00:00On day three of the Senate's debate of the bill for zones of special operations, commonly known as ZOZOS,
00:06Independent Senator Francis Lewis described the legislation as well-structured and easy to understand.
00:13I want to commend the government for giving us a very useful starting point.
00:19The bill is forward-thinking. I think it's an innovative legislative initiative.
00:24I think, as an earlier Senator noted, it puts the framework of an explicit law in place
00:33and provides initiatives for us to move forward in dealing with crime.
00:40However, the Independent Senator expressed this concern.
00:44As you recall, the government's declaration of urgency, given that the state of emergency,
00:51which took effect in July of last year without a curfew or limitations on public gatherings,
00:57ends at the end of this month.
00:59I want to propose to all Senators, we need to get this right.
01:07Consider if we should not extend the state of emergency through Carnival,
01:12because Carnival is right there into the end of January, not beyond that.
01:18The 2026 Carnival season, including FETS and the Panorama Steel Band, the semifinals and finals,
01:24culminates with the parade of the bands on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, February 16th and 17th.
01:30I don't know if it's possible. It would have to be looked at by the technical people,
01:34and certainly the security chiefs will have to have a point, well, through the respective chains of command,
01:40to opine on that.
01:44But speaking from the position of ignorance that I have,
01:48I wonder whether that's a possibility to give us the time we needed to get this right.
01:54And the Independent Senator identified KSU's he wants to see the Senate get right with the Zozos.
01:59I have a concern about the period of time of a zone.
02:02I will move past that simply to say that we may want to experiment, as Jamaica did,
02:09with shorter time periods, because when you say you have six months,
02:13six months of lived experience in a community that is under Zoho is not an easy thing.
02:18And you want this to be in and out first.
02:21And regarding his concerns about the powers given to the head of the government in the bill,
02:24the Independent Senator said he was not referring to the current Prime Minister.
02:29Now, this is a far-fetched thought, but I don't want to create a private Prime Minister's army
02:35where the PM has undue influence over security deployment in civilian areas,
02:41and it raises the concern of politicization.
02:46Even if officers are jointly nominated, a future PM could refuse or approve nominations
02:51based on perceived loyalty rather than competence.
02:56The support of at least four of the nine Independent Senators
02:59is critical for the passage of the bill for the zones of special operations
03:02given that it requires a three-fifths special majority.
03:06Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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