sharlene.rampersad@
guardian.co.tt
The People’s National Movement (PNM) must step up its game and change strategies to deal with crime or they feel the brunt of the discontent of citizens with the spiralling crime rate when the general election is called.
This according to political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath. In an interview with Guardian Media yesterday, Ragoonath said he has been looking on the reactions of citizens on social media to the current crime wave.
“Looking on Facebook, I am seeing people who committed themselves to staying in T&T saying maybe it is time to start planning to leave because if the Police Commissioner can send his wife and son abroad, where does that leave the rest of the citizens and where can they go if they don’t have that kind of resources,” Ragoonath said.
He said crime is a critical issue and while people usually put on their blinders during election seasons and blindly support party politics, this current crime rate might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
He said claims by the PNM that someone is trying to push up the crime rate is not helping the situation. He said people want mechanisms that can deal with the ‘bad boys’ that are terrorising the country.
“In a way the rhetoric is one of propaganda to deflect and to put the issue back to a political perspective, that is not helping us, it is not helping the confidence of the citizenry and regardless of what the minister will say, I think that the majority of Trinidad and Tobago would state categorically that we have too many bad boys hanging around and the police simply cannot deal with them.”
Ragoonath said the government needs to change strategies and bring back the Air Guard and the National Helicopters to give citizens the assurance that all is being done to fight crime.