KAMLA INVITES ROWLEY FOR TALKS ON CRIME

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Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Thursday wrote Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley inviting him to meet at a mutually convenient time to discuss crime and the Miscellaneous Provisions (Anti-Gang and Bail) Bill. 

In her letter to Rowley, Persad-Bissessar said: “In recognition of the critical nature of the legislation in the fight against crime and the Government’s failure to engage the Opposition in any consultation to date on this Bill, I wish to hereby invite the Honourable Prime Minister and relevant Ministers of Government to meet with my team and I at a date, time and venue of mutual convenience.” 
 
She also issued a statement in which she called out the Government on its failure to engage and consult MPs on the Bill. Her statement comes one week after Stuart Young said he hopes "the Opposition will be responsible and support" the bill.

Young, who is Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of the Attorney General, said Cabinet agreed to extend the current legislation and is seeking a two-year extension of the legislation.

The former Persad-Bissessar Administration brought the Miscellaneous Provisions (Anti-Gang and Bail) Bill in April 2015 but did not get support from the PNM opposition. At that time the PNM expressed "grave concerns" over issues of proportionality, and human rights in relation to the 120 days of no bail for persons committing specific offences. 

Now while Young is asking for opposition support he appears to be aware of whether these issues will be addressed in the 2016 Bill.

The media statement noted, “In one breath the Rowley-led Government is claiming to be against politicizing crime, but on the other hand they are making crime a public relations affair; talking about issues of Opposition support, but making absolutely no move to consult and partner with the Opposition for a full and comprehensive crime plan.”

It added, “The Cabinet Spokesman harped on the issue of responsibility and Opposition support, but in one week has made neither verbal nor written contact engaging us in a participatory approach. 

"So yes, the Government has failed in yet another very critical endeavor and rather than focusing on their failure, the Opposition will take up the issue responsibly.” 

The former Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said: “Our Shadow Cabinet Anti-Crime and Legislative Team stands ready to meet and cooperate with the Government so that we can arrive at a comprehensive plan to turn back the tides of crime. And we are calling on the Government to finally treat the issue of crime with urgency and work with us for a plan that will benefit all citizens.”

PHOTO STORY: TT OPPOSITION WALKS OUT OF PARLIAMENT

Kamla Persad-Bissessar led an opposition walkout from Parliament Friday afternoon to protest the refusal of the Speaker to allow two motions proposed by the opposition. 

Both called for Parliament to debate matters of urgent public importance. One was the failure of the government to provide timely access to the Children's Life Fund; the other for debate on the unprecedented number of murders in the country.

The Opposition Leader wanted to hold the media briefing inside the parliament's briefing room on the sixth floor of the building but was refused permission on the grounds that no such activity should take place while Parliament was sitting on the second floor.

READ MRS PERSAD-BISSESSAR'S NOTES THAT SHE PLANNED TO DELIVER IN THE HOR BUT DID NOT DUE TO THE SPEAKER'S DENIAL OF THE MOTIONS:
http://jyoticommunication.blogspot.com/2016/06/if-govt-cant-do-job-well-help-them-do.html
Here are some pictures of the media briefing and the motions: 

Click on motions to read in new, larger window

IF GOV'T CAN'T DO THE JOB WE'LL HELP THEM DO IT: KAMLA

Kamla Persad-Bissessar (Guardian File Photo)

The Speaker of the TT House of Representatives on Friday refused permission to adjourn the House to debate two motions of urgent public importance from Leader of of the Opposition Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

One was related to the unprecedented increase in murders in the country. The other was for the government's failure to provide timely access to the Children's Life Fund.

The speaking notes provided to JYOTI were not delivered but are presented for information to illustrate the urgency of the issues that the opposition had hoped to debate in the House of Representatives. 

Madame Speaker, I thank you and Honourable colleagues for this opportunities to raise these issues as matters of urgent public importance:

· The failure of Government to address the unprecedented increase in the number of murders in Trinidad and Tobago, and

· The failure of the government to provide timely access to the Children’s Life Fund to financially disadvantaged children in need of urgent life-saving medical treatment

It is important to make clear from the very start, that we see raising these issues as our public duty to citizens, and to the future of a nation that still can recover and progress.

