PM Kamla says violence is no way to air discontent

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Monday Trinidad and Tobago must never again let a small group of dissidents believe the only way to air their discontent is through violence and terror.

She was speaking at the wreath laying ceremony at the cenotaph of the Red House, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain to mark the 20th anniversary of the failed coup led by Muslimeen leader yasin Abu Bakr.

“The democratic process allows for freedom of expression and not freedom to terrorise, it is our constitutional right to have our say,” she said. Persad-Bissessar said that today then nation still wonders why the coup happened.

“That is why the government took the decision that we should have an inquiry into the event of July 27, 1990. Not just to bring closure, not just to bring feeling but to find out why so we could take a new step that is necessary so it would never happen again,” she said.

Speaking with reporters later, Persad-Bissessar said there would be three members of the commission of inquiry. She noted that the members would have a military background, a social and psychological background and a legal background. She promised that she would give additional details later in the week.

At the sermon at an interfaith service at the Trinity Cathedral Revered Knolly Clarke said the coup was a negative event that must never happen again.

“We all have to be alert and vigilant, this is not the business of the protective services, it is our business, it is our responsibility of all people in this nation,” he said.

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