For­mer UNC Min­is­ter and MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh has called on the Prime Min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion Leader to put their po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences aside to chart an ur­gent pol­i­cy pa­per and tan­gi­ble so­lu­tions to deal with the na­tion’s run­away crime prob­lem.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, Dr Gopeesingh said: “The bru­tal at­tacks and mur­ders of An­drea Bharatt and many oth­er women un­der­score the hor­ren­dous crime re­al­i­ty that has been stalk­ing our na­tion in re­cent years.” The for­mer Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter said in the mid-2000s, then Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, and then Op­po­si­tion Leader, Bas­deo Pan­day, had fa­mous­ly put their very strong po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences aside to hold bi­par­tite meet­ings over the spi­ralling crime rate. He said this was aimed at ar­riv­ing at a con­sen­sus in the cru­cial Con­sti­tu­tion­al Amend­ment Act (2006) re­gard­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion.

The for­mer MP said, “What is need­ed now to coun­ter­act this is ur­gent leg­isla­tive re­form and at­ten­dant pol­i­cy im­ple­men­ta­tion by the Gov­ern­ment of the day, with the Op­po­si­tion play­ing a very cru­cial role in spear­head­ing this na­tion­al lob­by.”

Dr Gopeesingh said the Pres­i­dent must al­so get in­volved.

He said, “The time for ur­gent ac­tion on this bar­bar­ic crime spate is NOW. Our na­tion is in a cri­sis state, and our women and girls must no longer be the trag­ic col­lat­er­al dam­age of this reign of un­prece­dent­ed, bru­tal crim­i­nal ter­ror.”