PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) on Monday expressed its “revulsion and utter dissatisfaction” with the number of murders in Trinidad and Tobago and called on the government and the law enforcement authorities to stem the situation.

“We sense a growing darkness and lack of humanity in the way that bodies are being found, wrapped in garbage bags in fields, washing up hog-tied on our shorelines and being left on the roadside riddled and disgorging blood in every direction. Nothing can be normal about any society in which such murders are occurring totally without consequence,” DOMA said in a statement.

So far this year, more than 368 people have been murdered in the twin island republic and DOMA said the time has come for citizens to “have the courage to admit that we have made a conscious decision to undervalue the lives of certain segments of our society.

“In sociological terms it can almost be likened to an abandonment of the very civilization of the human race. It is going on in other countries and places, some very close-by but that is absolutely no reason for us to accept it as a new normal.”

The private sector group said that the great majority of citizens have a sense of logical hopelessness and for them life in Trinidad and Tobago has become a retreat from reality.

“We seek sanctuary from the mayhem by retreating to our homes, our neighbourhoods and our jobs – we fail to appreciate that we should see our entire country as our sanctuary.  We are being dishonest with ourselves in failing to admit that we are surrendering our country to anarchy at a pace that is quickening and intensifying.”

DOMA said that in the long term there is a desperate need to revamp the entire governance structure of the country that will guarantee superior services including security.

“In the mean time action must be taken immediately to save the lives of those whom, disgracefully, we seem ready to let die. The country is fortunate, in our view, to have a prime minister who has exhibited a perceptive understanding of the our country’s murderous state – Our prime minister and his team need to set about motivating the protective services that perform and demanding answers and results from the divisional commanders that fail to perform”.

 DOMA said that the country was in desperate need of the contribution and involvement by those whom the late Trinidadian economist Lloyd Best often referenced as the “responsible elite”.

“This is the land of our birth and the country that gave us everything that we have – In this time of chaos and savagery those with the education and the resources should stop bickering in parliament and stop seeking sanctuary by retreat. Let us resolve to step forward together to save human lives and restore the humanity of our Nation” DOMA said.