It is good that the Minister of National Security, and we presume by extension the national security institutions and their leaders, recognises that this country remains a "soft target for terrorists." But what is now needed is for the minister to reassure the nation that his ministry, in conjunction with the security services, is doing something to ensure the country is, in the shortest possible time, no longer vulnerable to attack by international terrorists. The minister went on record in the Senate on Tuesday saying that international personalities, who may have adequate protection in their countries, may be open to attack here as the terrorists would see the loopholes in our security system. The minister, like is the wont of a number of his colleagues, spent wasteful time on the deficiencies of the Manning government in, among other things, not properly establishing the Financial Intelligence Unit to meet the standards set down by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international institution based in France that has the mandate to ensure that governments have a system that can detect the movement of funds to finance international terrorism.
The point is that if the FATF was not have pleased with the manner of the appointment of senior officials to the previous FIU, at least there was an institution and a watching eye over the possibility of the illegal movement of monies and money-laundering activities. Unfortunately, however, knowing the vulnerability of the country to terrorist activities, the PP Government dismantled what security apparatus and institutions were in place before establishing new mechanisms to protect the country from the said activities Minister Sandy has been talking about. Not necessarily in chronological order, the Special Anti-crime Unit of T&T was scrapped without replacement and the airship (blimp) was plucked out of the sky without a substantial explanation as to why. Today, there seems to be confusion over whether SAUTT is to be made legal and reorganised or whether it is to remain disbanded. The Government also cancelled the orders made by the previous government for the purchase of three offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) without, to this date, saying what is to be the alternative to the vessels to patrol and secure the maritime boundaries.
The SIA and SSA units were dismantled with major political fanfare, but so anxious was the Government to score political points that it made a complete mess of reorganising those security institutions by appointing a junior clerk to head the SIA, ostensibly with the task of reformulating the organisation.
In completely incomprehensible fashion, the Government ignored the laws of the country, in the same manner that it charged the PNM Government with doing, by usurping the functions of the Public Service Commission by making an appointment to the director position of the FIU. And as a means of attempting to obfuscate such a fundamental error, the Attorney General leads the pack in saying that the PNM breached the law. However, he has not been able to tell the population if the PNM errors make it allowable for the PP to commit the same. Every government has the right to review security and other systems made by a previous government, but the impression is being conveyed that this Government is, one, simply engaged in meaningless manoeuvring to score political points, and, two, committing unforced errors in the process. For a start, the PP has to get this PNM jumbie off its back and realise that from here on in it is the Government of the day that will have to take responsibility for failures. Retired Brigadier John Sandy could be allowing others to blemish his professional record.