Ke­jan Haynes

Re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ex­pert Garvin Heer­ah is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to im­ple­ment a na­tion­al cri­sis man­age­ment plan, warn­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains un­pre­pared for emer­gen­cies rang­ing from nat­ur­al dis­as­ters to se­cu­ri­ty threats.

Heer­ah said Fri­day's pan­ic, fol­low­ing re­ports of De­fence Force con­fine­ment, showed “how close we came to chaos.”

“Yes, it was con­cern­ing with re­gard to the pan­ic, the anx­i­ety and lit­er­al­ly the tip­toe­ing close to chaos that took place yes­ter­day,” he said. “We saw mis­man­age­ment of in­for­ma­tion that might have em­anat­ed from an of­fi­cial alert with­in the De­fence Force, which end­ed up in civil­ian hands and ran wild.”

He said the in­ci­dent should serve as a wake-up call. “It was a good thing be­cause it should have switched the light on in the room — the crit­i­cal need now for us to ap­ply prop­er cri­sis man­age­ment and crit­i­cal think­ing.”

Heer­ah urged the Prime Min­is­ter to es­tab­lish a Na­tion­al Co­or­di­na­tion Task Force to com­mu­ni­cate with the pub­lic and over­see na­tion­al pre­pared­ness. “This is time now for us to form up the Na­tion­al Co­or­di­na­tion Task Force that can speak to the cit­i­zen­ry once a week, keep us up­dat­ed, eval­u­ate in­tel­li­gence and threat analy­sis, and com­mu­ni­cate ac­cu­rate in­for­ma­tion,” he said.

He said evac­u­a­tion plans and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions re­silience should al­so be re­viewed. “If we have to face a cer­tain type of alert or es­ca­la­tion dur­ing work­ing hours or a school day, how are we plan­ning to evac­u­ate the city? Is our telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion band­width able to deal with the up­load of ex­ces­sive calls, texts, and so­cial me­dia in pan­ic mode?”

Heer­ah added, “Peo­ple had no di­rec­tion, no co­or­di­na­tion, so they went in­to a pan­ic. To have calm, we need pro­to­cols, prin­ci­ples, and a plan.”

For­mer Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Gary Grif­fith said bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion was es­sen­tial to pre­vent fear and con­fu­sion. “Thir­ty-five years af­ter the at­tempt­ed coup, we are en­coun­ter­ing a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion. Whether re­ports of army con­fine­ment are true or not, the pop­u­la­tion re­quires time­ly, fact-based com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the au­thor­i­ties,” he said.

Grif­fith said the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre, cre­at­ed af­ter the 1990 Com­mis­sion of En­quiry, was meant to en­sure re­al-time co­or­di­na­tion be­tween agen­cies and the pub­lic. “The Min­istry of De­fence and the NOC must be ful­ly func­tion­ing to dis­pel ru­mours im­me­di­ate­ly. If any­thing is fac­tu­al, the pub­lic should ac­quire the facts to pre­vent ex­ag­ger­a­tion.”

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front Mick­ela Pan­day said the Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments about not know­ing why the De­fence Force was on high alert raised con­cerns about co­or­di­na­tion at the high­est lev­el. “Cit­i­zens aren’t ask­ing for clas­si­fied in­for­ma­tion; they’re ask­ing for con­fi­dence that their lead­ers are in­formed and in con­trol,” she said.

De­fence Force mem­bers were con­fined to camp on Fri­day un­der what mil­i­tary sources de­scribed as a “State One Pos­ture” — a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure in­tro­duced amid in­ter­na­tion­al re­ports of an im­mi­nent US strike on Venezuela.

Sources said troops were in­struct­ed to re­port for ac­count­abil­i­ty checks, kit in­spec­tions, and readi­ness ex­er­cis­es, but stressed there was no di­rect threat to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Sev­er­al schools and busi­ness­es closed ear­ly as cit­i­zens sought to stock up on sup­plies, prompt­ing the Prime Min­is­ter to ap­peal for calm.

Speak­ing to re­porters out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said there was no rea­son for alarm.

“At this point in time, gen­tle­men, ladies, we have no cause for con­cern. If and when that hap­pens, I will share it with you as soon as it comes to me.”

Asked if the Gov­ern­ment had a plan for such an event see­ing that there are drills for earth­quakes or hur­ri­canes, she in­ter­rupt­ed “I don’t know if we prac­tise for hur­ri­canes. I’m not sure we do. In all se­ri­ous­ness, with the great­est of re­spect, I don’t think it’s ap­pro­pri­ate to share what­ev­er a plan may be or what­ev­er the plan is. These are na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ters. They are ex­ceed­ing­ly sen­si­tive mat­ters.”

When asked what the pub­lic should do in that event, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “The pub­lic should be do­ing about their busi­ness. Keep safe, keep strong, and al­ways put your faith in the Almighty. And they’ll be fine. We will be fine. Again, I as­sure you, if there is any cause for con­cern for Trinidad and To­ba­go, I will share it with you.”