Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says as the coun­try heads in­to 2024 there is no gov­ern­ment as­sur­ance about a fresh re­solve to stamp out crim­i­nal­i­ty and cit­i­zens have been told to fend for them­selves.

In her New Year’s Day mes­sage, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the num­ber of mur­ders, home in­va­sions, rob­beries, and miss­ing per­sons, a de­clin­ing econ­o­my, in­creased costs of liv­ing, im­pend­ing prop­er­ty tax­es, and the loom­ing in­crease in elec­tric­i­ty and wa­ter rates have un­doubt­ed­ly cast a shad­ow over Trinidad and To­ba­go.

She point­ed out that com­mu­ni­ties that were once con­sid­ered safe, such as St Au­gus­tine, St Joseph, Ch­agua­nas, Trinci­ty, and Tu­na­puna, are high­light­ed as dan­ger zones in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.

“There are no gov­ern­ment as­sur­ances of end­ing il­le­gal drug and gun im­ports and gang war­fare by seal­ing off the porous bor­ders, im­prov­ing sur­veil­lance, and boost­ing de­tec­tion rates.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed there are no ef­forts to im­prove the in­ef­fi­cient crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem through rad­i­cal and ur­gent re­form.

She ac­cused the Prime Min­is­ter of con­tin­u­ing to hide from en­gag­ing the Op­po­si­tion and all stake­hold­ers in an­ti-crime talks but pre­ferred to con­tin­ue with his pub­lic re­la­tions game in which every cit­i­zen los­es.

“While the coun­try is be­ing bat­tered with vi­o­lent law­less­ness, the cru­cial Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty port­fo­lio re­mains in the hands of an abom­inably in­ept Min­is­ter.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that there are no com­pre­hen­sive plans to ad­dress the many bro­ken sec­tors in the coun­try, in­clud­ing plans to grow the econ­o­my and cre­ate jobs.

“I gen­uine­ly wish every cit­i­zen a hap­py new year, but I know there can be no hap­py one un­less strate­gic in­ter­ven­tions are ur­gent­ly im­ple­ment­ed to stem the crim­i­nal­i­ty in our land and to fix the bro­ken sec­tors.

“We must work to­day to im­prove safe­ty, se­cu­ri­ty, and pros­per­i­ty for all for there to be hap­pi­ness in the new year and to pre­vent to­mor­row’s gen­er­a­tion from in­her­it­ing a crim­i­nal-run failed State where the killing of men, women, and chil­dren be­comes nor­malised to the point of no re­turn,” she stressed.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said the UNC has been pre­sent­ing con­crete plans and pol­i­cy al­ter­na­tives aimed at ad­dress­ing the press­ing chal­lenges fac­ing T&T to craft­ing so­lu­tions that pri­ori­tise the well-be­ing of all cit­i­zens, ir­re­spec­tive of back­ground or cir­cum­stance.
A few ex­am­ples, she said: “ We will pass “Stand Your Ground” leg­is­la­tion to give you the right to use lethal force with­in the sanc­ti­ty of your homes to pro­tect your­self and your loved ones from crim­i­nals.

“We will en­sure that law-abid­ing cit­i­zens can eas­i­ly ac­cess le­gal firearms to pro­tect them­selves, their fam­i­lies, and their prop­er­ty.

“We will im­ple­ment ju­di­cial and prison re­forms, as well as re­tool­ing the TTPS with mod­ern train­ing, equip­ment, and a com­pe­tent lead­er­ship team to elim­i­nate the crim­i­nals.

“We will bring back Com­mu­ni­ty Com­fort Pa­trols through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go, to en­sure you do not have to pay for pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty pa­trols in your neigh­bour­hood.

“We will widen the suite of fund­ing for ed­u­ca­tion­al and train­ing pro­grammes in­clud­ing the Gov­ern­ment As­sis­tance for Tu­ition Ex­pens­es (GATE) Pro­gramme to once again en­sure that every young cit­i­zen has ac­cess to an ed­u­ca­tion for a bet­ter life away from crime.”