00:00Former Attorney General Faris al-Rawi says if the government wants opposition support for the Zones of Special Operations Bill,
00:07the bill must be amended before its reintroduction for debate in the Parliament,
00:11as the last version of the bill was, quote, incapable of being supported, end quote.
00:16If it comes in the version that it was on the last occasion, which involves the disastrous principles of law,
00:23including the Prime Minister being able to declare a zone, the Prime Minister having control of effectively, therefore, curfews, detentions,
00:35etc.
00:36The Minister of National Security, now the Minister of Homeland Security, having the control over the Trinidad and Tobago Defence
00:43Force,
00:44where there's no equivalent of a PSC, a Police Service Commission, those things cannot constitutionally be sustained.
00:51Al-Rawi says, simply put, the Zoso bill allows a member of the political directorate to declare an area as
00:58a zone of special operations,
00:59and citizens need to decide if they are comfortable with that.
01:03So one, are you comfortable with a politician declaring a state of emergency type area?
01:10Two, are you comfortable that the Trinidad and Tobago forces are adequately constitutionally supervised?
01:19Senator Amory Brown was also critical of the last version of the Zoso bill, and he thinks, based on the
01:25SOE,
01:26persons will think twice about giving the government the powers sought under the Zoso bill.
01:31We'll see what they come with.
01:33You'd recall the last time around the government, they mangled the entire affair.
01:37But if persons were looking to this SOE and how it was conducted to determine whether or not we should
01:45support giving them the powers of the zones of special operations,
01:50well, I think they would think more than twice, more than three times, because the government abused the powers of
01:59the SOE.
01:59Foster Cummings, on the other hand, was more blunt about the prospects of his party lending their support to the
02:05Zoso bill,
02:06also citing the state of affairs under the current state of emergency.
02:10Government's handling of the state of emergency where they incarcerated citizens without charge, without evidence,
02:18is any indication of how the government intends to govern this country and respect the rights of citizens,
02:23then there is no way the PNM is going to offer any support for any Zoso bill now or in
02:28the future.
02:28Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
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