The re­al is­sue in the present and im­me­di­ate fu­ture is what hap­pens now that the Gov­ern­ment’s first long-term an­ti-crime mea­sure, the ZOSO Bill, has been de­feat­ed.

To re­mind read­ers and the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion, the leg­is­la­tion, de­feat­ed in the Sen­ate main­ly by those sit­ting on the In­de­pen­dent bench­es, was to pick up from where the State of Emer­gency (SoE), which end­ed on Sat­ur­day, left off.

Clear­ly ab­sent in the present are per­ma­nent and rel­e­vant poli­cies and in­tend­ed plans, pro­grammes and mea­sures to un­earth and con­quer the root of crim­i­nal­i­ty which has been plant­ed in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Gov­ern­ment must, there­fore, move ur­gent­ly be­yond the threat of the fresh im­po­si­tion of a SoE, if the crim­i­nals do not “be­have them­selves,” to con­crete ac­tion.

The stark re­al­i­ty of the present is that the in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion of T&T can­not be one that is not en­cour­ag­ing to in­vestors, tourists and those vis­it­ing for pro­fes­sion­al pur­pos­es; as in­di­cat­ed by a re­cent US ad­vi­so­ry on trav­el to the Re­pub­lic.

Be­cause of such a sta­tus, it has to be as­sumed that the Cab­i­net, the Po­lice Ser­vice led by CoP Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, the min­is­ters and the min­istries in­volved in crime re­pres­sion and pun­ish­ment, are hard at work con­tem­plat­ing al­ter­na­tives to the de­feat­ed ZOSO.

Of im­por­tance in do­ing so, the Gov­ern­ment must be mind­ed of two crit­i­cal mat­ters: one, if it seeks an­oth­er set of leg­isla­tive mea­sures to counter crime, it has to be pre­pared to ne­go­ti­ate them through the Par­lia­ment with log­ic and com­pro­mise.

The sec­ond re­al­i­ty is the need to start a new set of pol­i­cy pro­grammes and mea­sures which are geared to­wards cre­at­ing at­trac­tive spaces to per­suade, even com­pel, es­pe­cial­ly the young, to trans­form their think­ing and so­cial be­hav­iours.

If there is not such an ap­proach, the Gov­ern­ment and so­ci­ety will al­ways be seek­ing to cope with the next gen­er­a­tion of crim­i­nals and their gangs.

That the coun­try has reached the point of vi­o­lence, which is ev­i­dent in the be­hav­iours of young peo­ple in the home, on the streets and in whole com­mu­ni­ties, means what is des­per­ate­ly need­ed are so­cial pro­grammes to trans­form think­ing and ac­tions.

We, there­fore, wish to­day to re­mind the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion that while they con­test the cause of elec­toral pol­i­tics, there is a five-year time frame to it. In the in­ter­im, they must work to­geth­er in the in­ter­est of those who vot­ed them in­to of­fice.

To achieve such a mea­sure and qual­i­ty of co­op­er­a­tion in the na­tion­al in­ter­est, the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion must ar­tic­u­late and demon­strate re­spect and mean­ing­ful con­cern for so­ci­ety.

There will be time and oc­ca­sion for po­lit­i­cal con­flict with­out re­straint; now is not that pe­ri­od. The present de­mands all those with or­gan­i­sa­tion­al force and roots of sup­port amongst the elec­torate to think of and work to­wards con­sen­sus on mat­ters of na­tion­al im­por­tance.

A new re­spect for the lead­ers of the na­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go must sure­ly at­tend a con­struc­tive ef­fort to have the crim­i­nals sur­ren­der to rea­son and for a new peace to come over the land.