Trinidad and To­ba­go is in the midst of a num­ber of ex­is­ten­tial chal­lenges. The mur­der rate is set to ex­ceed 500 mur­ders yet again. The Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er an­nounced the end of in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to Email­gate, the ig­nominy called the “day of to­tal polic­ing” and the “plant-like sub­stance” found at the home of the for­mer prime min­is­ter. A Spe­cial Branch re­port in­di­cat­ing that in­di­vid­u­als with gang­land con­nec­tions were the re­cip­i­ents of sub­stan­tial con­tracts from one re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion is re­leased.

Re­spond­ing to the al­le­ga­tion of gov­ern­ment-fi­nanced crime the Prime Min­is­ter first de­flect­ed, avoid­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Has firm, de­ci­sive ac­tion been ini­ti­at­ed to as­sure that gang­sters are not in re­ceipt of state con­tracts? In de­cid­ing not to in­voke Sec­tion 137 of the Con­sti­tu­tion to in­ves­ti­gate the Chief Jus­tice, de­spite a sub­stan­tial body of opin­ion to the con­trary, Dr Row­ley em­bell­ished his de­ci­sion on the hus­tings im­ply­ing that the ju­di­cia­ry was sid­ing with crim­i­nals! When the Law As­so­ci­a­tion pub­licly pre­sent­ed a dif­fer­ent view, Dr Row­ley ac­cused the law fra­ter­ni­ty of be­ing pro-UNC.

Chal­lenges change as so­ci­eties change. If our in­sti­tu­tions do not ad­dress the chang­ing re­al­i­ties, pub­lic con­fi­dence will erode as our in­sti­tu­tions will be seen as dys­func­tion­al or use­less. Re­cent sur­veys in­di­cate that is al­ready hap­pen­ing.

Strong in­sti­tu­tions are the wheels which al­low a so­ci­ety to func­tion seam­less­ly. Dai­ly life is pred­i­cat­ed on the as­sump­tion that in­sti­tu­tions func­tion rou­tine­ly; the avail­abil­i­ty of wa­ter, elec­tric­i­ty, trans­port to work, traf­fic lights etcetera, and most im­por­tant­ly, that rules will be en­forced. Dr Row­ley missed the irony of de­fend­ing his de­ci­sion based on ad­vice from a Queen's Coun­sel there­by re­in­forc­ing the bias to re­tain­ing the Privy Coun­cil and di­min­ish­es the stand­ing of lo­cal ju­rispru­dence whilst we cel­e­brate Eman­ci­pa­tion and In­de­pen­dence.

The bedrock of any so­ci­ety is the un­der­stand­ing that the rules are not just for some but every­one. The in­ves­ti­ga­tions were fruit­less find no one ac­count­able. Al­though crime re­mains the most press­ing dif­fi­cul­ty, it is but a symp­tom of deep­er so­ci­etal prob­lems which re­quire a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary ap­proach. As the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er is be­gin­ning to un­der­stand, a “one-shot one kill” pol­i­cy has se­ri­ous lim­i­ta­tions. It al­so re­quires un­cor­rupt­ed, dis­ci­plined po­lice of­fi­cers who are mo­ti­vat­ed by more than just their pay pack­et.

Sim­i­lar­ly, all the sup­port­ing in­sti­tu­tions must be ad­e­quate­ly re­sourced. The DPP, foren­sics, bal­lis­tics, the courts and the Ju­di­cia­ry must be above re­proach. In this re­gard, the Prime Min­is­ter and his Cab­i­net have a crit­i­cal role to play in de­ter­min­ing the al­lo­ca­tion of re­sources. Our in­sti­tu­tions must work well to main­tain or­der and are crit­i­cal to re­in­forc­ing busi­ness con­fi­dence with­out which pri­vate in­vest­ment will not take place. The Prime Min­is­ter has much to do if he is to live up to his boast that the coun­try is in “safe” hands.