If, Madame Speaker, the Government fails to do its job; the Opposition will rise to the challenges and either enlighten them on how an Administration is run, or we will do some of their work for them.

CRIME/MURDERS

This is the second time in the past month the issue of unprecedented increases in the murder rate is being raised as a matter of urgent public importance in this House.

It is not to bemoan the point.

It is not to, as many colleagues on that side are fond of saying, ‘about politicizing crime’. Preventing and prosecuting crime are a Government’s responsibility; and it is ALWAYS therefore a political issue.

And it is not to add to the unhealthy, widespread and deep fear and terror across Trinidad and Tobago.

This is a matter of forcing the Government to see that they are spectacularly failing to provide a fundamental right of the people – SAFETY.

Madame Speaker, murders in Trinidad and Tobago are now occurring at a rate of more than one per day.

There have been 23 weeks and 162 days for the year, but there have been over 208 murders.

Madame Speaker, the situation as we know it, is one where 1.3 million people are terrorized while in their homes, and mortified when out of their homes, at that thought that they could be next.

This is a matter specifically of the failure of government to deal with the escalation and the unprecedented number of murders.

Where the people see action, they are inspired to confidence.

Where the people feel confident, they are inspired to comfort.

Where the people feel comfort, they are inspired to believe that they are being served.

Quite the opposite, there is hardly a person, anywhere, in any town, on any form of public transport, in any situation or neighbourhood who will tell you that they feel safer today than they did nine months ago.

The urgency of this matter comes from the fact that while murders are being committed at a higher frequency than days of the year, the only persons actually feeling the brunt of the law are persons driving over 80 KMs per hour; or persons whose mobile calls are dropping each time the name of the party, leader or senior members of those on that side are mentioned.

Yet, while citizens feel the weight of the law for these issues, each day murders are being committed with impunity in a manner and at a rate never experienced before in our country.

Madame Speaker, the situation in unadulterated truth right now is that the ONLY growth industry in the past 9 months is CRIMES and MURDER!

If this continues unaddressed it sends the signal to the criminal element that their crimes will go unpunished and they can continue their onslaught on the lives of our citizens.

More lives will be lost on a daily basis.

Today the murder toll for the year stands at more than 208 persons and it increases as we speak. As a country we cannot stand idly by and simply allow our citizens to be slaughtered each day.

This is an extremely important issue for the population because in addition to the increasing number of murders is engendering widespread fear and deep distress in our country, it is also damaging the international reputation of Trinidad and Tobago.

It is of public importance because with each passing day mothers and fathers are losing their sons and daughters, husbands are losing their wives and wives are losing their husbands.

Our children are becoming parentless with each murder that is committed. We are losing our citizens each day and there could be no more important matter than protecting the lives of our citizens.

The increase in murders and the failure of the government to address this matter is not simply a matter of public importance; it is a matter of great public importance and, at this moment, the most important issue to us on this side and to the citizens of our country.

CHILDREN’S LIFE FUND

Madame Speaker, the second very urgent issue which I raise on behalf of the people of Trinidad and Tobago is the failure of the Government to provide timely access to the Children’s Life Fund to financially disadvantaged children in need of urgent life-saving medical treatment

The matter is definite because it pertains specifically to the failure of the government to ensure timely access to the Children’s Life Fund to financially disadvantaged children in need of life saving medical treatment.

The matter is urgent because several children who were in need of life saving medical treatment have already died because of government’s failure to provide timely assistance from the Children’s Life Fund and, the lives of other children similarly circumstanced are in dire jeopardy.

It is urgent because on a daily basis the financial burden on the less fortunate family in our society increases and with that, the number of children who are unable to access urgent medical life saving medical treatment due to lack of financial resources increases.

The failure of the government to provide immediate access to the fund is resulting in the loss of the lives of our children daily.

The matter is of Public Importance because the pain, suffering and death of our children are of grave concern to everyone, especially in circumstances where this could be avoided by the provision of timely access to the fund.

