lime and party all night like a bunch of wajangs in St James, or we want to live in a society that is largely free from crime and violence. This may come as a surprise to them, but Trinidad & Tobago is a fully functioning democracy-or at least we do very well at pretending to be one-and in this instance, I would like to have my cake and eat it.
It is imperative that any government elected by the people ensures that its citizens are able to exercise full constitutional rights of assembly and movement-by partying until fore day morning if they so chose-and live in a society that is largely free from crime and violence while doing so. Patrick Manning's PNM administration was ousted largely because it failed in its responsibilities with regards to the latter. This People's Partnership should be under no illusions, though, that a similar fate awaits should it continue to ride roughshod over the former.