Diego Martin Central MP Dr Amery Browne says he is concerned about the latest development in the alleged plot against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three members of her Cabinet in which an Islamic leader has been questioned and detained. The man is a Princes Town resident and educator. Dr Browne accused the Prime Minister of casting "nebulous aspersions on members of the Islamic community" and hurting the image of T&T. He said the more appropriate way to handle the situation was to proceed with "quiet investigations and threat management." He added: "The Government was so anxious to extract sympathy from the potential threats that they did not properly think through the implications of their poor public communications in the matter."
At last Thursday's post-Cabinet press conference, the Prime Minister confirmed that she and three members of her Cabinet were the subjects of an assassination plot, which she described as an "evil, devious act of treason". Reports are a police sergeant and two former members of the Defence Force, are among suspects who are in police custody in connection with the plot. National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy, who finally broke his silence on the controversial issue on Saturday, is reported to have said the plot "is real." However, Dr Brown is not convinced. In an interview, yesterday, the opposition MP questioned the motives of Persad-Bissessar and claimed she was using the situation to distract the public from the "real issues."
"The Government hopes that by creating maximum sensation from this they would distract the population from their non-action on Jack; their broken promises on crime, traffic, and flooding; the miraculous changes in fortunes of Ish and Steve; their inability to stimulate the economy; their failure to provide textbooks to the children; the persecution of a school principal and the obvious incompetence that have characterised this UNC/COP cabal." Browne said it was not a coincidence that the alleged plot was "trumpeted to the public" on the same day that the deadline expired for Attorney General Anand Ramlogan "to file an appeal in the Ish and Steve case" and right after a trade union leader declared that the movement would be seeking to "kick the PP out of office."
Browne added: "No threat against any citizen should be taken lightly, but the PR-heavy approach taken by this Government is at variance with what is done even in the USA when threats are detected against President Barack Obama. "This is the modus operandi of this Government: weekly political distractions and PR gimmicks. They fooled the population on May 24 2010, but they should not continue to take our citizens for fools," he said.
Business community adopting a wait and see approach
Peter Kanhai, President of the Greater Tunapuna Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said while it is too early to determine whether the alleged plot, which made headline news across the world, would negatively affect the business community, he is adopting a wait-and-see approach. "I do not foresee any negative effects in the immediate future but we will have to monitor and see what the effects will be in the medium to long-term basis."
Kanhai said more needs to be done to address rising crime, which he said remained the number one issue affecting the country. The Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce said the situation did not auger well for Tobago which is still grappling with the effects of the global economic downturn.
Member and former vice chairman of the Chamber, Ricardo Huggins, said the Government needs to "retain the confidence" of foreign investors and prove that they had "full control" of T&T's security issues. He also called on the Tobago House of Assembly to work harder to promote the island in a more positive light.