On Tuesday morning when Finance Minister Colm Imbert was promising the Senate that Government would win the war on crime, news of the killing of Richard and Grace Wheeler was breaking in Tobago, in yet another grim headliner that has made this country global news for all the wrong reasons.
Government’s reaction to the news throughout the Senate debate was similar to the Tobago House of Assembly’s initial silence on the day the news broke. PNM’s two Tobago-born senators—including the deputy Senate president—said nothing of the incident. Or Government’s anti-crime plans.
Independent Senator Tobagonian Dr Ayesha Edwards spoke of it and Opposition Senator Danny Solomon made an impassioned appeal to deal with the national problem.
While Tobago has had a marked pattern of such murders since 2008 and over 2014/2015—and astounding lack of attention to resolution of such occurrences in a tourism-driven society—the T&T Association of Retired Persons has put the national issue in proper perspective following attacks of other elderly people.
In its release expressing concern about T&T’s elderly increasingly becoming targets and seeking study and appropriate measures, TTARP noted, “Today, the elderly are victims of abandonment, abuse, domestic violence, institutional discrimination, sexual assault, murder... there’s a noticeable increase in fear of crime among this group and their families... this is due to the fact crime detection in T&T is poor.”
The concern is highly valid considering consistent data showing T&T has an ageing population. That fact, however, hasn’t penetrated where it should since ageist attitudes abound. Including in Parliament where political agendas dominate now more than ever. PNM senator Sara Budhu, for example, may not have thought much of her stab in Wednesday’s debate at the former Education Minister, alluding to his queries on certain Government information: “... (but) I’m young and my memory is good.”
Thinking twice about following some Parliamentary examples has, luckily, become a quickly acquired art in T&T. In the magnitude of the most recent crime challenge, Prime Minister Keith Rowley may have recalled a swearing-in function promise that the “buck stops” with him. He emerged with a personal mandate on the Tobago issue prior to attending functions there yesterday.
While the PNM pinpointed crime in campaign statements among urgent national issues, Government is yet to detail its Joint Border Protection Agency plan. Imbert’s Parliament statement that it’s in preparatory stages (ready by mid-year review) confirms absence of a full plan. So too, lack of replies to Opposition Senator Wade Mark’s queries if JBPA might duplicate the police hierarchy functions. Seeking to recoup from capitulation—on a Child Affairs Ministry—and emulating the PP, Government may get a fillip from the UNC’s December internal poll which could test party unity via challenges to the leadership from deputy Roodal Moonilal or Vasant Bharath. The latter fielded PNM picong about it in Wednesday’s debate. While Persad-Bissessar’s PP history—losing five elections in five years—won’t serve well for future political forays, she’s perceived as more nationally acceptable than others tarnished with the “cabal” perception and viewed as examples of UNC’s initial Indo-T&T image.
Her support among some newer UNC MPs may be assured since several were appointed under her tenure. Her challenge could come from those who’ve held MP-ship since the Panday era. Unsurprisingly, there’s been word of some researching the possibility of bringing Mickela Panday aboard. Persad-Bissessar in her Budget response acknowledged, “We made mistakes in Government and the campaign and we paid the price...” What she might have learned from those experiences will play out in coming weeks to UNC’s election in which the input of a range of players including rejected candidates and new members being registered will figure. The PNM will likely halt attacks on UNC leadership contenders to seek full advantage of the expected internal infighting in which assorted devil’s advocates and proxies might also figure, to voice what contenders would not want to.
But while the UNC’s front benches in Parliament may be uncomfortable in coming weeks, the PNM Government has bigger problems to deal with outside of Parliament for five years. And not just in Tobago.
