Ra­mona Ram­di­al

The last time the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go did not hold an of­fi­cial In­de­pen­dence Day Pa­rade was dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic years of 2020 and 2021, when pub­lic health con­cerns led to the can­cel­la­tions.

This year’s can­cel­la­tion is due to the State of Emer­gency. We were in­formed that threats to mem­bers of Gov­ern­ment and se­nior pub­lic of­fi­cials pre­cip­i­tat­ed the de­c­la­ra­tion.

Since then, we have heard noth­ing of any ar­rests or clin­i­cal op­er­a­tions to ex­tract or even elim­i­nate such men­aces to so­ci­ety. How­ev­er, we heard Sen­a­tor David Nakhid, as he seemed to have un­cov­ered an al­leged Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) “plot” to boo mem­bers of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) gov­ern­ment at the In­de­pen­dence Day Pa­rade, which he feels had be­come “a PNM ral­ly” over the last decade.

The UNC Gov­ern­ment will not be able to ad­dress that this year, but per­haps they will en­sure that the pa­rade is more pa­tri­ot­ic next year.

There have been mixed re­ac­tions from the cit­i­zen­ry on the can­cel­la­tion of the pa­rade. Some were look­ing for­ward to at­tend­ing or watch­ing on TV, while oth­ers looked for­ward to earn­ing some ex­tra mon­ey from sales to at­ten­dees. Some won­dered how this dis­play of force by our pro­tec­tive ser­vices could be dis­rupt­ed by any crim­i­nal el­e­ment. How brazen and how pow­er­ful could they be?

Even though many were in­dif­fer­ent to the pa­rade’s can­cel­la­tion, some­one with Tri­ni hu­mour thought it was a good idea, “so Venezuela wouldn’t see what we have.” Lat­er on in the week, dis­cus­sions about mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty would be drained of any com­e­dy.

As re­gards the State of Emer­gency, we have heard about boun­ties of a to­tal of $2.8 mil­lion to as­sas­si­nate Min­is­ters Wayn Sturge, Bar­ry Padarath and Khadi­jah Ameen. With­out any in­for­ma­tion about re­lat­ed ar­rests, we are left to won­der if the plot was mo­ti­vat­ed by the shut­down of the URP and CEPEP pro­grammes. Are the “ghosts” haunt­ing? Or is it time to pay the Piper?

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has said, “Please ask Min­is­ter Sturge” re­gard­ing al­le­ga­tions that a re­cent se­nior state board ap­pointee was in­volved in the threats on his life.

We know that Min­is­ter Sturge was a re­luc­tant min­is­ter, but as a re­spon­si­ble cit­i­zen, let alone the Min­is­ter of De­fence, he should dis­close all to the TTPS. Al­le­ga­tions are cir­cu­lat­ing that the death threats are planned reprisals by fi­nanciers with crim­i­nal links who con­tributed $20 mil­lion to the UNC’s GE 2025 cam­paign and have not yet re­ceived a re­turn on their in­vest­ment. Whether true or not, the is­sue of cam­paign fi­nance rears its ug­ly head again. I am of the firm be­lief that cam­paign fi­nance re­form can help pro­tect ALL politi­cians, along with our tax­es. The trans­paren­cy it would bring could help pre­vent fu­ture death threats and as­sist ad­her­ence to the high­est pro­cure­ment pro­to­cols.

In 2006, a pri­vate mo­tion on “the Fi­nanc­ing of Po­lit­i­cal Par­ties” was moved by then Ca­roni East MP Gan­ga Singh. There was al­so a JSC on “Elec­tion Cam­paign Fi­nanc­ing” dur­ing the tenure of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment.

This UNC Gov­ern­ment has the op­por­tu­ni­ty to move from lip ser­vice and to­ken men­tions to mean­ing­ful cam­paign fi­nance re­form that would help pro­tect the State from the reach of the crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

“DC, a week ago, had a high­er mur­der rate than Trinidad and To­ba­go, which the US State De­part­ment has said you shouldn’t vis­it be­cause it is un­safe,” said US Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance as he used our coun­try as a poor ex­am­ple of run­away crime.

That was heart­break­ing to hear. We have a lot to do to change that poor per­cep­tion. The pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment didn’t fix it, but it is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the cur­rent Gov­ern­ment to bring se­ri­ous crime-fight­ing re­sults. Min­is­ter Sturge could start the ball rolling by telling the po­lice all he knows.

As De­fence Min­is­ter, he has even greater pri­or­i­ties. US naval forces are gath­er­ing on Venezuela’s doorstep as US Pres­i­dent Trump in­tends to go af­ter for­eign drug car­tels and views Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro as a “ter­ror­ist car­tel leader.” Maduro has re­spond­ed to this de­vel­op­ment by ac­ti­vat­ing 4.5 mil­lion mem­bers of the Bo­li­var­i­an Na­tion­al Mili­tia. Some ex­perts have warned that Trinidad and To­ba­go needs to main­tain a neu­tral po­si­tion as our clos­est trad­ing part­ner gets clos­er to our clos­est neigh­bour.

The Gov­ern­ment of Guyana is­sued a state­ment sup­port­ing glob­al ef­forts to com­bat “transna­tion­al or­gan­ised crime and nar­co-ter­ror­ism.” The US would in­ter­pret this as an en­dorse­ment, es­pe­cial­ly as Pres­i­dent Maduro threat­ened to lay claim to Guyana’s Es­se­qui­bo re­gion. US South­ern Com­mand’s re­cent Tradewinds ex­er­cise in T&T, the elec­tion of the UNC Gov­ern­ment, which as­sert­ed that “Drag­on gas is dead,” along with a bit of kow­tow­ing to Pres­i­dent Trump, would not make Pres­i­dent Maduro feel too com­fort­able. Is it a bit of US brinkman­ship, or is Pres­i­dent Trump in­tent on end­ing drug smug­gling in the re­gion? Maybe he is in­tent on Venezue­lan regime change?

The fears of our cit­i­zen­ry are slow­ly ris­ing. Will Min­is­ters Sturge and Sean Sobers make re­as­sur­ing state­ments soon? Will we be able to es­cape any, God for­bid, hos­til­i­ties? Our bor­ders are not well pro­tect­ed and we could ex­pe­ri­ence an in­flux of refugees. There is spec­u­la­tion that Pres­i­dent Maduro has his ex­it strat­e­gy ready. Our Gov­ern­ment must po­si­tion us for a se­cure fu­ture, no mat­ter the ac­tions of those whom we can’t con­trol.