For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has crit­i­cised the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion’s han­dling of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, de­scrib­ing the gov­ern­ment’s crime plan as a rolling “state of emer­gency” based on “pub­lic ma­nip­u­la­tions”. Dr Row­ley not­ed that those now in pow­er once mocked his ef­forts to treat vi­o­lent crime as a pub­lic health is­sue.

“Id­iots and the crim­i­nal­ly charged are in gov­ern­ment,” Dr Row­ley wrote in a so­cial me­dia post, adding that sev­er­al gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials “bring noth­ing good to the ta­ble ex­cept ha­tred and bias”. He ar­gued that lead­er­ship is now viewed as an “en­ti­tle­ment” used to pro­tect cor­rupt prac­tices.

“This then be­comes the coun­try, as hope shriv­els and faith in the fu­ture is lost. When that hap­pens, the qual­i­ty of life for the whole pop­u­la­tion di­min­ish­es,” Dr Row­ley said.

His com­ments come de­spite re­cent sta­tis­tics re­leased by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, which claim a sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ment in pub­lic safe­ty. Ac­cord­ing to gov­ern­ment da­ta, se­ri­ous re­port­ed crimes fell by 30 per cent in 2026 com­pared to the same pe­ri­od in 2025, drop­ping from 3,413 to 2,397 re­ports. Vi­o­lent crimes re­port­ed­ly de­creased by 32 per cent, with the North East­ern Di­vi­sion see­ing the sharpest de­cline at 55 per cent.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s so­cial me­dia up­date as­sured cit­i­zens they are “safer un­der the UNC’s lead­er­ship”. How­ev­er, the quadru­ple mur­der on the La­dy Young Road, which claimed the life of a young girl, oc­curred just days af­ter these fig­ures were shared,