Parris urges solutions-based leadership without harsh rhetoric

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris says sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ments to pub­lic or­der are pos­si­ble with­out lan­guage he be­lieves di­min­ish­es the coun­try, as de­bate con­tin­ues over how lo­cal au­thor­i­ties should ad­dress in­dis­ci­pline and en­force­ment.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, Par­ris wel­comed what he de­scribed as a more an­a­lyt­i­cal ap­proach by Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed to shared chal­lenges such as il­le­gal vend­ing, over­grown pri­vate lots and pub­lic nui­sance—is­sues he said San Fer­nan­do con­fronts dai­ly.

Par­ris said so­lu­tions al­ready im­ple­ment­ed in the city show mod­ern lead­er­ship re­quires more than iden­ti­fy­ing prob­lems, call­ing in­stead for struc­tured analy­sis, prac­ti­cal re­spons­es and guid­ed im­ple­men­ta­tion.

Where he dif­fered, Par­ris said, was with re­marks en­dors­ing the de­scrip­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go as a “law­less dump”, lan­guage used re­cent­ly by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and sup­port­ed by Mo­hammed.

“While I ful­ly ac­cept that there are se­ri­ous is­sues af­fect­ing dis­ci­pline, en­force­ment, and pub­lic be­hav­iour, I do not agree that the use of lan­guage which di­min­ish­es our coun­try or places blame in a po­lit­i­cal­ly charged man­ner serves the na­tion­al in­ter­est,” Par­ris said.

He warned that rhetoric which evokes emo­tion rather than re­spon­si­bil­i­ty risks fur­ther so­ci­etal de­cline, ar­gu­ing strict en­force­ment must be paired with trans­par­ent, mea­sured lead­er­ship that en­cour­ages pa­tri­o­tism, ac­count­abil­i­ty and shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

Par­ris said na­tion-build­ing ex­tends be­yond pol­i­tics to in­clude cler­gy, busi­ness lead­ers, ed­u­ca­tors, com­mu­ni­ty groups and cit­i­zens, adding that lo­cal gov­ern­ment must lead, com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly and sup­port com­pli­ance while pro­tect­ing law-abid­ing res­i­dents.

Mo­hammed, in his own state­ment, aligned him­self with the Prime Min­is­ter’s po­si­tion, say­ing law and or­der are about pro­tect­ing the ma­jor­i­ty from the mis­con­duct of a few. He list­ed per­sis­tent prob­lems faced by mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties, in­clud­ing il­le­gal dump­ing, un­reg­u­lat­ed vend­ing, traf­fic vi­o­la­tions, noise com­plaints and aban­doned prop­er­ties.

He said Ch­agua­nas would un­der­go what he de­scribed as a cul­tur­al shift in 2026, com­bin­ing en­force­ment with struc­ture and op­por­tu­ni­ty. Mo­hammed out­lined plans for des­ig­nat­ed vend­ing and trans­port spaces, stronger laws to ad­dress er­rant landown­ers, and in­creased de­ploy­ment of lit­ter and traf­fic war­dens.

“En­forc­ing the law is not cru­el­ty. It is fair­ness,” Mo­hammed said.

He not­ed that sup­port, guid­ance and time­lines would be of­fered to help peo­ple tran­si­tion in­to com­pli­ance, with con­se­quences for those who refuse to fol­low the law.

Par­ris said San Fer­nan­do would con­tin­ue to pur­sue an ap­proach root­ed in struc­ture, fair­ness and op­por­tu­ni­ty, with firm but guid­ed en­force­ment as the city en­ters the new year.