Shane Su­perville

For­mer Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and re­tired Brigadier Gen­er­al Carl Al­fon­so says he is pre­pared and will­ing to serve in a con­sul­tan­cy role if the in­com­ing UNC gov­ern­ment re­quests it.

Al­fon­so, 80, served as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment from Feb­ru­ary to Sep­tem­ber 2015.

He served in the TT Reg­i­ment from 1963 to 1999.

When con­tact­ed for com­ment on Tues­day, Al­fon­so said he had no in­ter­est in pol­i­tics but be­lieved he could still con­tribute to the de­vel­op­ment of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry, giv­en his years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the Reg­i­ment and as a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter.

“I am a pa­tri­ot. I don’t get in­to the pol­i­tics of the day, but I do have some ex­pe­ri­ence, train­ing and knowl­edge that could ben­e­fit the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty fra­ter­ni­ty,” he said.

When asked if he be­lieved the new gov­ern­ment should re­vise the Reg­i­ment’s role in crime-fight­ing op­er­a­tions, Al­fon­so said he had sev­er­al ideas. He point­ed to mil­i­tary pro­to­cols that al­low for se­cu­ri­ty con­tri­bu­tions out­side of ma­jor armed con­flicts or wartime.

He em­pha­sised that the mil­i­tary was not ex­pect­ed to re­place the po­lice ser­vice but could of­fer en­hanced sup­port to law en­force­ment.

“There’s a study called Op­er­a­tions Oth­er Than War that we prob­a­bly haven’t been prac­tis­ing too much.

“I don’t think we’ve been putting it in­to prac­tice, but now is a good time to start.

“I wouldn’t want to di­vulge much, but I’m sure it’s go­ing to come up, and I’m sure who­ev­er the min­is­ter is will hear about it, or some­one may tell him or her.

“I want to make it clear that the ex­pec­ta­tion isn’t for the mil­i­tary to do the work of the po­lice, but they will be as­sist­ing the po­lice ser­vice more and more.”

Al­fon­so urged the in­com­ing Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to seek ad­vice from qual­i­fied in­di­vid­u­als, not­ing that the role is a “tough job.”