Moonilal: State of emergency was a failure

Your Vote, Your Future

OPPOSITION candidate for Oropouche East, Dr Roodal Moonilal said the just ended state of emergency (SoE) was an abject failure, strongly differing with acting Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin that it was a “win against spiralling crime.”

Addressing a meeting of the United National Congress (UNC) on April 14 at Bhupsingh Park, Penal, Moonilal said the three and a half months in which the SoE lasted had very little impact on reducing crime, which was the ultimate goal of the exercise, recording instead 111 murders.

At a press briefing on April 15, acting Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin said the murder rate for the year stood at 113.

“This has been a complete failure, mismanaged, misconceived, misadvised by the government led by (Prime Minister) Stuart Young and (PNM Political Leader) Dr Keith Rowley.”

He posed questions to the audience, receiving a resounding “no” to each one.

“We have just ended a state of emergency; did you feel any difference?

“Did you feel safer?

“Were you less likely to be robbed?

“Were you less likely to be a victim of home invasions?”

He said Young was clueless about fighting crime, even though he once held the portfolio of national security minister.

He called on the nation not to trust the PNM with the bag of promises they were now coming with after ten years in government to sway voters in the April 28 election.

“Where were they for the past ten years, you would think they were in opposition?”

“Suddenly Stuart wakes up and say he has a crime plan. Why the hell did you not put the crime plan to work ten years ago and save 5,000 lives (that ended in murder)?”

He rejected the PM’s talk about the establishment of an elite unite in the TTPS to fight crime, saying, “This is another PNM mongoose gang they want to introduce and call it an elite unit.”

The mongoose gang was a ruthless group which prevailed under the rule of the late Grenadian prime minister Sir Eric Gairy and known for “silencing its critics.”

Moonilal warned that the PNM has no plan and are absolutely clueless about solving problems facing the country.

“We have registered 111 murders during the SoE because they could not manage the situation.”

He accused Young of stealing ideas from Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whom he said has been rolling out a robust crime agenda for years.

He highlighted a few, including amending the laws for the right to legally bear arms; for prison and police officers to be provided with licenced firearms; the construction of a forensic science complex; stationing police in schools; and the restructuring of programmes to prevent youths from joining gangs or turning to a life of crime.

“The one that really got to me was Mrs Persad-Bissessar’s novel idea of having doctors visit the elderly in the community.

“Stuart Young say man better than that – virtual examination.”

He made a mockery of Young’s virtual doctors’ proposal, jokingly submitting, “So you now have to tell your nanny, nanna, aja, mousie (Hindi for grandparents and aunt) they have to get a smart phone.

“And if they have cataract and can’t see, how will they see the doctor? They now have to keep an adult child at home, because when you are doing a virtual examination, someone has to hold the phone. That fella clueless.”

Referring to Young and Rowley as a “two-headed snake” he asked, “Who is your leader?”

“One leader pop up one day and the next leader pops up on the following day. They are desperate.

“They are coming now with promises of housing, land and crime fighting.

“On their way out, they want to promise you everything conceivable at this time. They promised you a Dragon field, forget that. They promised you Sandals, forget that.”

He told them to forget Young’s eleventh hour bag of promises, but make a promise of their own.

“Today they come with more and more promises, but you must promise Stuart Young on April 28, you will terminate his employment. That is what we must promise him.”