PLEASE do me a favour.
Should I ever become a politician of sorts and use the death of a child or children as a political weapon, I would like you all to drag me from my chambers, tie me up in Woodford Square and beat me with a pillow case filled with bars of blue soap.
Because choosing to politicise the death of a child means I have hit a new low and clearly become devoid of a soul.
It has been a particularly heartbreaking week in Trinidad and Tobago. Three young lives have been lost. Two of those lives have been used as political tools.
Perhaps the most publicised and politicised was the death of one-year-old Venezuelan refugee Ya Elvis Santoyo, who was shot at sea during a confrontation with the T&T Coast Guard. Santoyo and his mother were aboard a small vessel, which was travelling from Venezuela to Trinidad. The boat was intercepted by the Coast Guard and things went awry.
Statements from both the Coast Guard and the other refugees on the boat are conflicting. Honestly, we may never know exactly what happened that night at sea, because as with everything there are always three sides to the story.
What was most bothersome to me was Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s reaction. “Murder!” she cried, riling an already heartbroken population. She framed her response in a way that she accused the Coast Guard of being heavy-handed killing machines; just firing their guns willy nilly at whatever is out at sea.
She accused the Coast Guard of lacking proper training when it came to the issue of refugees, blamed the Government, made herself look good and so on.
Here’s the thing, no one is fooled. Her statement was insincere and reeked of a backhanded political motive.
As we all recall, not too long ago she was also criticising the Government for not being harsh enough when it came to securing our borders.
So which is it KPB? Is the Coast Guard a pack of reckless killers out for the blood of the innocent or a pack of pussyfooted sailors handing out welcome packages to entities illegally entering our borders?
She isn’t the first and won’t be the last politician to use the death of a child to criticise his or her opponents.
Last July we were shattered when three siblings were killed in a Maraval house fire. The children were unable to escape due to the burglar proofing on the windows and doors. It was an unimaginable horror, the sadness of which still lingers.
Naturally, cue a certain political/social activist, who used this tragedy to criticise the Government’s response to crime. Homeboy, in the most roundabout way, declared had the Government worked harder to eliminate crime, people would not need burglar proofing and those siblings would not have passed away.
Is the handling of our ocean borders and migrants flawed?
Definitely!
Is our crime situation a complete donkey show?
Absolutely!
We know this. We see these tragedies, we read the stories and we know the problems that contributed to them. So there is really no need for some power player to amplify the pain felt the by family to gain political mileage.
What also agitates me is that this use of tragedy is almost pick and choose. If a child dies while in daycare due to falling into an unsupervised pool… maybe a half a tear; but no push for stronger regulations for daycares or the provision of substantial maternity leave for mothers. Guess those things don’t give you a political edge.
Ya Elvis Santoyo is not the first child to die from gunfire between 2021 and 2022, but sadly his death got turned into a circus of politics and sketchy lawyers because his death was a perfect opportunity to attack.
Tragedy, especially the death of a child, should never be used as a “told you so” or tool of political criticism. Using a death as a way to attack or point out the failures of your opponents is despicably exploitative and does more damage than good.
So again should I ever be in position where I use such a tragedy to make me look like a crusader of justice and heart of the people, cuff me down, square in the jaw.
Nail on head as usual