00:00MP Marvin Gonzalez tells the TV6 Morning Edition he believes the government was never prepared to ensure the success of
00:08the Zoso bill.
00:09He says the opposition was willing to support the legislation and offered several recommendations, but those were not accepted.
00:17They wanted the bill to fail so that when crime and criminality continue in Trinidad and Tobago,
00:23they will accuse their political opponents of not supporting the government and for the reasons for they not containing the
00:31crime situation in this country.
00:32I believe that the government set up the Zoso bill in the parliament to fail so that they can use
00:38that failure to accuse the PNM.
00:40Gonzalez tells the Morning Edition that as the government marks its one-year anniversary,
00:46the country is still grappling with escalating crime, with no clear or direct strategy being presented.
00:53They never, up to now, after one year in office, presented to the country a comprehensive plan to tackle crime
01:01at all stages.
01:03The social effects, reform within our prisons, reform within the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, our judicial system,
01:10all of these interventions are required to tackle our borders, our porous borders, all of these things.
01:16But we have heard absolutely nothing.
01:18He also pushes back against claims from the government that the opposition is aligned with criminal elements,
01:25stating that the prime minister should look at her own administration.
01:29So they have no moral authority to speak to anyone in this country about who is in bed with criminals,
01:34because up to now she made the same allegations against independent senators about offering bribes to members of her government,
01:40and we asked the prime minister to present the evidence.
01:43So she has a bad habit of making all kinds of spurious allegations against her political opponents without a scintilla
01:52of evidence.
01:53Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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