Senior Reporter
jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt
Seventh-day Adventist pastor and former Police Service Commission member Clive Dottin is calling for every sector of society to take responsibility for tackling crime and corruption.
Speaking with Guardian Media following the triple killing in Belmont yesterday, Dottin said, “Every institution must accept responsibility to launch a significant cleanup campaign of all the corrupt elements.”
He said criminal activity was being sustained by various sections of society, including influential business figures, and authorities alone could not solve the problem.
“It takes every drop to fill the bucket. So I am saying yes, the authorities have more to do, but we have all the elements in the society who have allowed this criminal scenario to loom larger and larger,” he said.
He also questioned how such violence could continue during an ongoing State of Emergency.
“So it tells us that we have lost our independence, and we do know how to get it back. We do know how to bring the country to a state of stability and security without fear,” he said.
He warned that the country was facing a “criminal empire” and urged swift action from those in authority.
“And they must feel that those of us in authority are getting a handle on this criminal empire. And that is what it is. It is a criminal empire, and we have to move swiftly now. There is no time for delay,” Dottin added.
Echoing similar concerns, Father Mikkel Trestrail, parish priest of the St Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church in Belmont, described the latest violence as troubling and reflective of a wider societal crisis.
“It’s just very alarming. I think that’s how I felt this morning. I’m very alarmed by what is taking place, because this is not just one instance. There are so many different things that happen, all the levels of violence just keep going up and up and up and up.”
He warned that violence and anger had become deeply embedded in society, referencing the recent Tranquillity Secondary School incident as another example of escalating aggression.
“There is no quick fix to this. ... The anger and violence really are almost a language in our society. That seems to be just very normal. I think that is where our work is really needed. We live in a very angry society, a very angry country, and people don’t know how to deal with that extra violence.”
Trestrail said communities, religious institutions and citizens all had a role to play in healing divisions and supporting those affected by violence.
“There has to be a commitment that we have to make to continue to reach out to our community, to be able to be there for those who are hurting, to offer hope, to offer counsel, to offer just a place of healing and restoration,” he said.
He added that long-term cultural change was necessary to address the cycle of violence.
“How do we change the culture? How do we change the anger culture, the violence culture? I think that is a work that I will be inviting my people to engage in. How do we really make a difference in terms of how people behave and how we react to the problems that we face?” Trestrail asked.
“This is a time when we really need to put party stuff aside and really come together, not just about blame, but really come together and take shared responsibility. That is my hope that we can say no matter what party we belong to, no matter what side of the fence we’re on, this crisis is bigger than a party. We need to really come together and discuss real, practical, on-the-ground solutions that will help to bring about that change.”
