‘I did my best’

Former national security minister Brigadier John Sandy said he did his best but he always knew it wouldn’t be easy. Sandy said so during a brief handover ceremony with new National Security Minister Jack Warner outside the Abercromby Street ministry yesterday morning. Asked to describe his performance, Sandy initially responded that the question should be put to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as he did not want to judge himself.

He quickly added that during his tenure, “Murders subsided by 15.8 per cent, serious crime by 15.4 per cent.” Asked if he felt he did his best, Sandy responded: “I did my best. I did not get the results that I would have liked, because every crime is one too many.” He said citizens will agree there remains a need to reduce crime.

He then said if he were to judge himself as National Security Minister, “I would do so with some degree of satisfaction. I have put my best foot forward in all areas.” Sandy said he “could sleep comfortably in the night, knowing that I did my best.”
He said, however, from early in his tenure something happened that made him realise his efforts would not achieve total success.

He said he was congratulated by many people and organisations on his appointment as minister in 2010. But three weeks later, during a friendly discussion, one of his predecessors Brig Joseph Theodore, made a joke that made him laugh. He said the Sunday papers published the picture of him laughing and there was criticism of his laughing while people were being killed. “So I am not supposed to laugh,” Sandy said. “So I told my wife, ‘You see?’” he added.

He said he expected that level of unfair criticism, but would have preferred if the media had highlighted some of the more positive developments in the fight against crime. Sandy welcomed a proposal by Warner to consider reintroducing the police Flying Squad. Sandy said he would support the effort and also the new minister. He was not willing to comment on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s offer to him of a job abroad.