Joshua Seemungal
Fitzgerald Ethelbert Hinds first entered the House of Representatives in 1995 as the MP for Laventille East/Morvant. He would continue serving the constituency for 12 years.
Before taking up his current position as the Minister of National Security in April 2021, he previously served as the Minister of Works and Transport, the Minister of Public Utilities, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Public Administration and Information, the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, the Ministry of National Security, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, as well as an opposition senator.
This year, however, the National Security Minister, now Laventille West MP, made quite a splash, but in hindsight, perhaps for all the wrong reasons.
Regardless of a national security minister’s work behind the scenes, he is ultimately judged, fairly or not, on crime statistics.
And on that basis, it is hard to argue with the view held by many citizens that Hinds has failed.
Hinds will go down in history as the first national security minister to have more than 600 murders during his tenure.
The country arrived at its highest-ever murder toll of 551 murders with 33 days to spare in 2022.
Out of every 10,000 citizens, more than four people were murdered.
In August alone, 68 people were killed.
The lowest total in any single month for the year was 36 murders.
The second-highest murder total in the country’s history came in 2008, with 550.
While citizens expressed an increasing unease about the rocketing murder toll as the year progressed, the minister’s comments did little to aid his cause to get public backing.
In Hindsight, 'HINDSpeech' would prove problematic.
According to the Ministry of National Security’s website, the ministry’s mission is “To advance national development by creating a safer and more secure society through the enhanced collaboration among all stakeholders, intelligence-based decision-making and strengthened inter-agency structures and systems.”
Yet, somehow, in February, the head of the National Security Ministry, the National Security Minister told retired morning talk show host Fazeer Mohammed that his duty was not to ensure that citizens feel safe and secure.
“No, my duty is not to ensure that people feel safe and secure. My duty is to ensure that those organisations and agencies that are responsible for the public’s safety, and border security, that they are clear about what the people through the Government’s policy is, that they are provided with the resources that they need and that I lend encouragement and general support to them. That’s my duty,” Hinds said.
Nine months later, Hinds struck again. In early November, a shocking video of terrified students of Rose Hill Roman Catholic Primary School ducking for cover from nearby gunfire went viral.
The footage traumatised the students, parents and the public, with people demanding immediate action be taken to protect the children.
Yet, in response to the viral video, this is what Hinds had to say, in part, via a Facebook post.
“The video of the children of the Rose Hill RC School, in Laventille, laying themselves onto the ground, at the sound of automatic gunfire; and in which the voice of the teacher telling them “shhhhhh”, signalling that they keep quiet; was quite misleading. You could be forgiven for thinking that the gunmen were actually on the compound. They were not! In fact, the actual shooting took place about 200 m away. This video, which went viral, came to my attention only yesterday. The event occurred on Monday,” he said.
And then, Minister Hinds, with mere days left in the year, claimed on December 19 that it would be nice if he could feel the nation's full support.
Hinds said, “I came into this business understanding that 70 per cent of society does not support this effort or want to see us succeed. How did I arrive at 70 per cent?... at the level of the Parliament, I say 50 per cent want to fight rather than join in the fight and then the other 20 per cent, I would say are those who are likely to commit crime and are involved in it and anti-social behaviour and so on.”
According to Hinds’ maths, 980,000 people in T&T do not support him or the crime fight, while 280,000 citizens are criminals.
So, even by his own admission, he does not have the public’s confidence, yet, he continues to have Prime Minister Rowley’s support.