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Rowley..No crime solution?...then go

The entire country is aghast over the escalation of crimes and 15 brutal murders at the weekend, definitely an indication that the present modus operandi of the Ministry of National Security in rendering assistance to the police in fighting the scourge of crime, especially murders, is inappropriate if not obsolete. It is quite obvious that the present Minister of National Security is a square peg in a round hole and he should be replaced. And if for whatever political reason the Prime Minister is still adamant that he will not remove him from his Cabinet, then the Prime Minister must either personally take over the ministry. I suspect the Prime Minister himself and his Cabinet are totally incapable of assisting in the abatement of violent crimes and hence Fitzgerald Hinds is being used as a scapegoat. However, no one, and I say no one, in their right mind is going to excuse or forgive the Rowley Government for the escalation of crimes: daring home invasions, brazen and brutal murders. I remind PM Rowley that he has been elected to protect and serve all the people of our country, to keep us safe and secure.

The majority of citizens would be willing to shut their eyes and close their ears to the protestations of the rising cost of living, dilapidated infrastructure of roads, bridges, buildings and no water for all: they, like myself, will give praise to the Government of the honest attempts by CEPEP in keeping our country clean and attractive, and would also accept that poverty exists all over the world and thus the impoverished must continue to band their bellies once they can eat “ah doubles” and drink a “sweet drink”. We all know we are heading towards a precipice with no sight of a halt in crimes.

So I say to you: Prime Minister Rowley, why don’t you step down from your exalted position if primus inter pares and pass on the leadership of the PNM Government to someone else in your Cabinet, or is it that you feel you can fool most of the people of this country all of the time and thus slip back into Whitehall as head of the government of this country? So for the love of country, if you cannot find the workable solutions to keep us, your people, safe, please go; or is it for you as my grandmother would say: “Saram na ba”?

—Author Irael Khan is a senior counsel and president of the Criminal Bar Association.