KAMLA: DON'T RAISE POLITICIANS' PAY

Opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar rejects the proposed salary increases for politicians.   She says now is not the time.

Transcript

00:00It's a resounding no, no, no to certain recommendations of the 120th SRC report.

00:09I do not believe the Prime Minister should get an increase at this time.

00:16I do not believe the President should get an increase at this time.

00:21I do not believe that Kamala Prasad, Mrs. Opposition Leader, should get an increase at this time.

00:28No, no, no.

00:31Now is not the time when you're offering people 1% and 2% and 4%.

00:37It is obscene. It is obscene.

00:41It is disrespectful at this time.

00:44However, the Opposition Leader says there is one group that deserves the proposed increases.

00:50The judges should be given the increases in the SRC report.

00:55The public servants should be given the increases in the SRC report.

00:59They are hard-working people and this is what has been assessed.

01:04But, you know, I want you to remember this.

01:08There is something also obscene for politicians to have the power to decide on their own salary increases.

01:19Kamala Prasad Besasa was at the time speaking at the UNC's town hall meeting in Barataria

01:25where the criminal justice system was in focus.

01:28Attorney-at-law Jagdev Singh notes that violent and serious crime is often committed by repeat offenders.

01:35He proposes that all offenders be outfitted with an electronic bracelet.

01:40Every time he commits a crime and he's not caught or he's released on bail,

01:44he is further emboldened to commit more crime.

01:48So the easiest and the quickest is to put an electronic bracelet on him,

01:53modify the terms of his bail, prevent him from consorting with known criminals.

01:59So when the police see ten electronic bracelets assembled in one small room,

02:04you know what's taking place there?

02:06It's a confederacy of criminals meeting to decide what they're going to do.

02:12Additionally, he says the one-third of a sentence that convicted prisoners get for good behavior

02:18should not be given unconditionally.

02:21Guess what? He is free to do whatever he wants with his one-third benefit.

02:26He has no corresponding obligation to behave himself.

02:31So you know what? Don't take away the one-third sentence,

02:37but amend the law in such a way that every prisoner released from prison has to behave himself.

02:44If he commits a crime or breaches the terms of his release,

02:49you go right back to finish your one-third sentence.

02:52The opposition leader agrees that such failings are leading the country into uncharted territory.

02:58What we are seeing here is really the trajectory for Trinidad and Tobago to become the next Haiti.

03:05We are Haitianizing Trinidad and Tobago because crime is at an all-time high.

03:10The justice system is broken.

03:12The government has no solutions, no plans except to blame everybody else.