State of emergency should be last option
EDITORIAL
Guyana Chronicle
July 24, 2003
OUR CARICOM sister nation, Trinidad and Tobago, is being continually plagued by a spate of violent crimes that is mind-boggling to say the least.
Hardly a day goes by in that twin-island republic that we don’t hear that at least one person has been kidnapped.
Like Jamaica, where murders have reached almost 500 thus far this year (1,945 in 2002!), violent crimes - particularly kidnappings and murders - are tearing T&T’s social fabric to shreds.
Trinidad’s business sector has had several emergency meetings with their Prime Minister, National Security Minister and Commissioner of Police in the last two to three days, in a desperate bid to come up with a strategy to effectively calm the fierce wind of crime blowing across the island.
We empathize with both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Guyanese had been so affected by the escalation of violent crimes in this country that, as in Trinidad and Tobago, people kept calling on government to declare a state of emergency. For them, that was the only option to send violent crimes on a downward spiral.
Consequently, few people appeared to understand why the government, though sensitive to the agony they felt, disagreed that a state of emergency was the only answer addressing the crime situation.
We sense that Guyanese will get a better grasp of this issue by turning their attention, for a bit, to how the Trinidad Guardian perceived the declaration of a state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago:
After a week-long kidnapping spree, outraged San Juan businessmen were on the verge of surrender on Friday, describing Trinidad and Tobago as “the Vietnam and Cambodia of the region” and calling for a curfew.
Six people were kidnapped last week, five of them teenagers. The lone adult, Woodlam Wong, was released after his ransom was paid. Still missing are Yves Ayoung Chee, Benedict Bharath, Kendra Kissoon, Mark Samlal and Damien Schneider.
The escalation of criminal activity prompted parallel meetings last Saturday to discuss the crime situation, from Acting Police Commissioner Everard Snaggs, who held his caucus at the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain, and from a powerful coalition of 15 business groups who met at Hilton Trinidad.
The Hilton meeting drew the attention of National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee, who reportedly called to invite attendees to join the law enforcement discussion. After two sessions of talks, the Government is expected to announce a new crime-fighting plan today. Prime Minister Patrick Manning was said to be considering a state of emergency as one part of managing the crime situation.
That recommendation was a major element of the Ken Gordon Committee report on crime presented to Cabinet in June.
After yesterday’s power huddle with business leaders, Mr. Manning told reporters he has decided against declaring a state of emergency because, “We don’t think that it will have the effect that a number of people think,” he said.
Indeed, a state of emergency should be a last option.
Long before we turn to adjournments of the rule of law, there is still time for us to see law enforcement applied with directed focus and enthusiasm.
When the population can feel the presence of the law, so will the criminals who thrive in its absence.
