Dear Sir
On December 30, 2024, the government of Trinidad and Tobago (GOTT) declared a nationwide State of Emergency (SOE) based on heightened criminal activity.
It’s New Year’s [Day] and like many, my thoughts are consumed by where we are, how we got here, and where we are going.
During the SOE, the GOTT imposed the following measures:
- The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) will have the authority to:
- Arrest individuals on suspicion of involvement in illegal activities;
- Search and enter public and private premises as necessary;
- Bail provisions are suspended for those suspected of committing a crime;
- Members of the Defense Force will operate under similar regulations to the TTPS;
- At this time, no curfew or restrictions on public assemblies are in effect;
Breaking down the facts is inescapable. The following are issues that the SOE won’t address:
- The cost of living to the vulnerable poor;
- Burdensome bank fees;
- Lack of credit options to small entrepreneurs;
- Unequal distribution of the nation’s foreign exchange;
- Failed health care that forces citizens to private, expensive health care and the high cost of medications;
- An education system that fails out over fifty percent of students every year, creating grist for the gang culture mill;
- A Customs & Excise that cannot or will not examine what enters the country, while applying ridiculous fees and duties to small importers;
- Health, Food & Drug Divisions blocked small importers so the 1 percent could control the pharmaceutical and supplement markets;
- A Coast Guard that cannot or will not guard the coast, allowing drug runners and other contraband importers free movement, funding the gangs and creating drug turfs for war;
- A badly conceived, badly set up, poorly managed TTPS, with rampant corruption rife at the top and morale due to poor salaries and horrible working conditions through the ranks;
- A poorly executed armed battalion left idle and useless until needed to kick up citizens;
- Governmental corruption has drained the resources of TTPS, TTFS, WASA, T&TEC and all other state agencies to the benefit of the contract mafia, has left them all barely functional;
- The lack of housing assistance policy leaves desperate citizens as prey to the failed HDC being used primarily for voter padding and to enrich connected contractors;
- Deliberate policy to block the growing of food so the 1 percent could make billions importing what can be grown in Trinidad and Tobago;
- Zero jobs plan, no real investment outside the dried-up energy sector, no development of human capital, no long-term economic vision, leaving the masses as minimum wage workers for growing 1 percent retail empires and exploitable hustlers to the construction and other labor-intensive sectors;
- Government policies encourage monopolies, frustrating competition and lowering quality while raising the cost of living;
- Failure of response agencies such as the Ombudsman, the PCA and the failure of or outright lack of other complaint and restorative agencies;
- An overall poor quality of life, growing despair and anxiety among all social groups, but especially the vulnerable.
ALL of the above fuels crime. ALL of it creates desperate young men and women who are easy prey to the kingpins putting those expensive guns in their hands.
No ghetto youth can afford much less to import an AR-15. No ghetto youth can afford to smuggle it into the country.
So who is? Does the government know, or they should?
With untold millions of dollars spent on national security every year, they should know. And if they don’t, or if at any level government is complicit that is grounds enough to fire them.
Everything listed above can be fixed. Trinidad and Tobago does not have to be a failed nation suspending human rights to fight crime.
The reality this morning is that these are PNM problems, these are PNM hotspots. This is a collapse caused by failure and corruption. The only real remedy is an election at the earliest possible time to remove them from office.
An election is due within the next nine months. Every single citizen is going to count. The numbers are clear. The ONLY solution is to unite all forces against the PNM.
If you don’t have plans or means to migrate, if you and your family are going to bear the consequences of the next election, I urge you to vote wisely, vote sensibly, vote selfishly, and vote for a better country.
It’s the only way to a Happy 2025 and beyond.
Phillip Edward Alexander
Political Leader
Progressive Empowerment Party
The post Trinidad and Tobago issues that the SOE won’t address appeared first on Caribbean News Global.
