00:00Leader of government business, Baripa Darath, has signaled government's intention to reintroduce zones of special operations legislation with some changes
00:10in a bid to get opposition and independent backing.
00:14However, the opposition is not welcoming the announcement.
00:17I think this bill should not, it should stay in recess for quite a long time until such proper consultation,
00:30meaningful consultation occurs.
00:33Meantime, opposition Senator Forrest Al-Rawi says the government has not reached out to the opposition in either house on
00:41the matter.
00:41Can this bill come back? The rules of parliament don't permit a law to come back within six months unless
00:47there's consent.
00:49So I can confirm that we have had no request for consultation on this law.
00:55The opposition says it has, quote, jurisprudential concerns about the legislation, which has the potential to infringe on constitutional rights.
01:04But you cannot be in a position where you are having a politician control it.
01:10States of emergency are meant for emergencies.
01:15To give the prime minister a politician, that power is not acceptable in our view without safeguards.
01:26And the safeguards are not there.
01:27The opposition was unwilling to state whether it fared that so-called PNM areas would be targeted in a Zoso
01:35rollout.
01:36However, Scotland points to the 2011 SOE as a reference.
01:40Because history has a way of repeating itself.
01:43So let me alert you to the areas when in 2011 there were states of emergencies and certain areas were
01:52declared zones.
01:53Yes, they were declared areas and here's the areas.
01:57The city of Port of Spain, the city of San Fernando, the borough of Arima, the borough of Chaguanas, the
02:07Digo Martin Regional Corporation, San Juan Lavantel Regional Corporation.
02:12That sounds familiar to anybody.
02:14Could you connect the dots for yourselves?
02:16The opposition is of the view that the government can achieve the desired results without the implementation of zones of
02:23special operations.
02:25You can occupy anywhere right now if you wanted to lawfully in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:30You don't need a zone of special operation unless you want a curfew.
02:36That's the real difference here or unless you want to give the army the power to arrest.
02:41But you have enough policemen to be supported by army if you wanted to in the normal course of the
02:47law.
02:47So if you're serious about a special zone of operation, do it now.
02:51You can do it now.
02:53You could call it a gold commander, a red commander, a flying commander.
02:57Whatever you want to call it, the police can go out and do their job now with the aid and
03:02support of the army in carefully constructed ways.
03:05Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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