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Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Crime, construction, collusion

by

Guardian Media
548 days ago
20231203

The de­vel­op­ment of a coun­try is nei­ther easy nor a lin­ear process. Some­times na­tions are be­calmed and the pace of de­vel­op­ment is slow and jerky. Sharp bursts of growth are fol­lowed by pro­longed paus­es. In­sti­tu­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty may lag so­ci­etal needs and the laws fail to keep pace with the changes. The na­tion­al in­ter­est may not mean the same thing to all in­ter­est groups as com­pet­ing in­ter­ests ex­ist. The po­lit­i­cal process and elec­tions pro­vide an op­por­tu­ni­ty to elab­o­rate an ap­proach and de­vel­op a con­sen­sus. The win­ning par­ty has five years to ad­dress the pri­or­i­ties.

Shap­ing the com­mu­ni­ca­tion to fo­cus on so­lu­tions to ex­is­ten­tial prob­lems is a pri­ma­ry func­tion of gov­ern­ment. The key ob­jec­tive is to main­tain law and or­der, to keep the peace and con­di­tions sta­ble so cit­i­zens can get on with their lives. The Gov­ern­ment should on­ly in­ter­vene to cor­rect the weak spots or un­block lock jams where sys­tems are not work­ing or un­fit for pur­pose. If the sys­tems are not work­ing, then the in­ter­ven­tion be­comes a mat­ter of some ur­gency. T&T is at a stage where ur­gent in­ter­ven­tion is re­quired as the lev­el of crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty is reach­ing the point where it has the po­ten­tial to desta­bilise so­ci­ety as we know it.

The de­te­ri­o­ra­tion has been slow but steady. Suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments have con­tributed to, if not ex­ac­er­bat­ed the cur­rent crime wave. The mur­der rate was steady be­tween 1988 to 1999 av­er­ag­ing 100 mur­ders per year. Since 2000 the mur­der rate has in­creased steadi­ly and to­day we note a pro­lif­er­a­tion of au­to­mat­ic and se­mi-au­to­mat­ic weapons on the streets, in videos on so­cial me­dia as young gang mem­bers show they fear none.

The road to hell is paved with good in­ten­tions. Last week, this news­pa­per high­light­ed the pro­ces­sion of com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers with whom there was at­tempt­ed di­a­logue, and all have been despatched to the great be­yond. The po­lice ap­pear in­ef­fec­tu­al. Mur­ders have tak­en place in front of and close to po­lice sta­tions. In­ter­dic­tion ef­forts are pre­sent­ed as pub­lic re­la­tions ex­er­cis­es rather than se­ri­ous de­tec­tive work. A cache of weapons is found 1.5 kilo­me­tres in­to a forest­ed area af­ter months of sur­veil­lance work, but no one con­nect­ed to the cache has ei­ther been de­tect­ed or ap­pre­hend­ed.

All the avail­able ev­i­dence sug­gests that a large part of the crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty and ri­val­ry as­so­ci­at­ed there­with re­sults in a bru­tal war for turf, gov­ern­ment con­tracts, and “pro­tec­tion” mon­ey. The pres­i­dent of the Con­trac­tors’ As­so­ci­a­tion and a promi­nent con­trac­tor both called on the Gov­ern­ment to do more to erad­i­cate the “pro­tec­tion” rack­et as gangs de­mand ex­tor­tion mon­ey, or “em­ploy­ment” of their mem­bers if the con­struc­tion ac­tiv­i­ty is to pro­ceed.

Fail­ure to com­ply leads to at­tacks on le­git­i­mate em­ploy­ees or “ac­ci­dents” in the work­place, an un­of­fi­cial sys­tem of “tax­a­tion”.

Every­one, not on­ly con­trac­tors, is af­fect­ed as are le­git­i­mate busi­ness­es in many parts of T&T. This is the log­i­cal out­come of keep­ing com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers “fed” with URP or main­te­nance con­tracts on gov­ern­ment make-work pro­grammes, whether they are called “Colour me Or­ange” or URP. The re­sult is the same. It aids and abets the growth of an un­der­world, an in­cip­i­ent mafia.

This is a na­tion­al emer­gency, a clear and present dan­ger to the na­tion­al in­ter­est. Elect­ed of­fi­cials on both sides of the po­lit­i­cal di­vide must talk and act. The time for po­lit­i­cal pos­tur­ing is long gone. The ar­eas on which both par­ties must col­lab­o­rate, with­out pre­con­di­tions, are en­er­gy pol­i­cy and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty. The coun­try needs lead­er­ship to­day.

Editorial


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