‘Executive dictatorship,’ says Panday

PORT-OF-SPAIN — Trinidad and Tobago is no longer a parliamentary democracy but “an executive dictatorship”, according to the leader of the United National Congress and former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday.

He was among leading party stalwarts, including ex-attorney-general Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who addressed a UNC rally on Sunday that had to be cut short due to heavy downpour of rain at the car park of City Centre Mall.

Braving the weather as they huddled under umbrellas, loyal supporters heard Panday and other speakers severely attack the 100 day-old administration of the People’s National Movement of Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Claiming that Manning was simply bent on staying in office for as long as possible, Panday said there was no way the country could be kept in a state of uncertainty because of the PNM’s “executive dictatorship”, and declared that new election was inevitable before year-end.

He also said that for all the “conning of the people” about corruption, “not a single allegation” against any of his former cabinet ministers has been substantiated.

He also spoke of the problems the PNM was experiencing in establishing a credible case of alleged voter-padding and other malpractices against the Electoral and Boundaries Commission before a current commission of enquiry.

AG wants army’s help to capture escaped prisoners

GEORGETOWN — The attorney-general of Guyana, Doodnauth Singh, has called for the physical involvement of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to aid in recapture the capture of the five armed and dangerous criminals who escaped from the Georgetown Prison on February 23 while the country was marking its annual ‘Mashramani’ Festival with a national holiday.

He feels that after almost two months, more than sharing of intelligence information by the disciplined forces was necessary, and that, as happens often in Jamaica, the army must be seen to be actively involved with the police in the hunt for the dangerous fugitives from justice who were causing much fear among the people.

The prisoners killed a prison officer and critically wounded another in their escape and have since been implicated by the police in the shooting death on April 2 of top crime fighter Superintendent Leon Fraser, and a series of car hijackings and robberies.

Yesterday, the Stabroek News editorially criticised the apparent absence of effective “intelligence” within the Guyana Police Force that has contributed to their failure to be ahead of the movements of the escaped prisoners.

The newspaper said that the force had been repeatedly advised of the need to upgrade “intelligence policing” and also the effective enlisting of the aid of communities in the battle against crime, but there continues to be problems at both levels.

“Word on the street,” said the newspaper in its editorial on “A Failure of Intelligence”, is that “while the police might have been searching for five people, through accretion there may be a much larger gang of several of them carrying out the attacks…”

Magistrate’s advice to beat crime wave

PORT-OF-SPAIN — In the face of the rising crime wave, Trinidad and Tobago’s deputy chief magistrate, Deborah Thomas-Felix, has called for the creation of “special interest groups” to better combat the criminals.

Speaking at a one-day seminar over the weekend on “The Social Crisis — In Search of Solutions”, hosted by the Butler Institute of Learning and Labour in Port-of-Spain, Thomas-Felix said:

“Apart from improving the physical setting, building larger prisons, more courts and police stations, we need to organise into various interest groups, all with a common purpose which will improve security for citizens,” she said.

The deputy chief magistrate said that the face of crime in the country was becoming increasingly violent with many of the offenders being young, the average age ranging from 16 to 24.

This profile also suggests, she said, the need for “a return to the extended family culture and for religious guidance in the lives of the nation’s youth”.