Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Amery Browne has rub­bished the Prime Min­is­ter’s “vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship”, cit­ing her re­cent at­tack on in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors, break­ing her op­po­si­tion promise to re­duce traf­fic fines—and now, mak­ing el­der­ly and poor peo­ple prey to some un­scrupu­lous me­chan­ics.

Speak­ing in yes­ter­day’s Sen­ate de­bate of the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic (Amend­ment) Bill 2026, Browne, not­ing the pres­sure the pop­u­la­tion is un­der with the bill, point­ed out that the au­to re­pair in­dus­try is un­reg­u­lat­ed and un­su­per­vised.

“... Me­chan­ics are now liv­ing in Dis­ney World! It’s hap­py times for T&T me­chan­ics. Thou­sands are be­ing dri­ven to their doorstep—and they’re at their mer­cy!”

Trans­port Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our, pi­lot­ing the bill, said it was draft­ed “un­der the vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and re­flect­ed strong, re­spon­si­ble lead­er­ship.” The bill seeks to im­ple­ment fixed penal­ty warn­ings for traf­fic vi­o­la­tions with three to sev­en days to fix is­sues.

Browne said he would have ex­pect­ed Za­k­our to apol­o­gise to the pub­lic for the bill, but Za­k­our in­stead found a way to try to cred­it the Prime Min­is­ter for the bill.

“If this is vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship, this is the type of lead­er­ship T&T can do with­out. Where was this ‘vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship’ yes­ter­day on the eve of this de­bate when the na­tion was stunned by an at­tack on the in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors?” Browne added on the Prime Min­is­ter’s con­tro­ver­sial re­marks on the in­de­pen­dents.

“We have to be able to dis­agree while al­so be­ing will­ing to de­fend one’s right to say it—that’s PNM’s per­spec­tive ... To use the rhetoric de­ployed by the Prime Min­is­ter isn’t ‘vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship’.”

Browne said the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to dou­ble traf­fic fines on Christ­mas Day had bur­dened peo­ple dur­ing a bleak hol­i­day pe­ri­od, when tens of thou­sands had lost their jobs and were strug­gling to keep their ve­hi­cles—of­ten es­sen­tial for earn­ing an in­come.

“I can­not imag­ine any­thing less ‘vi­sion­ary’ and more wor­thy of con­dem­na­tion. These in­creas­es are un­prece­dent­ed ... peo­ple asked if the Gov­ern­ment was try­ing to lose the 2030 elec­tion in 2026,” Browne added, not­ing out­rage from every­where. He said the is­sue oc­curred when there was a State of Emer­gency on, mak­ing Gov­ern­ment’s be­tray­al of the peo­ple worse.

Cit­ing the in­con­ve­nience caused for mo­torists with huge lines at Li­cens­ing of­fices from night time, Browne said the Gov­ern­ment has now put the pop­u­la­tion at the mer­cy of an un­reg­u­lat­ed, un­mon­i­tored, un­su­per­vised, un­sup­port­ed au­to re­pair and me­chan­ic in­dus­try.

He added, “It’s a free-for-all out there. Many cit­i­zens will nev­er see an au­to deal­er­ship to fix their ve­hi­cle; they’re at the mer­cy of a me­chan­ic in­dus­try. There are some good me­chan­ics—a few—but many prey on cit­i­zens, es­pe­cial­ly the el­der­ly, youths, or those lack­ing means.”

Browne said the three-busi­ness-day pe­ri­od was in­suf­fi­cient to fix is­sues. “This fur­ther demon­strates how dis­con­nect­ed Gov­ern­ment is from the lived re­al­i­ties of peo­ple who vot­ed for them! It’s a free-for-all with me­chan­ics—they’re hav­ing a good time. You’re find­ing peo­ple jump­ing from me­chan­ic to me­chan­ic, and me­chan­ics have no li­a­bil­i­ty in this mat­ter.

“Parts may be hard to find, a me­chan­ic may sub­sti­tute the wrong part, and some­one in San­gre Grande may have to go far and wide to get a part.”

Browne said if the is­sues aren’t fixed in three days, fines have to be paid plus re­pairs still have to be done and paid for. “How is that fair, com­pas­sion­ate, or ‘vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship’?!” he asked.

“Roll back these in­creas­es to­tal­ly! Dou­bling the fines isn’t as­suaged by a three- to sev­en-day warn­ing. The Prime Min­is­ter may not be able to de­crease it be­fore the elec­tion, but she should at least bring them back to where she met them ...” he added.

Browne slammed the in­crease af­ter the Prime Min­is­ter’s promise in op­po­si­tion days to re­duce fines, “Promis­es made—promis­es cer­tain­ly not kept!”

He not­ed her op­po­si­tion-days com­plaints of po­lice bul­ly­ing mo­torists, not­ing these of­fi­cers are be­ing re­ward­ed for is­su­ing max­i­mum traf­fic tick­ets.

He said Gov­ern­ment com­ments about “bul­ly­ing” and “pow­er trip” were iron­ic “... giv­en their ridicu­lous, dis­re­spect­ful com­ments yes­ter­day about mem­bers of this cham­ber.”

Browne said the PM’s op­po­si­tion days of call­ing for an al­ter­na­tive to a high fine, “... is now a dou­bling of a high fine—that’s what this min­is­ter is of­fer­ing as a form of ‘vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship’.”

Slam­ming the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mu­ni­ca­tion on the is­sue as an “un­mit­i­gat­ed dis­as­ter”, Browne said the 2026 Bud­get pro­vi­sion al­low­ing the im­por­ta­tion of old­er ve­hi­cles “set up” the pub­lic for fine in­creas­es.