00:00 Governments have embarked on significant housing thrusts throughout the passage of time,
00:05 explains Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at the sword-turning ceremony for the Kaura housing
00:10 development. But before their intervention, he says, many lived in unspeakable conditions.
00:18 But after 30 or 40 years, we take that for granted. I don't know how many of you knew
00:24 the barracks of East Port of Spain when people lived in barrack rooms, a whole family in a room
00:31 12 by 14, a family of six. And your neighbor was the person in the next room, a family of eight.
00:38 That was East Port of Spain. But Dr Rowley notes a growing trend when the state attempts
00:45 to have properties developed for the benefit of greater society.
00:50 Unable-bodied young men, all they could do to contribute is to come on the site with an illegal
00:56 firearm or two and menace the contractor and decide that they will extract money from the
01:01 contractor by not even doing anything positive but threatening lives. And every day we hear,
01:06 this one killed that one, this one killed that one. And now with all the ammunition that they
01:11 have, some of which would have come from the state sector. He pleads with the nation, saying
01:15 far too often it's only when someone is killed, persons react, calling on police and government
01:22 to intervene when they themselves could have prevented the said crime by notifying authorities.
01:28 Today, most of the killings in this country are done by people carrying assault weapons.
01:35 And it is very difficult to handle and to move around with an assault weapon
01:41 without somebody seeing you and somebody knowing you. And I must say today that there are too many
01:47 people in this country who know who the killers are, who know who the criminals are and who are
01:54 turning a blind eye to it and worse, who are encouraging it. It was then the PM referred
02:00 to a concerning development. As I speak to you now, the problem has multiplied
02:07 because for the last two weeks we have been dealing with the state's contribution
02:13 to that problem, where state authority in positions of trust had surreptitiously broken down.
02:22 And the caliph saw that, we listened to who's going to guard the guards, became the most
02:27 pertinent question in Trinidad and Tobago because the state agencies had become one with the
02:33 criminal agencies. He says if the police commissioner receives information and not
02:38 evidence that a few officers are found to be operating above board and she transfers them.
02:45 We saw good now, the court is now saying that you have to tell policemen why you transfer them.
02:52 And of course, the minute you tell them that, that now becomes a bone of contention for the
02:58 same court. Dr. Rowley says we appear to be copying societies unlike ours and putting systems
03:06 in place to the advantage of criminals. Just understand that now that we have become the
03:12 bleeding hearts where persons who the DPP see enough evidence to have them charged and
03:20 extracted, we now decide that they must have and be out there on bail. We also know that when they
03:29 come out they're not going to church to be no choir boy, they're coming out to kill the witnesses.
03:34 That's what it is. We better face those realities.
03:39 Arvashi Tamari, Rupnurine TV6 News.
03:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments