DESPITE a verbal dispute which threatened to envelope both sides, the Senate managed to pass the much-anticipated Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption (Investigation and Prosecution Procedures) Regulations, 2021 on Friday.

Debate on the measures began with minister without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security Senator Matthew Samuda’s opening presentation in which he highlighted the need for passage of the regulations to enable the highly-thought-of national security agency to proceed legally with its investigatory activities.

However, once Opposition member Lambert Brown joined the debate to give the Opposition’s response to the issues raised by Samuda, it became obvious that a collision of views was inevitable.

Senator Brown immediately established that the Opposition was not opposed to the approval of the regulations but was more concerned that after spending billions of dollars on national security, murders had increased so far this year by 10 per cent.

That triggered an aggressive exchange with Government Senator Ransford Braham.

“I am not denying that the rise in the murder rate needs to go down, but you cannot suggest, with the other hand, that the spending is almost a waste of time. That’s what I am complaining about,” Senator Braham responded.

Brown had suggested that the Opposition and the Government could look forward to working “across the aisle” on the issue of the “fight against crime”. However, he said that success would not come through the use of the states of emergency (SOEs) and the Government’s spend on national security over the past six years, as they may or may not play a role when it is necessary.

Senator Brown said he was designated by the leader of the Opposition to speak in the debate on both the MOCA resolutions and a second Bill before the Senate which deals with illegal activities in the island’s correction institutions. However, he said that while the Opposition has faith in MOCA, he would prefer to focus, in the debate, on what the Government has been doing lately.

“And they can’t focus any better than on this year’s figures, because you are totally responsible… When I say responsible, I mean you are responsible for getting it done, but it is going in the wrong direction,” he stated.

In an obvious reference to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s recently stated support for the death penalty for illegal gun owners, Brown noted that it was already criticised by the country’s final appeal court, the Privy Council, which, he claimed, “would never be able to get the worst of the worst”.

He said that it is also the duty of the commissioner of police to come up with a plan to reduce crime, but if the commissioner had done so, that plan had failed.

Brown said that not only had murders increased from 1,205 last year to some 1,384 two weekends ago, but only 60 per cent of them had led to an arrest.

He said that in any boardroom that kind of performance, despite the increased budget, would raise questions among the directors.

“I hope MOCA, in their operation, will spend wisely and continue to give us good results. I, too, am happy that the crooks in the Manchester Municipal [Corporation] have been caught, and I am looking forward to the crooks in other places. Some are now before the courts being convicted. It is a long time I haven’t seen a Probyn Aitken and a J A G Smith spending time as guests of Her Majesty,” Brown said.

“This country celebrates any day a politician goes to spend time with Her Majesty. But it doesn’t matter to me whether the cat that catches this rat is black or white. It doesn’t matter to me whether the person who sponsor the prison pathway is a former colonial master or not, I want a secured prison. It doesn’t matter to me the colour of the cat, just as it doesn’t matter the colour of the cat when it comes to accepting to become a privy councillor,” he added.

Senator Braham, when he rose to speak, showed that he felt that Senator Brown had gone too far in attacking the Government, especially in terms of the money spent on upgrading the police force.

“I think you have to be careful how you speak to celebrate the idea that politicians will be going to prison. It is a terrible thing,” Braham, a former attorney general, said.

“Persons who are guilty of offences, that’s fine. You go to prison, if that is the case. But the way it is put… for us making a public spectacle of persons who have not been convicted or otherwise, and celebrating as if they are going to prison — [this] is a thing that should bring sadness to our hearts, not jollification,” he stated.

“My position is very clear. I am saying to the Senate: To do the juxtapositions that Senator Brown does, leaves an improper impression. It is clear, it is very clear. And I am saying that it leads to an innuendo, and people are not fools, they understand, and I am saying that it is not correct. That’s all I am saying,” Braham said.

Opposition Senator Sophia Fraser Binns sought to have the president intervene in the cross-talk, as she felt that Senator Braham had not correctly interpreted Senator Brown’s statement. However, Senate President Thomas Tavares Finson said that it was up to Senator Brown to ask for the notes from (the secretarial staff) to show that he was incorrectly quoted.

Senator Brown, though, declined the invitation.