Political analyst Dr Indira Rampersad says the Government could have tried deploying more soldiers
and police officers on the streets before resorting to declaring a state of emergency. "I always advocated that the military should have been out there. Just the mere presence of the military on every street corner
could have made a difference. "I've seen it in Latin America. It has an impact on criminals," she told the Sunday Guardian in a telephone interview. Rampersad added: "They could have tried deploying the military but one of the arguments against that was that army personnel were not authorised to arrest.
"I thought the police could have moved with the military so that arrests could be effected when they were
necessary."
She said such "network (Police and Army collaboration) should continue even after the state of emergency" is lifted and once the issue of "corruption in the police service" is addressed as there would
"be no point" to "have police all over the country" if aligned with the criminals. "The military and the police should be all over the streets. I like to see their presence," Rampersad said. While she believes that such an option could have been utilised,Rampersad is in full support of the state of emergency which she sees as "an effort to crack down on crime, which has been escalating over time and to which there seemed to have been no solution." She said, too, that in many ways, the "country was already under
curfew" since a lot of people hardly went out after 9 pm and that the state of emergency was having
"a psychological impact" as it showed "the criminals that the government was serious."
Some level of success
"From what I am seeing in the news and the amount of weapons they have recovered recently, I
don't see the state of emergency as being an abject failure. "I see some level of success
and therefore it would augur well for the People's Partnership," Rampersad said. She added: "Those images as they are coming over the media, are having a powerful impact on the population.
"I don't bank too much on the number of people being held. But the weapons, the bullets and the diesel
issue augur well...showing that something is being done, and even if they don't find anything else (hypothetically), I still think that the effort would have been complimented." The political scientist said that
in spite of this, the Government needed to be wary "not to set expectations too high" so that there would
be no disappointment when certain things are not accomplished.
"People are expecting, for instance, that crime is going to be eradicated completely but I don't think
that could realistically happen in the near future," she said. Majority on Government's side Rampersad said while there were "pockets of disenchantment" among certain factions of the population, the polls indicate that "the majority of people"were on the government's side. She said: "I think, by and large,
when I look at some of the news polls, the majority of people are in support of the state of emergency,
its extension and the reduced hours.
"They're generally supporting the Government on this move and I think that despite the criticisms
of the Opposition, the government has the population on its side." Rampersad said while this
was the case, this "short term"measure employed by Government needed to be complemented by "medium to long-term measures, social measures." "The medium to long-term measures involve the reform of the police and prison systems and trying to deal with delinquent,unemployed youths which are both going to take time. "If you don't deal with those issues that are the root cause of crime in the country, then you're going to still have a problem and there is an argument that there is no
connection between poverty and crime and very little connection between unemployment and crime,"
she added.
Extend the hotspots
She said while it was "foolhardy for the PNM to criticise" the hot spot areas as instruments of discrimination especially since the areas were originally identified by them, the Government ought to have revisited them and expanded its remit. "I think it was an error in some ways to use the PNM hot spots because at that time when those hot spots were identified, there have been more hot spots, the hot spots have increased. "For example, I think Curepe could have been designated a hot spot and
some might even argue, Tunapuna. "I think it could have been extended, not because there is the perception that it is discriminatory, but because crime is high in these areas," Rampersad added.
T&T's image couldn't get worse In dismissing the view that the country's international image and investment potential could be further compromised by the state of emergency, Rampersad said
foreign perception "has been very bad for a very long time" and "could not be worse." "I travel a lot and the perception out there was not positive before the state of emergency.
It was terrible. I did a survey in the US on how the T&T diaspora feel about coming back to invest in T&T in 2007 and none of them wanted to do so because of crime," she said. Rampersad added: "As a student studying abroad I was terrified about coming back and being part of this society." She added that the international community may see T&T's declaration of a state of emergency as a good thing as it may be impetus that encourages them to look at us and say "finally, government is getting serious."
Not a lot of trust in polls Rampersad added that as a political scientist, she was surprised over the fact that an independent poll showed that the People's Partnership had successfully managed to ride out the many unpopular waves that have rocked its political boat over the past year and three months.
She attributed such a feat to the Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in June this year. "The Government, I think, had reached the height of its unpopularity just before the reshuffle
and its popularity started to climb afterwards. For one, you don't see ministers talking out of time and out of place anymore. You had a lot of that going on before. "They've been moving along quite well since the reshuffle and there has been an improvement although that an independent poll has shown that
they never really declined even at the height of all the unpopularity," Rampersad said. She added that while they were "still not totally ordered", there appeared "to be some sense of settling down" and lauded their "communications bureau"-which was added to the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the reshuffle-"as doing a better job in projecting the Government."
Rampersad said, too, that polls were "snapshots in time " and therefore, "not always accurate."
"I don't even have a lot of trust in polls myself because people lie. People say what they think is politically correct especially in ethnically plural societies where they may be perceived as racist or biased," she added