The failure of the Government to ensure timely access to the Fund to children who are financially disadvantaged frustrates the purpose, policy and objective of the Fund which was established in the public interest to care for the most in need in our society.

Children are without question our most precious and important resource.

If there is anything we must protect at all times, to the fullest extent, it is our children.

The future of our country is inescapably tied to their good health and well-being.

They are the ones most in need of our support and care and protection.

CONCLUSION

Madame Speaker, this points to the reason for raising both of these issues together, as very urgent matters of public importance.

The Government in place has not only failed to protect the population from the onslaught of murders; it has also failed to even use already established processes and institutions to protect the health and wellbeing of children.

As with crime, the PNM has a very clear and unmistakable history of happening to be in charge at exactly the time that crime and murders spin completely out of control.

Similarly, the PNM has a very clear and unmistakable history of being in charge when children die waiting for healthcare, because the Government hasn’t the heart, compassion or decency to help them, as is its DUTY!

If a Government cannot understand the vulnerability of the people to criminals, and its sick children in need of healthcare and support, then Madame Speaker, what exactly is its purpose.

Who does the Government serve if not people, and children?

Why is it that a crisis has been allowed to fester so deeply and widely that people are now asking whether the Government CANNOT in fact stop criminals, and serve the citizens and children.

…because they are beholden?

…because they are afraid?

…or because they just do not know what to do?

We in the Opposition have brought the issue to this House, it is now for those who claim to be in control, to ACT like it.

I thank you.

RESPECT LACKING FOR PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW: EXPRESS EDITORIAL

Reproduced unedited from the TRINIDAD EXPRESS - 09 June 2016

Colm Imbert

Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s dismissive response to Opposition Senator Wade Mark’s query about the purpose of the still mysterious Heritage and Stabilisation Fund drawdown registers as a slap in the face to the T&T public.
 
Mr Imbert probably felt he was putting the nosy UNC Senator in his place. His 11-word answer to explain withdrawal of $2.5 billion from the precious stash of national reserves, however, spoke volumes about his contempt for transparency in public affairs.
 
Certainly, the public are entitled to know, in detail less stingy than that provided, why the need, at this particular time, to dip into the HSF, and on what the funds thereby liberated are to be expended.
 
Mr Imbert provided no detail beyond the bland rationale: “Financing of the service of Trinidad and Tobago for the year 2016.” 

Then he took his seat, as if having discharged a responsibility to those, including the viewing public, hard of hearing, or weak of understanding.
 
It amounted to a performance that many members of the public must find alarming. Viewers and hearers must no doubt also recall that Mr Imbert, in his turn as an opposition loud-hailer, would mightily have blasted as “arrogance” any such governmental response.
 
Different standards for public discourse are now being proposed for acceptance by those aligned with the present administration.
 
As much is to be inferred from approving comments by Economic Development Advisory Board chairman Terrence Farrell. Dr Farrell apparently found nothing amiss in the style and the content of Mr Imbert’s condescending brush-off to expressions of legitimate curiosity.
 
“I don’t understand the surprise,” said Dr Farrell.
 
Less well-connected citizens had relied upon Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s December 29 statement of intent to withdraw from the fund $1 billion in 2016 and $0.5 billion in 2017.
 
Six months later, the expectation that a drawdown inexplicably exceeding the Rowley projection by $1 billion should not stir “surprise” unacceptably takes the public for granted.
 
The Finance Minister had indeed long signalled that he might need to withdraw from the fund carefully built up over nearly a decade. The HSF had been set up with the need in mind of some future national rainy day.
 
But sovereign wealth thereby set aside, a laudable amount for a small energy-producing country, is hardly unlimited. If the administration presumes the right to keep taking secret $2.5 billion nibbles, who is to know when the fund would have been all used up, why and how?
 
Mr Imbert’s non-forthcoming attitude communicates a disappointing message of the government’s lack of decent respect for the T&T people’s right to know about matters touching so sensitively on their economic well-being.
 
Express Editorial: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160609/editorial/decent-respect-lacking-for-public-right-to-know