Pres­i­dent of the Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union Vin­cent Cabr­era says there is po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in the work of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Dwayne Gibbs. Cabr­era said so in re­sponse to Gibbs' de­ci­sion not to al­low the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's re­quest to hold a pub­lic meet­ing to dis­cuss the 2012 bud­get in Bel­mont last night. Gibbs de­nied the re­quest in­di­cat­ing that the coun­try was now un­der a state of emer­gency. Cabr­era, in a state­ment, said: "The re­fusal to grant per­mis­sion to the elect­ed Par­lia­men­tary Op­po­si­tion clear­ly il­lus­trates (a) def­i­nite po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence or at the very least an un­war­rant­ed and un­de­sir­able po­lit­i­cal in­flu­ence on de­ci­sion mak­ing by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice."

Gov­ern­ment de­clared a state of emer­gency in Au­gust and was sub­se­quent­ly ex­tend­ed to De­cem­ber. There is al­so an 11 pm to 4 am cur­few in ef­fect.

Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials said the state of emer­gency was im­posed to deal with the crime prob­lem in the coun­try. It was de­clared as the labour move­ment in T&T was prepar­ing for a na­tion­al strike.

Cabr­era said from the de­c­la­ra­tion of the emer­gency trade union­ists had in­di­cat­ed that the move was tar­get­ed at them. He said the trade unions had warned since then that the state of emer­gency was "an elab­o­rate ruse by the Gov­ern­ment to block trade union ac­tiv­i­ty and grow­ing pub­lic dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the Gov­ern­ment." He said the Gov­ern­ment had "de­scend­ed to ex­ploit­ing the pub­lic's fears and anx­i­eties on crime for the more sin­is­ter pur­pose of sup­press­ing pub­lic protest and opin­ion." Cabr­era said the re­fusal of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment's re­quest for a pub­lic march in To­ba­go and the PNM meet­ing in Bel­mont test­ed the Prime Min­is­ter's claim that the state of emer­gency was on­ly about crime and not trade union and po­lit­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

He said the "trick­ery on the pop­u­la­tion has been cov­ered by the scan­dalous fa­cade of pap­pyshow ar­rests" for park­ing tick­ets and gang-re­lat­ed ar­rests which were be­ing thrown out of courts dai­ly. Cabr­era said Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader, Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Prakash Ra­mad­har, had added "salt to the pub­lic wound" when he sug­gest­ed that the PNM should live in har­mo­ny with the Gov­ern­ment. "His state­ment is a cod­ed mes­sage to sug­gest that the PNM (pub­lic) meet­ing will com­prise a threat to good or­der in Trinidad and To­ba­go," Cabr­era added. He said the state of emer­gency "cha­rade" should be stopped and urged cit­i­zens to speak out and stand up in de­fence of the cher­ished rights to free­dom of as­sem­bly and ex­pres­sion.

He said it was not about sup­port for the PNM but de­fend­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly guar­an­teed rights and free­doms. Cabr­era said Gibbs' de­nial of per­mis­sion for the PNM to hold the pub­lic meet­ing "was a se­ri­ous mat­ter." He said a prin­ci­ple was a prin­ci­ple which must be ad­hered to re­gard­less of who was in po­lit­i­cal of­fice.