Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

At this time in T&T's his­to­ry, a lev­el of col­lab­o­ra­tion may be re­quired to ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress cer­tain com­plex is­sues, such as crime - but crime, and oth­er is­sues of crit­i­cal im­port can­not be solved by games of "po­lit­i­cal foot­ball" in the Par­lia­ment, Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ny Beck­les has warned the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment.

"Nei­ther can the su­per­fi­cial propo­si­tion of un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic mea­sures be the so­lu­tion. The PNM cau­tions that we will not sit by and al­low the whole­sale adop­tion of un­suit­able leg­is­la­tion in­to our ter­ri­to­ry. We will de­mand due dili­gence and re­ject cut-and-paste ap­proach­es which haven't been prop­er­ly vet­ted," Beck­les said in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

De­liv­er­ing re­marks at the launch of the 13th Par­lia­ment, Beck­les said the Gov­ern­ment can be as­sured of Op­po­si­tion sup­port for good law and sound pol­i­cy.

"But while the ur­gency to ad­dress crime is valid, we must en­sure that our poli­cies do not vi­o­late ba­sic hu­man rights or com­pro­mise the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues that un­der­pin our so­ci­ety," she said.

"We will be look­ing close­ly at the im­ple­men­ta­tion of short, medi­um and long-term so­lu­tions, in­vest­ment in youth de­vel­op­ment, in­tel­li­gence-led polic­ing, com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships, and a jus­tice sys­tem that is both fair and ef­fec­tive.

"Trinidad and To­ba­go has long stood as a re­spect­ed voice in Cari­com and the wider in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. The PNM Op­po­si­tion will sound the alarm if ac­tions of the Gov­ern­ment en­dan­ger our stand­ing - as may have al­ready be­gun."

Beck­les added, "I urge the Gov­ern­ment to think deeply be­fore mak­ing pol­i­cy changes and to avoid vin­dic­tive­ness. The PNM will not stand by and see cit­i­zens vic­timised on the ba­sis of po­lit­i­cal pref­er­ence."

She said the PNM ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pates the Gov­ern­ment’s dis­cus­sions on To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my, "an is­sue which re­quires com­bined ef­fort for its ad­vance­ment. It is in­cum­bent up­on us, in fact, it is our du­ty to al­ways act in the best in­ter­est of our na­tion and all of her peo­ple."

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said she earnest­ly hoped for im­pact­ful and re­spon­si­ble lead­er­ship from the Gov­ern­ment cho­sen by cit­i­zens in the Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

"The peo­ple have cho­sen the PNM as the Op­po­si­tion par­ty ... the voice of the peo­ple is the voice of God ... To the peo­ple, we thank you for your sup­port. Even as we ac­cept our du­ty at this time, and as we hold the Gov­ern­ment to ac­count, be as­sured that we have be­gun the prepa­ra­tion which will al­low the PNM to form the next gov­ern­ment of T&T."

Not­ing her his­toric sta­tus as the PNM's first fe­male Op­po­si­tion Leader, Beck­les said her team pledged to "... put peo­ple above pol­i­tics; coun­try be­fore par­ty. The Op­po­si­tion will be a voice of rea­son, por­tray­ing pro­fes­sion­al­ism, re­spect, un­der­stand­ing, strength and clar­i­ty. Our modus operan­di will not be to op­pose for 'op­pos­ing sake'. We'll of­fer thought­ful, con­struc­tive, peo­ple-cen­tered, and vi­sion­ary con­tri­bu­tions, as one would ex­pect of a 70-year-old par­ty that in­tends to form the next gov­ern­ment."

She told Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, "I ex­pect our de­bates to be vig­or­ous and pas­sion­ate; re­flect­ing the vi­bran­cy of our democ­ra­cy; but let us nev­er for­get that our first re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is to con­stituents and coun­try. We may dis­agree, but may we nev­er be­come dis­agree­able. Let us hold our­selves to a high­er stan­dard, with shared com­mit­ment to ad­vance the prin­ci­ples of our Con­sti­tu­tion, and serve the pub­lic in­ter­est.

"We must be ever mind­ful that our ac­tions to­day shape the ex­pec­ta­tions and as­pi­ra­tions of fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. Across the coun­try, many young peo­ple are watch­ing, not just what we say, but how we say it, how we dis­agree, and how we lead. The tone we set in this cham­ber re­ver­ber­ates far be­yond walls."

She said Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans car­ry a pro­found re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to lead by ex­am­ple, with in­tegri­ty, hu­mil­i­ty, and re­spect.

"If we wish to build a na­tion root­ed in ci­vil­i­ty, uni­ty, and ex­cel­lence, we must mod­el those val­ues in every de­bate, de­ci­sion, and di­a­logue. Let our con­duct in this House be a mas­ter­class in de­mo­c­ra­t­ic lead­er­ship for every young cit­i­zen who dreams of serv­ing their coun­try."