Commentary: Deyalsingh’s Robbery Shows Where We Reach

THE recent incident of the robbery of Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh in St Joseph nakedly highlights the worsening crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago.

When a government minister, a high-ranking official such as Minister Deyalsingh, can fall victim to such an attack, it sends a petrifying message about the state of law and order in the country.

This incident has opened the minister’s eyes of a broader reality, in that no one is immune to the crime wave that continues to inundate the nation.

I take no joy in the reports of Minister Deyalsingh being held up at gun point along a street that I have personally walked on numerous occasions. The bar – Nyabingy is a cornerstone of that community and for anyone to have their freedom and their property taken away from them by vapid, inane, insipid gun toting hoodlums (along with a very sentimental keepsake) is abhorrent and intolerable.

Clarity comes to many of us in the most opportune of times. I hope that by seeing how the majority of us have to face this everyday, yes the majority of us that live on a daily basis in fear of being attacked by criminals has opened the minister’s eyes.

The average citizen does not have the benefit of a police service officer as a guard or the privilege to call the minister of national security on the phone and complain directly to him. These criminals don’t even care for the rank and profile of the Minister Deyalsingh, being the most popular minister seen on television or in the newspapers coming out of covid.

We are doomed as our dogs would have feared a lessor fate for sure. Clarity is here boss man! Wake up and start to make a change!

The daydream is over and you can see the nightmare before you as every citizen lives under this treacherous system.

Under the current People’s National Movement (PNM) administration, crime has soared to alarming levels, with citizens growing increasingly exasperated at the government’s inability to suppress the violence and lawlessness.

Deyalsingh’s experience is a harsh reminder that the crime crisis goes beyond social class, location, and even perceived political power. It urgently shows the need for meaningful reform in the justice and security systems. I am personally sorry that the minister had to go through this terrible ordeal, as no one deserves a gun shoved in their faces. No one deserves being robbed and threatened.

The fear and insecurity experienced daily by citizens have now reached the very government officials in our country, the very Government that is meant to protect us. It is disgraceful that a sitting minister can be a victim of a crime like this in broad daylight.

This shows the level of the severity of the problem. It is time to call for a thorough revaluation of crime prevention strategies and the implementation of a better minister of national security and or a better commissioner of police to ensure measures are put in place to restore safety and confidence in the country.

The PNM Government must listen carefully to the cries of the people.

Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, sometimes a temporary Opposition Senator, an ex-treasurer of the UNC and a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NP). He holds a Doctorate in Business Administration, a Master’s in Business Administration MBA, BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited