PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) Thursday said it would not support a limited state of emergency in a section of the capital following the murder of four people including a pregnant 16-year-old during an 11 hour period on Wednesday.

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley in a statement said that he wanted to remind the Kamla Persad Bissessar government “that a state of emergency is not a policing tool and in this fight against the criminal element in all its manifestations, there is no substitute for good governance from a stable Cabinet and an effective and well- motivated Police Service”.

A government statement announcing the postponement of the weekly Cabinet news conference on Thursday, said that National Security Minister Emmanuel George, Housing Minister Dr Roodial Moonilal and Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams would visit Duncan Street where gang warfare resulted in the murders.

PNM leader Dr Rowley said the murder toll in the country continues to rise steeply in multiple numbers on a daily basis  and “this continuation of these extremely violent crimes against all manner of persons bring to the fore the consequences of the lawlessness and general disregard for authorities and basic human decency which appears to be pervading every strata of this society”.

While he extended sympathy to the families of those killed, Rowley said he was “deeply concerned about the new nature of our country which our children and grandchildren are being invited to inherit.

“We are all responsible for where our society is today and must now be part of the solution that is so desperately needed. The Coalition Government has collapsed and stands fractured, impotent and failed before marauding criminals who currently feel embolden to violate, with impunity, the most basic tenet of the sanctity and security of the home”.

He said he had taken note of suggestions that a “limited state of emergency” in the areas “most deeply affected” by the crime situation, but was reminding the nation that “the last time we were offered this “limited state of emergency” it resulted in a curtailment of constitutional rights over all of Trinidad and Tobago, national curfews and a wrecking of the economy, because of a gang war in a limited geographical area”.

Rowley said there is in place a police service and strong legislative tools designed specifically to deal with these developments and that “this festering sore will not be healed by platitudes, public relations gimmickry and repetitive hollow speeches from tele-prompters.

“It is now time for the people of Trinidad and Tobago to take a strong stand against this crime siege that we face. We must all make our voices heard on this matter and not accept hollow assurances from those charged with responsibility and the Government that things are getting better when in fact they are getting considerably worse.”

Rowley said that the opposition is renewing its call to meet with the government “to hold in- depth discussions to see what can be done through combined effort in the Parliament and elsewhere to address this seemingly intractable problem which threatens all our citizens and must be elevated beyond partisan ineptitudes and ineffective grandstanding”.